cicer

Yeah, all right, this is pretty shiny. :)

Now I just need to figure out how to secure my wireless network, and I will have finished all computer maintainance for some time (I'll spent the last few weeks running various scans and cleaning programs, clearing out old files, and backing things up). Unfortunately, in the midst of all this reconfiguring and examining, I checked out my parent's computer and discovered it has a virus, so I need to figure out how to repair that. Gak. Also, I realized that I have somehow neglected to secure my wireless network in the...what, two years since I got high-speed internet? I fail. So I'll need to work out exactly how to do that. Anyone have any simple instructions or tips? The only intructions I found were kind of confusing. Also, I would have to make sure the desktop computer is properly secured, and I don't think it has a wireless card. So...I'm not really sure how to do that. Any advice?

Guys, I swear I'm not as much of a computer-bonehead as I seem! XD

Er. Does anyone know where the last two weeks went? I looked away for one minute and suddenly it's October 16th. Can someone explain to me how that happened?

This is, of course, a roundabout way of saying 'I'm not dead!'. Just being eaten alive by school. Wah. I've spent the last couple weeks buried in pre-midterm work. Also, I got sick, got better, and now I think I might be getting sick again. Ahaha, real life. Please to stop beating me up.

On a cheerier note, though, Halloween is coming up! I have Big Plans for the night, which involve taking small children trick-or-treating and possibly going to the festival the local businesses sponsor every year. Yay! Free candy and dressing up in strange outfits! I still haven't picked out a costume, though. I'll probably end up doing something lame and uncreative like a witch or a pirate, unless any of you have any better ideas.

Also, it's that time of year again. Yes, it's once again time to gird our loins for the caffeine- and panic-fueled writing extravaganza that takes place every November. I am speaking, of course, of NaNoWriMo. If you haven't already signed up, dooo it. You know you want to. I volunteer to be your personal support person. Anybody who needs a shoulder to cry on or someone to whine to about their novel, come to me. We can whimper at each other and compare our pathetic word counts. It will be fabulous.

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And now, some links to interesting and amusing stuff I've come across in the past couple weeks.

Check out these downloads and descriptions of free security programs and computer decluttering software from MSN Tech and PC World. I ran a bunch of these programs, and now my system is running considerably faster. Cool.

The Musical Listening Test, in which they play two tunes and you have to figure out whether they are the same or different. Supposedly this allows you to get a good idea of how tone-sensitive you are. There are two parts to the test. I got about 20/30 correct on both, confirming my suspicions that I am somewhat tone-deaf. The test is surprisingly difficult, but very interesting.

From Slate V: Sex Ed 2.0, a video article about talking to your kids about sex in today's sexualized culture. Extremely funny, mostly because of the clips of old 60s and 70s era sex ex videos interspersed throughout it. Also contains a clip of the Groovy New Feelings PSA from Planned Parenthood of Canada. I lol'd.

Found via daegaer: The Gangrenous Gunslinger, Regency Rocket Scientist, and This is Gonna Get Yeasty. Hysterically funny reviews of bad romance novels. annajaneclare reads them so we don't have to!

Found via telophase: Sinning in the Library. Amusing and true tales of a librarian behaving badly.

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And now I must go do homework. Again. Sob sob. Send help.

...Okay. So my Windows Media Player files seem to have gotten all screwed up somehow, so I decided to uninstall and then reinstall the whole things. So I did that through the Add/Delete Progams thing, reboot the computer, and suddenly...my whole D: Drive is gone. Like, my computer doesn't think it's there anymore. It doesn't appear in My Computer, and when I put in a CD or DVD...nothing. I'm kinda freaked, and frantically searching for help online, so would anyone have any idea how to go about fixing this? At all?

ETA: ...I just shut my computer off completely and then turned it back on, and lo, the drive is magically returned. ...Okay! Dear computer: You are very strange. I admire your mad self-fixing skillz, but please don't scare me like that again. Love, your human

Uh, my Windows Media Player seems to have died. That is, I can open it and "play" songs and stuff, but there's no sound. The songs seems to be playing fine, it's not like I can't open the files or anything. And I can play vids and stuff and the visuals are fine, just...no sound. I know it's not my speakers, because the computer still makes all the propers sounds and stuff, and I popped in a video game, and that played perfectly, sound and all. So clearly it's WMP issue. But I have no idea what it going on, or how I would go about fixing it. Any suggestions?

I've been fiddling around with my journal layout for awhile now, wanting to make a new one but not really having any ideas of what to do with it. And I realized I still don't know how to do certain things. *facepalms* I've been using LJ for about two years now. You'd think I'd have it down, but no.

How do you put a picture up at the top of you journal? I can't figure out how to do that. I guess you have to use S1, but I don't know the coding.

How do you install a custom mood theme? I cannot figure that out at all.

How do you make a section-within-a-section in memories? Like, if you wanted to have a writing folder and then a folder for Saiyuki, a folder for Weiss Kreuz, etc?

I finally made myself an lj-layout, two months after buying a paid account mostly for that purpose. Heh. Fear my procrastination skills, bitches! What do you think of it? I want to make sure it looks good on other people's browsers and such. There's nothing worse than trying to read someone's journal when their layout makes your eyes bleed. Though I suppose that's what ?style=mine was invented for. Any comments or suggestions? Is the text easy to read? The background too bright?

Also I need to come up with titles for my Sanzo/Goku Seven Deadly Sins fic and my Crawford/Schuldig one. I'm so awful with titles. Anyone want to suggest one?

Speaking of my C/S series. I need to post the Sloth drabble tonight, and finish the Greed drabble. I hope to post that one tomorrow or the next day. And then I've got several other Saiyuki fics to work on. But the best news is that the semester's over, and I'm free! Joy!

ETA: How do I fix it so that the comments of each entry are in the traditional LJ setup, and not the style-specific setup? Does anyone know?