Category Archives: Daily life

Making the switch


Posted by Skye

I can tell you now that this blog post is going to take me a long time to write. I’ve gone and done a drastic thing and… *drum roll please*… switched to a Dvorak keyboard layout.  I made the switch having developed tendonitis in my left thumb from carrying Nicholas around, causing significant pain when I type. Given that my job is all done on the computer (and typing), it made ergonomic sense. That said, I foresee hours being spent learning how to touch type again.

I spent my evening last night switching the keys around on my keyboard, and now I just find it funny that I was unable to successfully change the index keys. Like my dodgy fix?

Home made Dvorak keyboard

And does anyone have experience typing with a thumb/wrist splint on? Should I just go one handed?


Hit “like” if you dislike the like button


Posted by Skye

Facebook Really Dislike button

Lately, and from an incredibly subjective place, I’ve been pondering the merits (or lack of merits) of the “like” button. I actually do use the like button. On Facebook, if a friend posts a status which I find is particularly interesting or a photo which I find it really great, I will click “like”. But I don’t always stop at the like button. I also often like to leave a comment, just to show I don’t just “like” something, I actually care. On the other side, I admit to being a bit of a comment whore. I get a buzz when people “like” and comment on my posts/statuses/photos. There’s just something about being commented on or “liked” which puffs up my ego a little bit and makes me feel like I’m a slightly more important cog in the world, because someone took the time to notice me. Lame, I know :)

But recently I’ve come to the point where I hate the like button. It’s impersonal and too easily there. There are times when I don’t understand why someone likes my post/status/photo and I darned well want to. I’ve really come to loathe those people that just click “like” to everything. Seriously folks! Do you actually like it, or is it some kind of weird competition to see who hit “like” first? Stop being a drive-by liker! And I really hate it when people click “like” obsessively, as though they’re completely involved in your life, when they don’t really give a toss about you. And don’t even get me started about those negative posts which people “like”. Nothing online drives me more nuts than seeing someone click “like” to “I’ve got a horrible case of diarrhea and my guts feel like they’re going to spill out onto the floor”. What on earth is wrong with you people??

The irony of this post? I decided to take a semi hiatus from Facebook all because of this bizarre dislike which has been brewing in me, and I moved some stuff that I still wanted to share with close friends/family to a wordpress.com blog. And what do I see when I post? A freaking “like” button. LOL. It took me two days to work out how to turn the damned thing off.

Image from Disocciated Press (link)


Hard disk on the rocks


Posted by Skye

Update: It didn’t work :( I guess the hardware problem is more significant. Now to contemplate whether or not I want someone to go to the effort of extracting the data from the disk n some other way. Probably not… Lol.

My home laptop hard disk drive is currently chilling. Yup, chilling. It’s in the freezer, and fingers crossed tomorrow when I take it out of its little zip lock bag and plug it back into my laptop, that it work for long enough for me to extract my important data. The ironic thing is that I do have a backup of most of the data somewhere but I have no idea where… Anyway, it is notable to mention that this is my first legitimate hardware failure. Yup, not taken out by a virus or a stupid user error (yes, I did once spill a cup-a-soup on a laptop to disastrous consequences), or by an “too early” (i.e. 6 months after I bought the damned thing) hardware failure. This is a hardcore, “it’s old and overused, and now ready to die” failure. I feel like I’ve reached some kind of milestone in life.

But back to my hard disk drive “on the rocks”. I had never heard of this kind of method (see “Freeze your hard disk drive to recover data: Myth or reality?“) to try and resurrect (temporarily) a hard disk drive, until I started googling… it’s actually extremely interesting, and fingers crossed (again) that it works for me. I’ll update tomorrow!


Ring! Ring! Ring! Argh!!


Posted by Skye

If my home phone doesn’t stop ringing, I am marching over to the PLDT office and hitting someone on the head. Seriously. When we moved to KL, I used to get the odd few direct marketing phone calls, the odd few wrong number calls, and so on. Oddly, I never actually had a legitimate phone call (why give a landline when your mobile number will do?), but I needed the phone line for the Internet. But the phone calls never really bothered me. They were few and far between, and usually more amusing than anything else.

But since we got our landline in The Philippines, aside from being a cost I wish we didn’t need to have (annoyingly Sky Broadband isn’t available in this building), you get the most ridiculous pre-recorded phone calls, the odd “we’re currently testing the phone line” call, and a ton of hang ups. I don’t think I need to explain to anyone how annoying a “Happy New Year” pre-recorded phone call is, first thing in the morning on January 1st… Or how much it makes my blood pressure rise when the phone starts ringing pointlessly when Nicholas is down for a nap (like now). And today there have been about a half a dozen phone calls in the last 2 hours! I don’t even know what my landline number is, so it’s not like I’m expecting any urgent phone calls…

So is it possible for someone to explain to me why my phone keeps ringing, and when I answer it, there is noone there? I don’t think they’re prank calls, I think that they’re line testing. But goodness only knows why they are repeatedly testing the line.

I really need to move on with my life (although if the phone rings again, my next blog post might be from a cell, and not a cell of the smart phone variety). Could this be a sign I need to get out of the house more??

 


The tears are explained…


Posted by Skye

Does the reason why my maid was so emotional make my lecturing her about respect and making her cry, better or worse?

She’s pregnant. Gee golly. At least it means she really needs the work right now and will be less likely to just take off and not come back. And it resolves my dilemma as to whether or not to have a helper  - I’ll just wait until she wants to leave, as it’s only a few months away anyway, and then I won’t hire anyone else. But it sounds worse that I made a pregnant woman cry. I had better make sure I don’t put on any heart wrenching Disney movies while she’s watching Nicholas… I know when I was pregnant, Brother Bear was well, too much to bear!

Overall I’m happy for her. It’s another year of babies, and a good year at that. But since this blog is all about me, I am torn between feeling like a sh*t because I made a pregnant woman cry and feeling vindicated – “ahh, pregnancy hormones”.

Sigh.