Netbook!

All of 12 entries ago I talked about the troubles I was having with my netbook. (I really need to post more lol. I read my flist every day though!) Windows eventually failed and I only got one successful install of Ubuntu to work, not for very long, before having to reattempt it another three or four times. On the last attempt, I think shortly before I went on "vacation" at the beginning of April (I wanted to take a computer with me, and netbook is so much more portable!), something new went wrong, and it then cycled through a media check which never ever worked again. It wouldn't install, it wouldn't even boot the OS off the USB stick. I toyed with the idea of buying a tablet computer, but kept reminding myself that I had a perfectly good computer of similar size, weight, and capabilities if only it would just WORK. The general consensus was a hard drive problem, and I was looking at about $100 to get a replacement. Funds have been too spotty to really justify it, so I was just waiting.

Vacation was fun :) I'll have to post about those adventures later.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Dad was looking at Memory Express' website and they had some hard drives on sale for $50. Score! Still a bit too pricey while I'm trying to get out of debt, but Dad said he would help me pay for it. We rushed out Monday afternoon when I was done work (got home just before 5, they were open until 6) where we purchased a new HD and screwdrivers to open the case :D Netbook has teeny tiny Torx screws holding the cover over the HD. But... the screwdrivers were huuuuuuuuuuuuge. By then it was after 7pm and being a holiday, everyone was closed. Sadface!

He picked up a new set yesterday afternoon, taking my netbook with him to make sure we got the right size this time lol. And we did! Hard drive replacement was simple once the cover was off, and then the moment of truth... Plug it in, plug in the stick with the OS on it, press power... General consensus had been HD, but that didn't mean it WAS the HD.

Happy to say that the OS installed in lightning speed, and even as I write this, I am typing on the netbook :D It works! It works! It works fast! It installed all the things and was ready to use in under an hour! One install attempt sat on the same item for over 24 hours before I forced it to stop, and this time it didn't do that! It has word processing! It has my preferred internet browser! (which, according to the "more info" blurb, was initially made for Ubuntu/Linux, and then rebranded for Windows use) I already knew VLC would work since I have it on the much earlier version installed on my desktop, but installed that too! THE NETBOOK LIIIIIVES!!

I have no idea what I'm going to do with 320gb on a Linux system I don't intend to use as my main system, but holy crap I'm so excited to have it working so I can take it places again. Certain events/places, I will take the laptop, but now for every day travel, or my intended trip to San Francisco for a Nano event, I have super portability back! It works! It works! YAAAAY!

Vacation! and CCEE!

Since I had to bow out of Sakuracon this year due to no one being able to go and not wanting to spend 24 hours on the bus, I decided to take the time off anyway and have more of a "stay-cation" instead. It would be the perfect time and ability to go visit raspberrybelle in Lethbridge and then spend a couple days in Calgary with my wifey and baby before going home. We drove to Calgary on Thursday night, and then on Friday I took the Greyhound out to Lethbridge.

In terms of things happening, it was very uneventful lol. Denton came out from Medicine Hat for a few hours where we went to a cafe and ate a lot and talked for a few hours. We watched an almost obscene amount of Reboot - the last half of Season 2 and 3/4 of Season 3. I had kinda forgotten exactly how awesome that series is. Joe and I played Draw Something a lot and giggled over our drawings while sitting next to each other. We ate more delicious food. We tried to go shopping on Easter Sunday, but eeeeeveryone was closed. The mall's website said they were open, but the only thing actually open was the movie theatre. I guess that's a small town for you, but even in Edmonton very little is open on Easter Sunday...

( Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Calgary )

A few weeks later it was back to Calgary for the Comic & Entertainment Expo! It was a huge HUGE event this year as they'd gotten all nine primary cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation in for a reunion show in addition to the other bits. I heard the official attendance was 45k people, which I can totally believe. Early afternoon Saturday, the Fire Marshal had come to the building and shut the doors. If you were outside, you couldn't get in, and if you left, you couldn't get back in for several hours. The whole building was packed with people. Cell phone service was next to impossible. There was so much to see! I hadn't been since the first and only time I went in 2006 and gotten roped (willingly) into volunteering and it's gotten soooo much bigger. In addition to the TNG cast, they had several pro wrestlers, numerous voice actors (including the original voice of Bob from Reboot!), the Weasley twins from HP, David Prowse, BSG cast members, James Marsters, Adam West... Plenty more whose names I can't remember. Dzi and I wanted a picture with Patrick Stewart but by the time we got into line to purchase it, they were sold out, so I got one with the twins instead XD Luckily, one of my con buddies was also getting photos, so I got to spend the 2 hour wait hanging out with her, her brother (also a con buddy) and his gf :D It was super awesome.

In the dealer's hall, they had a Delorean done up like the one in Back to the Future, which for $20 you could sit in it (!!!) and have your pic taken, and then they would also take a couple pics with your own camera :D!!! So worth it! At the TNG event, they had a couple surprise guests including John De Lancie (Q) and Garrett Wang (Lt Kim from Voyager) who was in the dealer's hall Sunday signing autographs. He was super nice and posed for a candid shot for me, and then Dzi and I went through the (very very short) line so she could tell him that his experience with TNG as a child was the same as hers with TOS XD Super nice guy. This is where Bob's VA was, and he was also signing autographs. I may have made a bit of a fool of myself... We finished the weekend watching back to back talks of James Marsters and Patrick Stewart, and then ate deeeelicious Peter's hamburgers and milkshakes :D

I'd gone down with my dear friend's soon-to-be-ex-husband which was really weird cuz I'd never met him before, but it was all good :) Came back with my sister's roommate. We got home super late, like after 10pm. And while I'd been standing in line for my photo with the twins, my boss had had her baby! Five weeks early. The work week was fun, as we'd all thought we had more time lol.

Just before going down for CCEE, I'd thrown my back out again, and was in so much pain that I was in tears (which was really fun leaving the chiropractor's office hehehe. Hopefully the people in the waiting room knew that HE hadn't made me hurt. You don't go to a chiropractor because you want to hurt MORE). It only took a week and four treatments and $140 to fix this time. Heh.