…we squeaked in. Or will, when I figure out the state business tax.
Our tax stuff is on a different computer, not the laptops; and we don’t get money in some quarters, so we can forget the date, and we’re always having to count on our fingers (literally—is it January February March April or is it January February March?) to figure when the quarter is (quick, HOW many months in the year? And is the deadline the 15th for the state or the 30th of the month following the quarter or is it the reverse?)
We are not accountants. We are not normally aware what day of the week it is unless it’s trash day; and we don’t know if it’s a weekend, and we don’t know what the date is, and we’re not always sure what month it is; we don’t have a visible clock, for that matter, except on the kitchen appliances, which may or may not be right, and our computers. So when we’re working hard, time gets away from us. And the quarterly reporting cycles—we try to be careful and we try to be on time, but sometimes the notices we sign up for with the state get buried in all the offers for viagra and I don’t always check my e-mail except to weed the junk before it gets epic. We can’t even find the desk surface, at the moment—things we need to file come in, and things we need to create get laid on top of them, and it ends up a multilevel sandwich that has to be sorted, but I’m behind turn-in time on this book and that’s kinda important…
And remember when my computer lost the USB ports and they replaced the MOBO?
This made Dragon Speech inoperable without a total retraining of the program…
I have an anthology wanting a story that doesn’t exist in file. I could use Dragon to get it in. But Dragon won’t work.
Now they’ve updated Epson printer software and the OCR to Adobe on the desktop doesn’t work, so I can’t get that story scanned to an editable file.
I need to write this scene. It’s critical.
I’ve told the anthology I can mail them a physical copy. All I can do.
I really, really need to write this scene.
And I have to do quarterly taxes.
Dad was born near Lethbridge, AB, (say between Great Falls and Calgary), and moved back in his later years. When he was in stage 2/3 colon cancer I drove up from LA a few years, 30 years ago. I though it was refreshing coming from LA, with a career in (high speed) computing, to a small, quaint, prairie town that didn’t hardly reckon time in much less than seasons. 🙂
My fear in the tax vein is when Intuit decides TT won’t work on /XP any more 🙁 , and still refuses to make a version for *nix based systems, Linux or OSX. 🙁 🙁
Jane has spent half the day either fussing with the won’t-work OCR from a combo of Win 8 and an Epson 840 software update, or trying to get through to HP about the computer they spent 2 weeks repairing from overheating — which isn’t performing as well as it did before overheating. Graphics is what it was advertised to do well. That’s the function that it’s not performing.
I do wish when you get a fix that it would BE fixed, whatever it is. And that fixes wouldn’t break something that was working fine.
I had a similar experience with my Dell laptop. Laptops just aren’t built with sufficient cooling to run flat out for long. To burn in, I used Folding@Home, the protein folding distributed computing project. I could run it at only at 50% or the laptop would get too hot and shut off to protect itself. You may just have to drop graphics settings on GW2. However, if this is new behavior, HP should definitely make it right.
Keeping the bottom cooling intake of the laptop clean and unobstructed is important of course: a laptop lap-desk may help; or you may be able to improvise something. I’ve been tempted to make one out of a board and as many Blue Ice containers as needed, to add some extra cooling.
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I have a similar problem with date awareness. Something that’s helped is the Windows taskbar. It’s usually sitting at the bottom, and there, it shows only, “1:45 PM”. However, you can move it to any edge of the screen, and when it’s to the side it shows, “1:45 PM / Wednesday / 7/30/2014”. The side makes a lot of sense with a wide display. After sometimes getting it to unhide when using scrollbars, I decided to keep it to the left.
I also somewhat recommend Firefox’s ReminderFox. I had it lose its calendar once, which was annoying. Otherwise it’s a good reminder/calendar program. If you have MS Outlook, with the proviso that you never want to use it for email, it also has a decent calendar. Of course, either can only remind you of things if they’re running.
I don’t use a laptop much since I got FIOS at home, and outside WiFi hotspots lost their attraction. 😉 But one thing I did put in it’s totebag was a pair of plastic chopsticks. I used those to give it a quarter inch of air gap on the bottom. 😉
I use reminder fox…I put the tax dates in, but I SHOUlD put in the date to prepare them, and quit worrying about end of period. That would save me grief.
AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Senior HP tech support found Jane’s problem by a marathon session on the phone: not the video card, not so far, but the wifi. Their testing uses an R? router and ours is an N. Hardwiring the machine let it run fine, and that pointed at the router. And once they questioned the router—bingo! A new router setting and the machine is running as it ought to run!
For which we are indeed truly grateful!
Hallelujah!! *waves hands* Out, out, demons of stupidity!!
Huzzah!
Being / Working at Home Pros and Cons::
Hours when I want. But this means day, night, whenever, often long sessions.
Dress casual. Really a plus, since my A/C compressor won’t get fixed or replaced this year.
Co-Workers: 2 cats plus myself. Good, but a guy can miss having, y’know, other people around.
Boss: Being your own boss is a real bear. The guy never gives me a break and never takes excuses.
However, being the only one doing whatever the task is, that means some things get done and others don’t.
I can’t convince the cats to do housework or paying work. Of course, they’d want to be paid in outrageous amounts of…outrageous cat goodies.
Date and Time: There’s never enough, and one day blurs into the next. I can get fuzzy on it if I’m not careful. Good thing for the computer clock and calendar. Trash day? Appointment for errands? Better get moving!
I would think this takes care of itself with other humans around, but I suppose if the other human(s) also work at home, it could get just as fuzzy.
I am still not getting ahead on back payments for taxes and former credit card. … And yet I’m getting credit card offers again. LOL. Not happening yet. So far, I haven’t increased my income much at all, and I’m hoping I can increase it enough to make a real difference. Current bills get paid and I pay a portion on back due things, but not enough to make a big enough dent yet. Major purchases or repairs, like that A/C compressor, not happening yet either.
I tell myself I’m gaining on it, but there are times it really, really discourages me.
Every danged thing I’m trained for is essentially a feast-or-famine type skill.
I am, however, getting back into the swing of some things. Or I tell myself I am. Hoping it’ll kick in and make a real difference.
Now on to supper and reading in a textbook / how-to manual again.
If I had a clone or a partner, it’d sure help. Only he’d want to get paid, the so-and-so. Still, might be preferable.
I am, however, stubborn, and trying to improve things. If only I could get truly in gear again and make a difference fast enough.