Well, we made it through another week. In this week’s Plus column, I hit and then surpassed my Work Writing target numbers for the week. And still managed to spend the hours I planned for career development – writing pitches, scouring job sites for freelance writing positions, writing cover letters. All that drudgery you never think about when you’re a teenager dreaming about “how awesome it would be to write for a living.”
In the Minus column, my car needs a new clutch, the car insurance is due on an inconvenient date, the rent situation is a horror, and suddenly I have to seriously coddle the laptop I use to watch Hulu, or else it drops my frame rate down to about one frame per second. Last night I swear to you it was like I was watching Josh Gates hunt Sasquatch by strobe light.
Aw forget it. Let’s look at flowers. Can you believe there are still flowers on the hollyhocks in the middle of November?
Oh, and one of the cats vomited on my clock radio such that it still shows the time, but none of the buttons works. I’m thinking of hiring them out to Jack Bauer’s bomb squad.
I daydream about holding a Jerry’s Kids style telethon, except that instead of Jerry’s Kids, it’s Erika’s Car. The car itself would be depicted in cartoon fashion, with a sad but apologetic smile. And maybe a big cartoon bandage wrapped around it, like they did for toothaches in the olden days.
All proceeds will go to replacing the clutch cable. Additional donations will be set aside for The Next Damn Thing That Breaks, Probably The Fuel Pump Because It Makes A Funny Sound If You Turn Left When The Gas Tank Is Less Than Half Full So I Just Always Keep It Full.
In other news, I really do not recommend that you let your fingers get within Harriet’s reach. She’s got the Crazy Peck You In The Face eyes going on there.
Darling, add a paypal button – couldnt hurt, yeah?
What a great chicken portrait! They do indeed look intimidating.
I should not be laughing at your predicaments. I should not be.
….but I can’t help it!
Good luck with the car, et al….. you know that we’re thinking of you!
Well, ya know, we all have our share of predicaments, amirite?!
Ah yes, another Saab story. I just got my Subaru fixed for–get this–under $200. I KNOW. I never thought that was possible, ever.
Anyways, if your laptop is dropping the frame rate, check the CPU usage. A lot of laptops overheat when they’re playing videos, and start to overclock, so your CPU will read 100% even though you only have that one window open. You need to keep it cool. Prop it up on some blocks and blow a fan under it, and you should see some improvement. I would put my old laptop on a milkcrate for watching hulu.
It’s actually a weirder problem than that! CPU usage is only 10-15%. But video starts skipping if you pause it during play, and leave it paused for more than about 2 minutes.
I finally discovered that the fix – even if you have a full buffer – is to go back a couple minutes and start playing from there. This makes no fucking sense whatsoever, but it does work.
I never put laptops right on the table. This one is kept propped up with a phone book, so that air circulates around the vents and the hottest part.
Sometimes I want to puke on the alarm clock, too.
Maybe you should sell some of those eggs! Who could eat that many alone?
You should start charging for Sims Sunday updates
I’d pay for that! LOL 
Envying those flowers. Everything up here is well and truly dead…
Chickens really do pull off that Demented Killer Look, don’t they?
oh my god, the chicken portrait is great. they look murderous but very cute.