Lots of times this week I’ve wanted to write about things in my LJ, but never did. I’ll see if I can remember them all now.

• Windows XP on a Windows NT4 network with Clean Slate running has proven to be a real PAIN IN THE ASS. I’ve been working my butt off at work getting student accounts out to them, and finally on Friday, most kids had their accounts. The business lab was returned to Windows XP (we’d put Win98 on it last year because I wasn’t ready for the transition. We’re only going to XP because the newest machines cannot run Win98 at all. Blech) this summer. And when the students logged on Friday? Microsoft Word didn’t work (wasn’t “installed”), they couldn’t get out to the Internet, their Quick Launch bar didn’t display, and load of other issues popped up. I had removed all of these problems with my test account before I set up the student accounts. So of course, they didn’t work as planned. When I thought I finally had the fix, it worked with one student but not another. I left on Friday angry with Windows XP (and Clean Slate, but for another XP-related issue that still isn’t resolved). So today I popped into the school to try again. I discovered that Clean Slate had prevented Windows from clearing out the local profiles (copied from their network profiles) and that second student had originally logged on with the bad profile. Once I deleted the profiles, they worked! So I pointed all of the students to that profile folder and tested another random student. It worked – yay!
• Clean Slate is a program by Fortres Grand Corporation that erases any changes made to a computer when someone logs off or restarts. It’s been a godsend for preventing spyware & adware and viruses from filling up our PCs. I don’t have to reinstall Winders part-way through the school year anymore. However, it still has issues. We’ve cleared up most of the Win98 issues (except for the Daylight Savings Time bug – so I’m now telling Win98 machines to not change at DST – they get their time from our server anyhoo). But now with version 4, we’re experiencing all the bugs with WinXP. The main problem? When students log off, it locks up. Sits at the “saving settings” portion. Why it’s even hanging up then, I’ve no idea. I’ve already told XP to NOT save settings back to the remote profile folder. I’ve got the developers working on the problem – we’ve still got some testing to do. Until then, students will have to hold the power button in 10 seconds until it turns off. Thanks Clean Slate.
• The kitties are growing. They’re so damn cute! I don’t have any recent photos of them, however. But now when I sit to watch Lovejoy (currently in season 3), Linus climbs onto my chest or shoulders and Lucy sits at my feet. They love to play with each other and with me (sometimes when I’m trying to play City of Heroes/Villains – often to judiang‘s dismay. They’re last check up had them both still healthy (fewer ear mites) and growing nicely. Linus was 2.2lb and Lucy was 2.3lb. Considering Linus always tries to prevent Lucy from eating, it’s good to see she’s holding her own and then some. 🙂
• It looks like it’s going to be a good year with my students. I’ve been having fun so far (and I hope they have too). I hope I don’t keep channeling Monty Python while I’m teaching physics, however. Thankfully a few of them knew what I was alluding to. I hope I can get a handle on the tech job so that I can work on improving my science curriculum. I wanna do some new stuff and want to find out where I can speed up some topics (or maybe even cut some) in order to cover more material.
• With regards to the tech job in general… Each year, I get a little more behind. There just isn’t enough time for me to do the job in 3 periods a day and 200 hours in the summer. And as such, I’ve been getting more behind each year. This year is the year I’ve hit the wall. I’m just so frustrated with being behind and getting behinder. I love doing the tech work, but the frustration is disguising that fact from me far too often lately.
• Yesterday I helped mom’s cousin with her laptop and printer. Using some floppies and a USB floppy drive (from school – heh) I was able to transfer her fonts from her old machine (Win95) to her new laptop (no floppy drive). She has a brother printer, which I’ve never worked with before. After finding the Quick Setup Guide (on the disc, not on paper) I was finally able to get it working with her laptop. I didn’t get to stay there as long as I needed to (she had some more questions that I need to help her with), but I needed to get home. After all, the folks and I had two weddings to go to.
• The first wedding was a cousin on my mom’s side. His second attempt. She’s Catholic, so the wedding was held at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Chapel at Lehman Catholic High School. Definitely the first time I’ve been to a wedding in a high school. It was a very pretty chapel and the service was only 25 minutes long, which was greatly appreciated. I hope Gregg and his wife have many happy years together. L’chaim!
• After the wedding, we tried to find the reception at the Sidney Airport (no, that’s not a typo – Sidney in Ohio), but couldn’t find the road the airport was on. Well, I couldn’t find it on the map. Would have been interesting going to a wedding reception in an airplane hangar, I must admit. A short trip to Kohl’s so I could get a wedding gift for the next wedding (the one I was actually invited to), and then the folks and I had supper at Applebee’s. Very tasty meal. And I had an amaretto sour.
• The next wedding was a cousin on my dad’s side. His second attempt too. This wedding took place at her sister’s house in the spacious backyard. Dad was disappointed no one fell in the pool the whole time we were there (he’s such an optimist). The ceremony was shorter here, but I was actually able to hear it (Gregg’s was harder to hear). We stayed for the reception there and had some yummy food (Greek pastries with cheese, meatballs, chicken salad, Pepsi). Then we hung around for the cake, but they kept putting it off to have people dance. Well, watching the hokey pokey and some of the Greek dancing (she’s from a Greek family, aparently) was entertaining, but I wanted cake! The cake was yummy and full of wonderful sugar. With the 2 cans of Pepsi that sugar kept me awake until after 3am. Heh. I hope Mick and his wife have many happy years together. Nozdrovye!

Well, that’s the stuff that I can remember that I wanted to say. Hopefully I’ll not store stuff up for the next time. 🙂