Inspiration

I haven't updated on what I have been doing or the steps challenge for a few weeks. Having my computer "break down" hampered my creative juices for a bit. But now we are back on track.

The saga of the great laptop malfunction of 08 will go down as an exercise in futility. I noticed some odd occurrences with the computer one evening and while the machine wasn't functioning any differently, I still wanted to take it in to get looked at to be on the safe side. It is under warranty through Best Buy so I took it in there. First of all there only seemed to be one competent computer person there, and she was busy trying to explain Quicken to an elderly woman who just wasn't getting it. It was obvious to me she wanted to just slam the woman's face in the copy machine, but she was trying her best to remain calm and in control. The "geek" who was helping me out constantly checked in with this girl. She was obviously the leader of the squadron.

She graciously would slide over every so often and boot away the lackey and try and help me. She had good ideas and seemed to grasp what was wrong. As she attempted to roll back the machine to an earlier date's settings to try and fix whatever was wrong, the computer popped up a message that said the C: drive was corrupt. She said that it appeared the hard drive was busto, and I would need another one. This is covered under my warranty so I wasn't to upset. I took the computer home and backed up all my music and files on my brand new external hard drive and took it back in for repairs. They said this would take about 3 days and everything would be right as rain.

I got a call back from them 2 days later and they said they ran their diagnostics on the machine and the hard drive checked out as fine. They then concluded that it was a software problem, which isn't covered under warranty, and that I would need to re-install Windows Vista and all the drivers. I could of course have them do it for around $120. I chose to do it myself.

After re-installing windows, which took about 2 hours, I needed to update all the drivers and whatnot to get everything working properly. I sat perched in my recliner with the computer as it always is trying in vain for the next four hours to get the wireless adapter to function. It wouldn't because I couldn't get online to download the new driver for it. I went round and round in my head trying to figure out what I could do to get the driver to the computer. I don't fancy myself as a tech guru. But I do consider myself passable at such matters. Entering hour four at about the point of snapping the computer in half and going to get a new one (which is covered under my "accidental" warranty) it finally dawned on me that the laptop has an ethernet port. I walked the 10 feet into the office, ran a chord from the router to the computer. 10 seconds later a little message popped up asking me if I wanted to update windows. In these updates came all the drivers that I needed. It took about 20 minutes to download them all.

Since then it has been status quo for me around here. I missed a day on the steps last week, so I'm going to go four times this week. I have already done three, and will hit up the gym tomorow more than likely. For those keeping track

Day 1 (monday) 5800 steps
Day 2 (wednesday) 8400 steps This was around 6k at the Y, the rest came from walking around in the library and downtown with Adie
Day 3 (thursday) 5800 steps

I ran into Ian tonight at the Y. He seemed surprised to see me. I was not surprised by his surprise though. It's kinda rare to see fat men at the gym. Most of the people I see there are either elderly people, people who are already skinny and are working out to stay that way, or girls who think they fat but usually aren't. I would say only about 10% of the people I see there are truly fat.

I typically go during the day when it is less busy. I had been super lazy all day today though and thought I should at least do something productive for the day. Ian was trying out the Y here. We lifted together for a little before I went back to doing my cardio work and he kept on lifting. He also introduced me to the other Ben Smith who was there also. It was a little BC reunion.

While running on the treadmill can suck at times, it sucks being out of shape even more. While I don't feel any skinnier and don't notice a difference in my endurance, I am motivated to go. And it's more than just this year's bet. And it's not even to get in shape for the wedding. It's just about damn time. I put off being active for far to long and finally have the time that I can devote to going. I actually kinda look forward to going tomorrow, which will be three days in a row. That will defiantly be the most I have ever gone to the gym in a row, or in a week.

So that's what's been going on for me the past few weeks. A computer glitch that caused almost a week of headaches. Some sub par movies. And sweat. And jiggling. Lots of sweat and Jiggling.