I also rearranged a few things -- not in any important way, but they're still differently arranged. Instead of everything being all on one line on the archivey pages, there are now two boxes [one for Tags, one for Posted in/Comments], and the second one has the comment thing on a second line.

Now I just have to go through and add tags to six hundred different things. I'm hoping this plugin I have will help me with that. It lets me sort out all the untagged articles, and mass-edit them. Also, it suggests tags...but in a very occasional sort of way.

...most of that last paragraph was to see if I could get it to suggest a tag or two based on ones I already have. I'm not sure it worked.

On the holiday tracking front, UPS is being irritating with it's crazy definition of the IN TRANSIT TO scan option. The date keeps changing as it slowly makes its way toward the place it's supposed to be, well, in transit to...and I suppose it is. It's just 'in transit to' this place by way of a thousand different little scanning locations.

The last time I mentioned this, it apparently hadn't even left Harrisburg. They probably shouldn't do the in transit scans when it's all just sitting somewhere waiting to go out.

...but that would be smart, and UPS can't be smart. If something goes on a truck, then it's 'out for delivery' or something, even if the truck isn't able to leave the location....

The taggy part is working just fine -- better than fine, since I wasn't expecting this plugin to work quite so easily. But it is, so...that's good.

I've just got to figure out this whole alignment thing [there's no reason for it, as usual], and do it all while being bothered by a bunch of people for a bunch of completely pointless things.

...and apparently it's shopping time, which means I get to not work on this for a while.

Joy....

I am not the HelpDesk. The HelpDesk is not here. The HelpDesk never was here. I don't even have a fucking desk, okay? See? NO DESK HERE. My monitor is currently sitting on top of my tower, and my keyboard is on the floor. Sorta. It's more like...on this funny angle at the side of this big comfy chair, but it's partly on the floor. NO DESK. Ergo, no HELPDESK. The HelpDesk is on the other side of the planet somewhere, where they do not speak American anywhere near as fluently as I do.

I suppose that's why people keep coming to me. That, and I keep letting people get away with 'hey, thanks,' and 'I owe you.' The great, worthless and intangible gratitude.

Also, I keep trying. And for some people, I don't really mind helping. Some people, I point them in a certain direction and they get it. "If you want to make this stop, then go to [somewhere in some menu]." It's usually very vague, but people get it, they go there, they do it, and it's done.

I sometimes don't even mind some of the bigger things, like fixing Danny's computer, even though it was a bitch and tried to eat my fingers, and the copy of XP he gave me was an upgrade copy. These things happen; XP is annoying that way. And after that, with the broken monitor, it didn't take days to figure it out because communicating the problem and what might fix it were both very easy. "This monitor isn't working." "Weird. Is there another monitor?" "Yeah. Oh look, that one works." "I wonder what's wrong with the other one. Hey, try setting the resolution to 800x600." "It works now, but the colours are all funny, and [something else]." "Um, try degaussing? I don't know if that'll do anything, but it's too fun not to do." "There's no way to do that on this monitor." "That's no good."

There've been a few fun technical problems that I've helped my mom with, too, but...well, and here's the issue I don't have with her that I have with so many others: DETAILS.

When I ask my mom for something -- a model number, an error message, whatever -- she gives it to me. She gives me the details I need to at least try to figure things out. Funny how that works.

See, I'm only human. A pathetic, dirty little human female who can, miraculously, tell that the clearly marked and colour-coded cables coming from the cable box go into the matching clearly marked and colour coded holes on the TV. That's not amazing, though. It doesn't make me some sort of freaky Technology Whisperer. I do not have a special psychic link with all things electrical.

What does that mean? It means that I can't fix things without details. "It's broke, fix it." isn't anywhere near enough. What were you doing with it when it broke? Were you hitting it with a hammer? Dragging it behind your car? Trying to use it in the shower? Or was it something less stupid, like reformatting, or downloading lots and lots of picture.jpg.exe files? If it's not a hardware-type-issue-thing, then there are other things that need to be mentioned. What are you saying is broken? A link somewhere, or an image, or a whole page maybe? Well, that sucks. Why don't you show me? Show me the page where it's broken, or what you've typed to make the link/image/whatever happen.

I think everyone can see where I'm going with this.

If you can't, well, the HelpDesk is closed. Please call back during our office hours. Our office hours are --:-- to --:--.