Luke says Moo!

So here I am. I filed my taxes this morning at 2am. I used e-file and paid TurboTax an extra fee to do so (I bought the software and then paid ~$30 for them to upload my information to the government…total rip-off if you ask me and I know you where asking me). Anyway, do you know why it was 2am on April 15?

Well, basically, technology hates me.

1. Back in February, my data hard drive failed. I took it to a friend last week and he got the data off of it (onto his computer so I still don’t have the data). We’re currently running diagnostics to see if the disc is really bad or not.
2. My wireless keyboard, around 2-2.5 years old, started having problems the other night. I replaced the batteries and it was OK on Friday. Then Sunday while doing my taxes it died. Wonderful. Luckily, I’m a geek and I’ve got a wired keyboard in the closet.
3. I shut down my desktop (which had been on for probably 2 weeks without shutting down) and unplug the wireless and plug in the wired keyboard. Upon powering the system up I get…NOTHING. I get a little panicky. So I power back off and check my connections. I let it sit to cool some. And try again…this time I get a BIOS error screen (after waiting for what seems like forever) telling me that “Over clocking failed.” WTF!?! I stare in disbelief.

   If you know me, you know that I’m far too lazy to over-clock my system at the BIOS level…if some piece of software does it while executing - whatever, but, no, it says I failed my over-clocking attempt. So I shut it down and yell (scream) a few choice obscenities. I’m sure my neighbors thought something bad was happening. Anyway, I try a few more times…and the system won’t even POST.

   I get nothing. The screen never even pretends to get a signal and, on top of that, the motherboard never beeps. Ugh. I take it apart and see that my hard drive still looks ok. So I go over to my Sunday gaming group thinking I could easily fix the problem on Monday.

4. Monday (yesterday). I go to Fry’s (nice place very helpful young guy in the hard drive section) and I get a SATA to USB adapter (it also comes with PATA 2.5 and 3.5 connections) to connect my hard drive to my laptop. I go home; take the gizmo out of the packaging and plug in my drive, boot the laptop, and plug in the USB. BAM! I’ve got a mass storage device via USB.

   Wow. It worked.

   I relax thinking all of my problems are solved. I surf over to the Documents and Settings folder to head to my desktop’s desktop. BAM! BAM! I’m denied access.

   Ugh.

5. I try surfing to it via Command and am again denied access. Well crap. I try to forcefully reset security settings on the drive and folder…no can do. So I yell a few more choice obscenities (my neighbors must think I have Tourettes by now) and pull my phone out.

   I call the Great and Mighty Bnax (Brother Bnax my Senior Steward to be exact) and explain my helpless situation. He, of course, laughs a little as he had just helped get my broken hard drive restored and data off of it. So he tries to walk me through getting access. Nada.

   He says alrighty, bring it over and let’s see what Vista does to it. Alright. I run over. He plugs it in and viola. After a few harrowing moments of Vista saying, “No. You don’t have access either.” He clicks some magic button and activates his super powers…suddenly giving him full access to my drive (he ignored the security provisions because he had “real” Administrator powers).

   He copies my tax info. over to my thumb-drive and away I go.

6. I get home and get the laptop setup to run TurboTax. That takes forever. Then I get started finishing my taxes, but performance is slower than molasses. I decide to defrag to get some more speed so I can do something…it takes forever and thus I send the Federal Government 4x what I had planned at 2am on Tax Day. What a fun little exercise in learning to do my taxes in February.
7. Oh, and my Blackberry doesn’t always like scrolling to the right. And occasionally the left. Stupid technology (that I can’t possibly go without).

But at least I get my procrastination skills honestly. M is taking her last couple of classes to get her bachelor’s degree and we talked last night (Monday) as we were talking about scheduling and when I’m going Home, etc. Anyway, we’re talking about when one of her papers and one of the tests are due (cumulative 25% of the total grade) she goes on about how she doesn’t have to worry about them until the end of the week as they’re not due until next week. Lo and behold, while getting some dates for me, she noticed that her paper and test are scheduled for Thursday (as in 3 days from then). She and I laughed for a little while…

Procrastination: Greatest Motivator and Loss of Sleep Agent ever discovered.