The Preciousss Portkey
13/01/2006 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaOh lucky day. Well. It was supposed to be lucky but we guess that this serpent got out on the wrong side of bed this morning. Felt kind of groggy and thick headed which is hardly surprising when we did not go to bed until after 1am or so.
Finally got our phone reconnected on Monday and today was to be the big day for the first Izzie post from the Lair. But of course, the Izzie wasn't going to be taking any chances so we decided to have a test run last night.
Seen the small print in the evil blue and orange Telstra leaflet that the prepaid home phone service may not be compatible with 0198 ISP numbers. No worries thinks Izzie. Dodo is definitely a 23.... something or other.
Surprise surprise. Goes to perform the Portkey ritual and what does we find but an 0198 number. Bugger. Guess it was just too good to be true. But we soon put a stop to the pity party train of thought and it just never got out of the station. It does not say they are absolutely not compatible only that they might be so the Iz will simply ring the ISP and ask if there is an alternative number we can use. They says that there is no need and should be no problem as many of their dial up customers use the prepaid home phone service.
First try – no luck. Tells us we had not entered a valid phone number – had forgotten to put in the # at the end of the enormous string of numbers. Second time – no dial tone or some other thing. It was then the Iz remembered about tweaking the modem not to wait for the dial tone or some other esoteric procedure. So third time was most lucky indeed. A most strange strange sensation to be slinking about Cyberia in the comfort of our own Lair. Oh what joy. Pottered about online for 40 minutes or so before slinking outside with a drink to celebrate.
So, today, was visiting our usual lurking grounds and would have left the Preciousss at home but for the fact that we would be meeting the Potions Mistress and setting up her stuff. And for that we needed the Preciousss which has the 90 day test drive of MYOB accounting software. Also wanted to snatch the “Spirit of Things” podcast from Sunday just gone which featured some truly amazing choirs. Bloodcurdling and spine tingling stuff.
All the buses seemed to be on a go slow and there was lots more traffic than usual so the Iz arrived rather later than we expected in spite of leaving the Lair the same time every week
Original plan was to arrive around 12 and stay till 1.30 at the latest before pottering off to Angel's Cafe for our podcasts and cheese waffles followed by Half Price Happy Hour at the Juicy Beetroot Cafe at 3pm.
But Liz the Potions Mistress was out for lunch when we arrived at 12.30 so the Iz went to the cafe next door and read the papers before returning just after 1pm. Was there till just before 3pm. Turns out that she did not have all the invoices and stuff in shoe boxes like we had hoped. (Oh by the way – the stuff she sells is the most wickedly wonderful handmade soaps – nearly all designed to look and smell like cakes,chocolates, fruits and sweets. The shop would certainly not look out of place in Diagon Alley.)
Went through the set up procedure and it wants those numbers or nothing is going to happen. Some – like petty cash – you can make up but others such as rent and insurance and bank loans, you need cold hard figures.
She thought the Preciousss was very pretty and her friend helping her is a Mad Mac fan (It's a conspiracy) but Izzie was not impressed with the behaviour of the Preciousss. In spite of the gloomy overcast weather, Preciousss still insisted on tossing beachballs around. Not in the mood for work at all – the little bugger. Poor critter must have been exhausted from last night's adventures.
Even trying to switch on the wireless or trying to switch from Izzie to Dolores provoked a hissy fit of bouncing beachballs. Oh we know the poor thing is probably starving with its measly 256mb of memory but this was getting truly ridiculous.
(and being such a cloudy grey day, would be missing out on our moonwatching adventures. Will be working 3-10pm on Saturday so it will be well and truly risen by the tiem the Izzie gets to peek)
So, tonight was slash and burn. Dumped Open Office into the trash. Not sure if we will bother downloading the latest version or just stick to NeoOffice. (which is disgustingly sluggish) Sent the fiery frumpy Fox off to bed too. Ever since getting version 1.5, has been acting most strangely indeed. Wonders if having five windows of one browser open – one with a flash game, another with the JKR writing desk and another with 8 tabs – wonders if that may have anything to do with today's hissy fits?
Now that the Preciousss no longer has to wait days between adventures online, maybe the Iz can get in the habit of logging out more often and closing stuff down instead of leaving the Preciousss on Snooze.
Finally got our phone reconnected on Monday and today was to be the big day for the first Izzie post from the Lair. But of course, the Izzie wasn't going to be taking any chances so we decided to have a test run last night.
Seen the small print in the evil blue and orange Telstra leaflet that the prepaid home phone service may not be compatible with 0198 ISP numbers. No worries thinks Izzie. Dodo is definitely a 23.... something or other.
Surprise surprise. Goes to perform the Portkey ritual and what does we find but an 0198 number. Bugger. Guess it was just too good to be true. But we soon put a stop to the pity party train of thought and it just never got out of the station. It does not say they are absolutely not compatible only that they might be so the Iz will simply ring the ISP and ask if there is an alternative number we can use. They says that there is no need and should be no problem as many of their dial up customers use the prepaid home phone service.
First try – no luck. Tells us we had not entered a valid phone number – had forgotten to put in the # at the end of the enormous string of numbers. Second time – no dial tone or some other thing. It was then the Iz remembered about tweaking the modem not to wait for the dial tone or some other esoteric procedure. So third time was most lucky indeed. A most strange strange sensation to be slinking about Cyberia in the comfort of our own Lair. Oh what joy. Pottered about online for 40 minutes or so before slinking outside with a drink to celebrate.
So, today, was visiting our usual lurking grounds and would have left the Preciousss at home but for the fact that we would be meeting the Potions Mistress and setting up her stuff. And for that we needed the Preciousss which has the 90 day test drive of MYOB accounting software. Also wanted to snatch the “Spirit of Things” podcast from Sunday just gone which featured some truly amazing choirs. Bloodcurdling and spine tingling stuff.
All the buses seemed to be on a go slow and there was lots more traffic than usual so the Iz arrived rather later than we expected in spite of leaving the Lair the same time every week
Original plan was to arrive around 12 and stay till 1.30 at the latest before pottering off to Angel's Cafe for our podcasts and cheese waffles followed by Half Price Happy Hour at the Juicy Beetroot Cafe at 3pm.
But Liz the Potions Mistress was out for lunch when we arrived at 12.30 so the Iz went to the cafe next door and read the papers before returning just after 1pm. Was there till just before 3pm. Turns out that she did not have all the invoices and stuff in shoe boxes like we had hoped. (Oh by the way – the stuff she sells is the most wickedly wonderful handmade soaps – nearly all designed to look and smell like cakes,chocolates, fruits and sweets. The shop would certainly not look out of place in Diagon Alley.)
Went through the set up procedure and it wants those numbers or nothing is going to happen. Some – like petty cash – you can make up but others such as rent and insurance and bank loans, you need cold hard figures.
She thought the Preciousss was very pretty and her friend helping her is a Mad Mac fan (It's a conspiracy) but Izzie was not impressed with the behaviour of the Preciousss. In spite of the gloomy overcast weather, Preciousss still insisted on tossing beachballs around. Not in the mood for work at all – the little bugger. Poor critter must have been exhausted from last night's adventures.
Even trying to switch on the wireless or trying to switch from Izzie to Dolores provoked a hissy fit of bouncing beachballs. Oh we know the poor thing is probably starving with its measly 256mb of memory but this was getting truly ridiculous.
(and being such a cloudy grey day, would be missing out on our moonwatching adventures. Will be working 3-10pm on Saturday so it will be well and truly risen by the tiem the Izzie gets to peek)
So, tonight was slash and burn. Dumped Open Office into the trash. Not sure if we will bother downloading the latest version or just stick to NeoOffice. (which is disgustingly sluggish) Sent the fiery frumpy Fox off to bed too. Ever since getting version 1.5, has been acting most strangely indeed. Wonders if having five windows of one browser open – one with a flash game, another with the JKR writing desk and another with 8 tabs – wonders if that may have anything to do with today's hissy fits?
Now that the Preciousss no longer has to wait days between adventures online, maybe the Iz can get in the habit of logging out more often and closing stuff down instead of leaving the Preciousss on Snooze.
