No, this post is not about coffee. (Though if anyone would have a right to write one, it would be me.)
The last 24 hours have been an uphill battle against electricity.
I recall my buddy Michael several years ago, plaintively baffled that the world was 'clearly' missing out on the better way. "Why can't everyone just agree on English, and learn that?"
I could laugh at him, and he could laugh at himself, but you could tell there was some sincerity in his confusion.
(Of course, at this point, I'd answer that if everyone spoke English already, I wouldn't have a job, but neither of us had such foresight then.)
So I recall his POV because I'm struggling with a plaintive confusion of my own. Why can't everyone in the world just use one kind of outlet, and standardize on that?
A unified voltage standard wouldn't suck either.
Neither would a worldwide application of American electrical quality requirements. (You guys in America can't even imagine what China is selling to the rest of the world.)
Late last night, my big new terabyte enclosures started blinking on and off inexplicably. Thus began the ordeal of tracking down the problem and trying to alleviate it.
Too tired now to even list all the travails of the day or the struggle, except for these highlights:
1. At one point, I thought I'd fried my iMac. Which would really suck because I don't want one of those damn glossy-screened new ones. Am so ticked at Apple for moving over to them in virtually all of their products.
2. Do seem to have fried my Belkin Surge Protection UPS. I've bought another one, just because it still seems to be the best of a raft of poor alternatives here. Have also now (removed) a power strip that I don't trust any longer, and a little outlet adaptor that was clearly melted in the fracas. (Had been wondering what that sizzling sound was...)
3. Ultimately, the problem seems to have been my coffee pot, in the kitchen but on the same circuit. (I noticed the hard drives quit acting out once I turned it off.) Happy accident? The new one is 220 instead of 110, so now it's plugged into a completely different circuit, and shouldn't cause any further problems regardless.
On the last point, I'm thankful that someone mentioned to me a few years ago, that coffee pots and espresso machines actually draw a lot of power. (It might not have occurred to me otherwise.) But unlike an espresso machine, which is only run for ten minutes or so, a coffee pot might sit sucking juice for hours.
Anyway, don't me wrong. I'm not hot or angry, just relieved but exhausted. Everything seems to be fine now.
And had been hoping to find the previous 'clip-on' model of iPod shuffle before they disappeared, because I've got zero interest in the new ones, so managed to score a couple today at the electronics store. Just to flank my big 160GB monster when the clip-on weight would be more convenient. So that's an upside of the day - had really been hoping to find them before they were gone.
On the other hand, found yesterday that my home page had been hacked. So feeling rather mixed about this wired world that we live in.
So that sentiment, therefore, would end my post for the day. At several points earlier, I thought my once-a-day resolution might be doomed, not to mention all my grands plans for launching all this to the public in only a few short days. Bleyah.
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