Highmoon's Ponderings

I am about to smash my laptop, my wife’s laptop, my wireless router and my DSL modem all against a very hard wall!!!

Ever since a couple week’s ago when I had a huge problem with a bad installation of Norton Internet Security that sent my laptop into a downward spiral of stop errors, I have not had stable internet connection at home. My wife’s laptop worked fine for a few days, but now it also is not holding on to the signal coming from the router. And now, the router itself is just sending out a very unstable signal that sometimes goes down all the way to 1 Mbps.

I’ve not been able to do a lot of work in the last week, my recovery aside, and this is only going to get more annoying. I am about to reinstall Windows XP on this machine, but I keep stalling because that would mean having to reinstall a crapload of programs all over again. But if I have to, I will.

Just allow me to say: ARGH!!!

This was a great and fun read from start to finish. I’m a sucker for re-interpretations of the classics, and from the moment I saw The Looking Glass Wars on a table at the Miami International Book Fair I knew I had to read it.

Beddor knows his stuff, and he can spin a good yarn very well. His extrapolation of Wonderland is fantastic and it feels very much like a living, breathing world. Half the fun is figuring out the supposed real source of the caricature presented by Lewis Caroll in his Wonderland books, but the other half is getting lost in the story of Alyss’s struggle to regain the throne of Wonderland from her evil aunt Redd. I’m very glad this is just the first in a projected trilogy, and I anxiously await the next installment, Seeing Redd.

Oh, and for the roleplayers out there, this world rocks as a setting for a game. Seriously.

So, very quickly, it has been a super busy week for me.
Last Friday, Nov. 30, I had a car accident when a lady did an illegal U-turn and, though I slammed on my brakes and swerved to the left, I smacked into her with the side of my car.

I’m fine and so was she, and the insurances will take care of it all, but I am now without a car which sucks.

On Monday, Dec. 3, while renewing my subscription to Norton Internet Security 2007, and updating to 2008, my computer when into a spastic rash of stop errors, all caused by a wonky Norton installation. The result was the my laptop lost all its Network Connections and I am unable to go online except with an Ethernet cable, as I am right now. Which sucks the big one because of what comes next, which means I have very limited connectivity to the outside world unless I am in the living room.

Then on Wed., Dec. 5, I had minor, outpatient surgery for something I won’t disclose here. I’m doing fine, with some discomfort, but nothing I can’t deal with.

Now I’m home, recovering, and having to come to the living room to go online instead of laying on my bed surfing using my once-fine wireless connection.

So this week I will go back to the doctor for a check-up, take the car to the body shop for repairs, and finish uninstalling Norton from both our computers (it also started messing up my wife’s computer, so out it goes!) and demaning a refund for our renewal fees.

But hey, Chanukah is going awesome this year!

Channukah’s here, and for 8 nights we’re gonna light up the menorah, eat some latkes and donuts, and play with the dreidel. Or some RPGs, whichever! In celebration of the festival of lights, we have placed our entire catalog on sale at RPGnow Almost all our products are on sale for $1.00 and a few for $1.99! This sale lasts from Dec. 4 through Dec. 12, so enjoy!

Enjoy this wonderful festival of lights. May the light of the menorah kindle the spark within you.

Now, come on, spin the dreidel.
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