How Vista Broke My Bank Account

It's finally here. The story I've been teasing all five of you with for weeks, where the specter of Windows Vista rears its head one last time.

My first major purchase after boot camp, the day after I got to Charleston, was an HP Pavilion laptop computer, with a 400 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, and Windows Vista. It worked perfectly for about two months, and then the glitches started happening. Sometimes the thing wouldn't boot the first time I tried, Windows Defender quit working, Internet Explorer wouldn't allow any pop-up windows (which became a major problem when I needed to schedule advising appointments through campus e-mail), along with several other issues.

Brookwood Camps, where I worked last summer, doesn't allow laptops, among other things. Seeing this, I decided to leave the laptop at home, figuring that a couple of months without use might somehow fix the problems. Naturally, the first time I started it when I got home in August, the battery was drained and wouldn't charge. It took a couple of hours to get it back to normal, and I knew what I was going to use my paycheck for.

Windows 7. (What, you thought I was getting a Mac? Sorry, I like my megalomaniacs retired.)

Almost like the machine was reading my mind, the thing completely died the day before I would've got the new OS. Luckily for me (and my wallet) it had only overheated. Before anyone asks (wait, that would require somebody actually reading this, so I'm not holding my breath) it was in the same position in the same kind of desk that it had been in for the entire Spring 2010 semester. So, I had a load of things to get at Walmart, which totaled to just under 300 dollars.

A couple of weeks later, I ran out of food again, so I went shopping, only to find that my debit card, which had over 4500 dollars on it at the time, was rejected. After paying cash, I went to the bank to find out just what the hell happened here. Turns out, my account had been flagged for "uncharacteristic spending". Let's see, I had just deposited my summer paycheck, and they didn't think I was going to spend it? So yeah, I'm blaming Vista for being so broken, it breaks banks.

Hmm, maybe that's why Lehman Bros. went under...

And now, the Twitter update. Right now, I have 43 followers (9 or 10 real people). So, follow me on Twitter @buckybone (or don't, it's not like I'm getting paid for this) and see y'all next time.

Fallout

Well, the midterm elections are over, and the Republicans won! More importantly, it wasn't establishment GOP, but conservative Tea Party candidates who had the majority of the new GOP seats. I am now cautiously optimistic over the country's direction, and I'll update my bio do reflect that. I think we actually cracked the glass cocoon!

I was tweeting about this most of that night, and the only response (come on, with 30 followers, can't expect much) came from @CityPagesPat about my observation that Sean Duffy lost his own county. There is a very good reason for this. The District Attorney position, which Sean held there for several years, is a non-partisan position. However, politics there are dominated by unions and loggers. The unions' position is well-known and doesn't need to be repeated here. The loggers made record profits when Bill Clinton was in office, so they will vote for anyone that has a "D" next to their name.

I know I promised a recap, but a certain radio host did a much better job. Linked here.

Next time, How Vista Broke My Bank Account. It's really coming this time, I promise.

Follow me on Twitter @buckybone (or don't, I'm not getting paid for it), and see y'all later this week.

It's That Time Again...

Today, as you might have heard, is Election Day here in the US. I'm not too concerned about Wisconsin's results, as Sean Duffy (House, 7th district), Ron Johnson (Senate), and Scott Walker (Governor) are expected to win comfortably, throwing out the incumbent bums.

Now, I've heard people talk about an "anti-Democrat" sentiment sweeping through the country. They're wrong. It goes much deeper than that. This is an anti-incumbent mood, very similar to 1994. There have been reports of 50% turnout in some precincts by 9 am! This only happens when people are angry about the direction of the country, two guesses why. (It's the economy, stupid.)

I will wrap up the important election results tomorrow (or whenever they are finalized), and also will be covering it throughout the night on Twitter. The promised Vista rant will have to wait until next week.

Follow me on Twitter @buckybone (or don't, it's not like I'm getting paid for this) and see y'all next time.