gazerwolf

So, yesterday around 5pm Mikey told me his light flickered and died.

Cue me going up to put a new bulb in...it was only AFTER I tried a new bulb that I noticed that the hall light upstairs and the stair light were not working either. So I check to see if anything he had plugged in was getting power. Nope, so I go into the accessible part of the attic to see if by chance power comes up to his room by that area. Nope. So I go to the other side and pull open the exploratory hole I made shortly after we moved in. After a bit of crawling and looking I thought MAYBE I had spotted the incoming power line coming from under the floor of his room.

I found out I was mistaken, It didn't lead down after I got my head close enough to see it . But it was time for gaming. I made sure his light switch and the hallway switch was off and told him not to go up there since I was slightly afraid of a fire...no way to tell which breaker was his since power was already off and I don't have the equipment for tracing a breaker.

So I get up and go up there shortly after breakfast with Ben being my helper.

I knock holes in the ceiling to get up above his room. At first just big enough to stick my head through to see if I could SEE. Nope. So bigger...and get the ladder instead of standing on furniture. I climb up there and start tracing lines. I took several trips to identify things correctly because I had to dismount a few ceiling fans and light fixtures to see where the wires went.

Apparently the power comes up from one of the outlets in Ben's room and goes through the box his ceiling fan is mounted on. I didn't look further because according to my meter power was getting to that point. I unwrapped the electrical tape and power was back to Mike's area. So that was the problem. Some dumbass had just used electrical tape to join all the wires. There were some crimped connections but it was one of the taped ones fed power to the other half of the upstairs.

So quick trip to Home Depot. (Sorry Lowes, they are closer) to get Wire connectors, electrical tape, some materials to patch the holes I made, as well as a toilet flapper and a handle for the toilet that decided to break DURING gaming. (we did have this complicated mechanism that converted the toilet to flush less water if you pull the handle up instead of down, but the damned thing was a headache even before it broke completely, so standard flushing it is.)

So Wire connectors replace electrical tape. Tape over the crimps, and then spend a few hours remounting fans and fixtures. Then patching holes. The patches ain't pretty but they should keep the hot attic air out of the rooms.

Ben was a fantastic help, he got my tools, carried, cleaned up, took over on some screws when my arms gave out ( I always have had problems with holding my hands above my head for long periods,) recommended I take breaks, carried stuff at the store, steadied ladder, hammered nails a bit while patching, cut tape, and just generally did anything I asked.

But man I'm tired.

This already went on FB.

I love Sanctuary, really I do...but tonight's episode AGGGGAHAH!

( Spoilers )

I hate when the way things work gets changed!

For the websites which the ATA hosts there is a website hosting control panel...this lets you set up how much disk space a website has (among other settings like CGI access, how many email addresses they can have and things like that)

The one that gets me is the Disk quota management.

For years now (literally YEARS) if a site needed more disk space you could edit the Disk quota for just that site directly. Up until sometime this week.

Each website is set up with a "Package" which was basically the defaults for all settings.

I originally set up Freetarot and Freereading with 300 megs of disk space...thought it would be plenty...and for Freereading it was.

Freetarot on the other hand at it's peak needed 495 meg of disk space...I had gradualy upped it's space using the quota edit feature over the years.....last week that individually edited quota was 500 meg.

This week it dropped back to the default...300. Which meant that freetarot was using 495 out of 300.

Critical files dropped to 0 bytes the second the were modified because there wasn't any disk space. (How do I know they were critical?  I wrote the software for one thing and for another thing the site quit working a needed)

I had backups of the most critical file but it of course did not have the most recent changes...(if it had it would have been 0 bytes as well)

So I reset the quota to what I want and then restore from backup and go on my merry way.

Only to find out that sometime today the quota reset to the default again and I lost two critical files AGAIN.

I have now changed the defaults for that package...way more than Freereading needs but best I can do.

Had one of THOSE projects Sunday.

( Long tale of plumbing and carpentry here..zzz )

Couldn't sleep and I'm bored, so I figured I'd post some of the things I've been doing lately.
( Construction Time (long) )

If you don't already know about the new flagging system then go here:

http://community.livejournal.com/lj_biz/

One thing to note is that the new system has YOUR settings set to filter based on this flag system.

If you don't have a birthdate listed in your profile it treats you as a child and won't let you change the filter settings.

Note that your Friends Page is considered a search by the system and thus is filtered.  If a friends entry is flagged as adult YOU WILL NOT SEE IT unless you change your filter settings.

Here is where to set them:
http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/

Well frak.

I was fixing the bathtub drain today. (it needed a new stopper system)

I had to cut part out to remove it. I was careful not to damage the pipe or the threads that I needed to thread the new drain into. (I had already bought the new drain and stopper already.)

Thats when I found out that the prior drain had apparently been glued into the threads...making them useless anyway....

So I go underneath the tub to find out what I can do and find that the drain flange and pipe are connected to the pipes by a simple compression fitting...so I take it off.

I head to the hardware store looking for a flange (and a pipe because I can't get the old flange off the old pipe.)

I ask the lady working where I can find it and she tells me that they don't carry just the flange...they carry drain kits though..(flange, pipe, vent pipe, connectors, stopper, vent cover, and washers and such)

I buy the cheapest they have and head home (getting a new universal handle too.)

I connect the new flange and head up stairs to put the new drain in. I get it in (plumbers putty, washer...whole nine yards) tighten it up and turn on water to test...go down stairs to look and find water splashing all over the boys satellite receiver and old TV.

I get things unplugged and dry things off and go back upstairs to see what I did wrong.

Eventually I get it to seal properly and I have to go get the boys at the bus stop...I get back and I take Tracy's blow dryer and try to dry them out before I turn plug them back in.

I plug them in and the power light comes on but it won't turn off or reset (the sat receiver that is)...the tv isn't getting a signal from the receiver..then the power light went out.

So I've lost a receiver.

I took the one I had loaned my mother and hooked it up...the old TV seems a bit worse for it too...it's going in and out....so I may have lost a TV as well.

I'm gonna call dish network and see what I can do to get a replacement unit later on...I'm gonna give it a few days...I'm hopeing that it just needs to dry out more but I doubt it.

I use the firefox Browser...

I decided toward the end of the week that I should upgrade to the newest version...

I should have checked the support forums.

It  gave me a message that I didn't expect...something to the effect that it was disabling extensions that  I had installed in the version I WAS using.

I figure..ok...I can reenable them one at a time...see if the work now and go get updated versions if they don't...

NOOOO...by disable they mean NOT INSTALL them at all.

I figure..ok...I can just go install versions that have been updated for the new version of firefox.

NOOOO.

I go to install them and it  acts like it has installed them correctly...they even briefly show up in the new extension manager...but the dissappear within a portion of a second.

Ok...off to the support forums..

Lots of people saying they have simular problems...some with  slightly worse effects....

These are accompanied with messages from OTHER people who are saying., "I have no problems, you must be an idiot."

No real help there... I did  find a mention somewhere twith instructions that you should uninstall the old version first....

well it would have been nice if that was mentioned in the install package for the new version instead of burried in a support forum...who goes to the support forum BEFORE they have problems?

ANYWAY...I reinstalled the older version....I'll  try  uninstalling this version before installing the new on in a few days...when my frustration levels have dropped back to normal.

I have been working on cataloging my books.

Found some nice software to make it easier.

I was eight books away from completion when I deleted something I shouldn't have (Author's name..(I thought I was deleting OTHER credits))

I figure ..no problem The program automatically backs up my file.

Well yeah.. EVERY TIME you  make a change it writes the file twice...

Oh well...at least all I have to do is put the right author with the right title...at least all the Author names are still there.

And the version I exported to my palm  is still intact..(different format different program) It doesn't have the 100 or so books I did today...but I can use it while I reconstruct the Authors, and then go back to the actual books to finish up...looks like a few more days work.