So today my router arrived, along with the two USB wireless adapters I ordered.
Did I mention that the router was a refurb? I’ve had decent luck with refurbished items in the past, so, since the price was right, I figured “Why not?”
“Why not,” it turns out, is because the router wasn’t able to actually establish a solid connection with my cable modem.
So clearly the refurbishing didn’t leave it quite as furbished as it needed to be, and I was still lacking a router.
But I had the “network bug,” and since I was eager to see how well the USB wireless adapters would work, I decided to head to Wal-Mart and pick up a Linksys router.
I also picked up a USB 2.0 PCI card to put into the old computer, as I didn’t really have an available USB port for the wireless adapter.
After using up the remaining balances on my gift cards, my purchases ended up costing about $7 more than what I’d paid for the refurbished router (which I will be returning for a refund).
I initially had some trouble setting up the Linksys router as well, since the setup wizard refused to acknowledge the fact that I was connected to the Internet (even as I was surfing www.linksys.com), and kept punking out on me.
So eventually I called tech support and some nice Indian person talked me through the manual configuration of the router.
Once that was done I found that the USB adapter worked much better than the other router had, which is to say that it worked at all, and I was soon surfing the Web – wirelessly!
Next I cracked open the old computer and installed the USB 2.0 card without incident. I then hooked up the wireless adapter and was soon surfing the Web – wirelessly!
I ran into some stumbling blocks in getting the computers to make use of the wireless connection to actually communicate with each other, but that was mostly due to retardation on my part. Fortunately said retardation wasn't permanent, so I now officially have a wireless home network. It’s not secure as yet, though. I think I have the basic idea of what I need to do to make it secure, but I want to talk to some people about it first, so in the meantime anyone who’s within range of my network could piggyback on my connection.
There’s actually another network that's unsecure (And yes, that is the right word, not "insecure." In this case it means that anyone with wireless access can connect to the network, not that it has self-esteem issues or suffers from any kind of neuroses. So, in my case, I'm an insecure person who has an unsecure wireless network) somewhere nearby that I can connect to, though the signal strength is pretty low.
With the purchase of the router (the one I bought today), I finally came to the end of my recent spending spree.
That’s good, as I just remembered today that there’s a check I wrote that hasn’t cleared yet.
I would have had a ways to go before I would have been in trouble if the check cleared, but even so, it makes it clear that I need to rein in the spending.
The check that hasn’t cleared is actually for a “community education” cooking class that I’ll be taking (starting next week) along with Kathleen.
I’m hoping to add to the culinary skillset that I’ve developed on my own, and Kathleen is hoping to pick up some knowledge that will allow her to make edible meals, and thereby eliminate the need for her and Brian to eat out so often.
Oh yeah, and I’m also hoping to pick up some chicks, though note that I’m not turning blue from holding my breath on that score.
Kathleen and I had actually talked about trying to find some kind of cooking class a while back, but we were able to find any, which just baffled me.
I mean, with the extremely high incomes in this area, there are a lot of bored, rich housewives who would seem to be the perfect recruiting pool for such classes.
What made it even more puzzling was the stunning array of esoteric classes that were available. That old chestnut of off-the-wall classes, Underwater Basketweaving, isn’t half as bizarre as some of the courses I saw offered (most of which escape me now).
In any case, Kathleen did finally find one being offered in the area, so we signed up for it.
So next Tuesday evening Kathleen and I will be students of the culinary arts.
On a totally unrelated note, there are times when, holed up in my apartment, I forget just how close I am to the seat of power of not only this country, but arguably the world, and periodically I’ll get some reminder.
Like when we had stopped to eat when we left IKEA and Brian spotted “Marine One” (The President’s helicopter) flying overhead, or when we saw Secret Service agents pulling over trucks carrying any sort of containers on the Beltway.
Hell, just being on “The Beltway” at all is sort of an odd experience in and of itself.
For a small town boy such as myself it’s just strange to think that Washington D.C. is as nearby as the booming metropolis of Houghton was when I was growing up back in Twin Lakes (aka BFE). It’s kind of surreal.
Speaking of surreal and D.C., earlier today some fucktard parked a van by the gates of the White House and reported that he had fifteen gallons of gasoline that he was prepared to ignite. It wasn’t a terrorist act per se, but rather a form of protest, apparently. Evidently his daughter’s fiancé had been deported.
And here’s the thing; chances are that those of you who don’t live in this area already knew about this, since it would make the national news. There’s an e-mail I once saw that was a litany of humorous observations about life in Northern Virginia titled “You know you live in Northern Virginia when…” and one of them was “Your local news is the national news,” or something to that effect.
Hmm, looking at the details, it seems that the man was actually a fellow Michiganian (Or is it still Michigander [which is incredibly lame] at this point?).
I’ve never heard of the town he’s from, though.
Still, I wonder if he was a small-town boy like me who never imagined that he’d be in the center of it all at some point?
If so, the similarities end there, as I just can’t help but think that, even though it’s considerably less exciting, my quiet, subdued, and reclusive life here is a better approach to the whirling craziness at the political center of the world than threatening to blow shit up outside the President’s house...
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