My Upgrade to Windows 7 a.k.a. I think I need to replace my DVD drive

2 years ago
by Rachel in

Is currently also a pain in the ass. I don’t know why I do things like updating multiple operating systems at once or reformatting a computer right before an important programming assignment is due – it just leads to much heart burn and late nights. This time, I had long ago downloaded the Windows 7 RC (legitimately with my own serial) and left it sitting on my desktop (that I rarely use.) A couple weekends ago I finally got around to burning the ISO and then left that DVD sitting around until I picked it up recently and tried to install it to my computer.

I have come to realize that this isn’t the first time my DVD drive has written bad media. Again, I must be a masochist because I seem to do stupid things like this all the time.

If someone has a suggestion for a new DVD drive please feel free to whack me over the head because I really shouldn’t do this again.

Stay tuned for a real entry on my experience with Windows 7 instead of my misadventures in trying to sabotage myself.

My Snow Leopard Upgrade

2 years ago
by Rachel in

This has been a pain in the ass for the past 2 weeks for me. At work I do a combination of iPhone objective-C programming and Ruby on Rails programming. Just about everything broke and I’ve been pulling my hair out and patching things with scotch tape just to get it into some kind of working shape. I haven’t had to time to back everything up and just reformat the damn machine and install everything compiled properly to the 64-bit system but here are some links that have helped me wobble along until I can fix things.

The Xcode muckiness wasn’t as bitchy to overcome by just fiddling with some of the settings to get it to work with my company’s code – but the problem also was that the new Xcode that ships with Snow Leopard totally got rid of all the previous iPhone SDKs I had. My company still runs most of our iPhone apps off of 2.2.1 and Xcode for Snow Leopard only does 3.0. Unlike my co-worker who practice more forethought than I do (so what, call me ignorant), I didn’t have a backup of the previous Xcode stashed somewhere else. Adam showed me a tricky trick in the new Xcode and you are able to still use the new 3.0 SDK but set the deployment target to whatever the heck you want.

OF COURSE, with the new iPhone 3.1 SDK, they’ve included all the previous iPhone SDKs to work with the new Xcode 3.2, thus eliminating my rage, but a little too late for the heartburn I was experiencing earlier this week.

Now, getting ruby on rails and our projects running on my laptop has been a bitch and a half and I’m still pulling teeth just to get things working locally. I was being a tool and just deploying all of my test code to the integration server to test for the past week and a half just so I could get some actual work done before Labor Day. I’m sure my co-workers didn’t appreciate that. :-p

Getting PostgreSQL working with ROR and installing the proper gem. I used to use pg but that was not working. I’m instead using postgres-pr and that seems to get mongrel up and working on my local environment. Make sure to change your ARCHFLAGS to ‘-arch x86_64′ if you originally had it set to i386.

http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=34110

I had to totally uninstall things like my MacPorts and rubygems and postgres and install everything from scratch again. I also had problems with my paths and I was constantly pulling up the wrong version (i.e. Snow Leopard’s version) of ruby and postgres.

Originally I had thought that just by recompiling everything the Ruby on Rails guys suggested, I’d be golden. But that just didn’t work out for me.

I think I am just going to reformat everything this weekend and follow this guy’s advice. What a mess!

Oh well, rant over. Hopefully I can post about a more successful Snow Leopard install next week.

Rear wheel missing

Dent Fitty

2 years ago
by Rachel in
Some other damage done

Some other damage done

Rear wheel missing

Rear wheel missing

A few months ago, while I was sleeping soundly in my apartment above, some thieves had the gall to ransack my poor, dear, Honda Fit and remove its rear wheels. SIGH! They had attempted to get all the wheels but only managed to get two before someone spooked them off. Fast forward a bit after GEICO refused to pay for damages because of this stupid New York State law I wasn’t privy to, I’m now stuck with a semi-ugly car. I still love her though.

As things calm down a bit with what I want to do with my office and other apartment-related stuff- it’s probably about time I try and quantify what it is I need to get fixed on my baby.

  • 2 New chrome wheels to replace the temporary ones
  • Fix the molding that was broken by the thieves and their stupid jack
  • Fix the puncture hole I made from slowly rolling into a truck’s hitch
  • Paint touch ups
  • Try and fix the dent caused by the ceiling panel falling on my car. (grr)
  • Repair the rust spots and dings on back bumper from when I backed into the Taurus and the basketball hoop back from whenever I still lived at home (we had too many cars in the driveway that day!)
  • Get a back seat cover so Izzie’s flying fur stays under control
  • Get a seatbelt harness for Izzie so I don’t have to cram her kennel in the trunk and I can actually use the trunk for luggage

Okay, so the last two aren’t fixes but they are things I want to do to get my car back into peak condition! :-)

Last week Adam showed me a new site called DentBetty.com and it looks so promising! Unfortunately, it is so damn new that no one from my area in New York (or anywhere I’d be willing to go) has entered their body shop in the database yet so I can’t really compare quotes.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just work on getting the wheels fixed and pimping it out so Izzie can ride in style. ;-)

Can't you tell we're sisters?

Adventure Weekend

2 years ago
by Rachel in
Can't you tell we're sisters?

Can't you tell we're sisters?

My sister Jennifer graduated from college in the spring and recently moved to Philadelphia for her new job post-graduation. She lives about 2- 2.5 hours away from my place so we have been talking about how easy it should be for us to visit each other every few weekends. Since her apartment doesn’t allow dogs and she’s still trying to unpack, I suggested that she visit me first so I didn’t have to make special arrangements for Isabella.

I had plans to hang out with some of my Westchester Geeks Friday night and see District 9 (which was great by the way) and she timed it to coincide with us just getting out of the movie. Poor Jenn. The trip wasn’t long, but if you knew her you’d understand. I doubt if she’ll ever drive up again to visit because she now absolutely despises paying tolls and using the George Washington Bridge.

Traffic and car trips aside, Adam came along and over the weekend we decided to take a trip to the Bronx Zoo and get some beach time in. On Saturday we all managed to sleep in to a relaxing hour and then organized ourselves to get down to the Bronx Zoo which is only about a 20 minute ride away. Luckily, this weekend was in rare form and it was quite sunny and warm!

Tiger working through enrichment activities.

Tiger working through enrichment activities.

Last time I went to the Bronx Zoo was with Adam and it was either soon to be winter, winter, or just getting out of winter and there was very little to see except for the big Siberian Tiger which I had re-learned is a winter-loving animal and thus most active in the winter. Luckily for us he decided to come down that afternoon to do enrichment activities with the trainers at the sanctuary.

We also got a chance to see some swimming puffins and bee-catcher birds who could catch insects on the wing. They did a demonstration for us at the zoo but because they had been overfeeding the birds since little hatchlings needed every opportunity to be fed, the birds weren’t dive bombing as much today.

After a long walk the park was closing and I suggested to take Jenn to my favorite Korean BBQ restaurant in New York City for dinner. We managed to find “cheap” parking and had a nice dinner cooked in front of us on the burner (the first time Jenn had a chance to do it.)

On Saturday, Adam had to wake up early for his Rescue hours on Long Island so he stole my car and sped off. Jenn and I took our time and slept in until almost noon! We then got our stuff together and drove down to Long Island for some beach therapy. It was a nice afternoon/early evening and managed to nap some more while sun bathing. We finished the day with some pizza and I sent her back, begrudgingly, towards the GWB and on her way home.

1 Year Checkup

2 years ago
by Rachel in ,

I was hoping to make a post about Izzie and how much she has grown in the short time I’ve had her and come back from the vet with a clean bill of health, but unfortunately not!

I got Isabella from her breeder last June, so now Izzie and I have been best buds for more than a year now. She was due for her yearly checkup and rabies and parvo yearly vaccinations. I had told the vet that she has been bitten by a lot of ticks since we moved into our apartment and that I wanted the Lyme disease test done on her just in case.

The test he did checked for four tick borne diseases (ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.) After a few minutes (the test was to take at least 10) he already started to see in the test that it was coming up positive for anti-bodies responding to a A. phagocytophilum infection (part of the ehrlichiosis test.)

This bacteria causes lethargy and joint pain in the dog. Luckily, Izzie hasn’t shown any of those symptoms yet, but the vet said that if left untreated should could be put in a lot of pain over the years. Why do that to my best friend? The next step was either to watch and wait, do more blood work to see if it is indeed a large infection ($200-$300) or hit her with the antibiotics anyway ($30.) I think you already know which one I chose. I am not sure why my vet would even suggest more costly blood work when a simple, cheap, antibiotic will clear it right up. :-p

So, I throw in 1 1/2 pills into some peanut butter once a day for her and I’ll have to do it for a month. Hopefully, she’ll be A-OK. But now what am I supposed to do about the crazy amount of ticks around my apartment? I talked to some of the other dog owners in the apartment complex and they have all been complaining about the amount of ticks around. We all use a flea and tick treatment on our dogs but we still see them. One lady called up the manufacturer and complained and they responded that the treatment is 99.99% effective. If the dog is getting ticks it means that you have an INFESTATION of ticks in your complex. UGH.

I think I am going to have to formally complain to the management today and see that they spray around the entire complex and not just around your own apartment. Apparently they only spray bug killer if you request and only around your apartment not the whole complex. Too bad for us owners that walk our dogs all over the place! :-(

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