Quit your whining!

This just reinforces my decision that I'm never going to buy another desktop computer again. Just laptops or unconfigurable iMacs for me from now on so other people can deal with the troubleshooting and heartache.

Anyways, on to the problem of the day. My computer has been emitting high pitch whines for over half year now. I've had noise issues before so when this first started I pulled apart the case to try to find the source of irritation. I then proceeded to go through all the usual suspects; stray cables, dodgy case fans, dying harddrives, oscillating graphics cards. After a brief search I promptly gave it up to gremlins and didn't really mind as the noise seemed to go away the minute Windows finished booting up.

Fast forward to last weekend and imagine my horror at being greeted to that familiar whining after coming back from work. The PC was running in Windows and no amount of case shaking seemed to alleviate the problem. Reboot... nope it still won't stop shrieking. Bowing my head in defeat I did the unthinkable. I shut down my PC.

Now there's nothing worse to a geek like myself than having a nicely set up study with a dead computer. So after another long day at work today I figured it was time to roll up my sleeves and go another round with the wailing beast. Not that I had any ideas; checked fans, checked hard drive, checked cabling. I even disconnected the graphics card to see if that made a difference.

And then I noticed that the sound actually changed pitch as I disconnected various devices. What would do that? Surely not... no... better check the motherboard manual... unplug component... sound stops. It was the blooming PC Speaker. >_<

Keep your stinky country

I can't believe how hard it is to get into this country. I swear that rowing across from Indonesia in a milk crate would be easier than jumping through all the hoops they have set up in the application process.

Mum and I discussed her various options for applying for permanent residency over a year ago and were advised that we had two avenues to pursue.

• Go through the fast lane and pay a $27,000 NON-REFUNDABLE "administration fee" and wait for a few months


• Pay $1000 and get put on a waiting list which will probably take 17 YEARS before the lazy sods get to her paperwork

Unwilling to pay what we saw as a bribe to be processed quickly, mum arranged for our migration solicitor to submit an application for the long route and set in to wait. Imagine how surprised I was to get a call today from mum's case officer to discuss her application and when they could expect their moolah. Apparently our "migration specialist" must have put in the wrong form, so we either have to pay all that money or withdraw the application and start from scratch.

I told mum to get them to shove it. From what I hear I can probably just get mum over on a family visa anyway once I get my citizenship. Those greedy arse biscuits can look for an easy mark elsewhere.

Hanging

We bought a two bicycle rack over a fortnight ago and haven't managed to find any inspiration since to actually install the darn thing. Oddly enough we were both struck with a sudden urge to get jobs done around the house today so out came the power drill.

Three holes and about half a dozen arguments later we managed to get the rack on the wall and our bikes mounted. I think we'll keep the car outside for a few days just to test out the strength of my handiwork. I expect that we'll find the crushed remains of our bicycles and rubble from the masonary littered across our garage floor by tomorrow morning.



Alison's pretty confident that it'll hold...

Shade and big green thing

Our latest additions to the house have now been delivered and unwrapped. Not without a few incidents unfortunately but I guess our luck had to give out at some point.

A couple of trucks pulled up at half past eight this morning with two grumpy looking tradesmen. Apparently they were bitching all the way about how this shouldn't have been a two person job for installation and after a quick and rude survey of our unit they promptly decided that one person could do the job just as easily. So exit left old grumpy guy to leave fat grumpy guy puffing and wheezing from climbing the stairs. This was followed by an excruciating three hours (the salesrep originally stated it would be an hour long job) of unconfident drilling, much adjusting and an alarming amount of dry wretching as Tubby McSmelly struggled to suck enough oxygen into his overworked lungs. I really did feel like helping the guy after he dropped the blinds roll for the third time but then I figured, bugger it. Serves the sods right for being so rude.

Turns out that the actual prize for moron of the day ended up going to the delivery people that brought our couch over later on. Firstly there were three of them there to bring down our couch and chaise. They lugged the bits on their shoulders and stretched it above their heads carelessly as they walked up the stairwell... and proceded to smash our new couch into the porch light.

Now I'm all for people making mistakes on the job, moving furniture is far from the easiest task I know. But to damage someone's property and then laugh about it before dragging broken glass into the unit and careening off four walls on the way is about as unprofessional as you can get. To make matters worse they even challenged me when I asked for a reference to call about getting the light fixed. A quick phone call to their company after they left should see them singing a different tune when they get back to despatch I'd hope.

Ah well, at least everything is all up and ready now. Andrew came over for a couch warming so we ducked out to pick up some fish and chips to eat while watching Independence Day.



All that's left is to get the vendor to install our fly screens and we'll be all done... oh other than an insinkerator... but that can probably wait.