(no subject)

I... I don't even know where to begin with yesterday's adventure. Two adventures. Three? Two adventures.

We'll start with the better stuff, albeit the terrifying stuff. I went to a study group on Thursday about WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and wasn't sure what to expect except that people there were more experienced with it than I was, and I was right about that. But I also got to observe a lot of troubleshooting and learn a bit about what it looks like, what goes on in it, I get the feeling it's what I should be doing the labs in if I'm not doing them in the browser IDE (Integrated Development Environment) (where you put your code and sometimes also give commands to the computer) (I'm gonna keep up these parentheticals until I know them in and out and maybe even after for the non-coders) so all in all it wasn't a waste at all. I talked some with the guy leading the study group, we talked about the pandemic and how we were doing in it, and at one point the conversation led to one of the students he was troubleshooting was probably experiencing delayed response times from her computer because she had fifty frillion windows open and 8GB of RAM (random access memory/short term computer memory/the stuff that makes the programs go) and it was slowing her down.

I have 4GB of RAM.

I told him this. He said "Whoa, yeah, you want 16GB would be my recommendation." So on the one hand, I went to the site (Crucial.com) that he recommended and with one thing and another, bought a couple more sticks of RAM to upgrade my computer to 12GB. And then. Yesterday, Friday. AND THEN. No, wait, backing up, so I'm upgrading my computer and realizing, no, I probably can't get away with still using this one for much longer can I. Which makes me sad because it's a perfectly fine machine! For what I use it for now. Web development is a much different animal, it turns out. So okay fine, I tell the boy "I need a new machine, can you help me build one?" I don't know why. I was thinking of just getting a box off the shelf and then I decided, no, I'll build one instead, mainly because I still want a DVD drive. And the ones with Solid State Drives (faster, more durable than usual hard drives) are expensive. Which it turned out wasn't much better building my own box, which I did at one in the goddamn morning on Thursday night and Friday morning, but building my own box also means it's much more modular, I have room to expand, I have options, I know what each piece does and what I need it to do, and since I'm putting it together myself (with the boy watching over my shoulder) I'll have that experience when I need to upgrade.

So that was Friday morning, with me being exhausted enough to completely forget to make sure it has wireless ahahah oy. This is what happens when I get agitated and do things in a hurry, it has been that kind of agitating week. But I fixed that, got a wireless card for it and that's something I've even done before, installed a wireless card, so that's fine. And the parts for the new box should be on the way, here next week, I can build next Friday. I can probably upgrade this box sometime mid next week. It's fine.

Friday afternoon. Friday fucking afternoon. It may have started earlier than the afternoon, it was intermittent because the fucking rat would not stay away. Sometime in between building the box and realizing I'd forgotten wireless I noticed a rat in the kitchen. I forget what it was doing at first but it wasn't screaming. We chased it surprisingly easily into an empty Tidy Cats litter bucket and dumped it out in the backyard towards the wild field, went about our day. A couple hours later, go into the kitchen, Murdock is staring at the rat again and Little Bit is on the counter looking very offended by everything. This time the rat went under the fridge and we had to wait until Bat Cat stared at the fridge like a security guard to know where it was, move the fridge, get the rat out from behind the fridge and into the Tidy Cats bucket again, and turn it loose. And hope it wasn't a second rat.

(Side note: Bat Cat's eyes were wide and darting EVERYWHERE and suddenly I realize why people are freaked out when I do that. Okay then.)

It wasn't a second rat. I don't think. Because a couple hours later guess who the fuck was back. On the counter this time, behind the coffee maker. And then all over the counter. And then on the floor, and then behind the fridge again, and then over by one of the open lower drawers stuffed with washable freezer bags, and eventually the boy picked up the ridiculous thing with kitchen tongs and dropped it into the bucket. It was the same rat, it must have been, because this time it estimated it could get out of the bucket by jumping and did a couple of times. And eventually, finally, we got the lid down over the bucket, drilled a couple holes in it for air, and drove the goddamn rat to a field across fucking town so the stupid rat wouldn't come back. At least I hope it doesn't come back. If it comes back I'm keeping it and naming it Justin. Or Mrs. Frisby. Because clearly it's both brilliantly intelligent and really fucking dumb.

So that pretty much derailed me from getting as much reading as I wanted to do yesterday, oops. I may try and make it up tonight or tomorrow but most likely since most of it's class reading I'll put it off till Monday. Computer parts are incoming, including a wireless card. The new router works brilliantly for computers, less so for phones. I'm not sure if that's a thing or not. And it's been a nice relaxing day of cross-stitch and writing apart from cleaning 3/4 of the entire kitchens because RAT. WHY, rat. WHY are you in a house of seven cats, three of whom are known mousers? Honestly.

I still need tech icons, though. Need some kind of computer icons. Maybe I can make some from Hackers.