Stuck Arrows

My computer started flipping out a few hours ago. It was acting like the right arrow key was stuck down. I figured it was the keyboard. I was certain it had to be that. I turned the keyboard off and it didn't fix it. I changed the batteries it didn't fix it. I restarted the computer and it didn't fix it. I even swapped out to my old keyboard with the funky spacebar and it still wasn't fixed.

I was fairly convinced that it wasn't hardware at that point. The problem I had at that point was that the right arrow being stuck down made doing anything with drivers nearly impossible. I also had become fairly certain that it was malware. It wasn't acting strange if the cursor was in a search toolbar.

I thought it was a bit of an oddity for malware. It was annoying, but that type of problem doesn't exactly fit the mold. If was a key tracker or something it wouldn't make it's presence known. If was a hijacker it would be blatant and asking for money with every click.

I rebooted into safe mode and found that the problem hadn't gone away, but was (of course) much slower in safe mode, so I could deal with it. I ran a scan and removed the pieces of malware there were and rebooted normally. It seemed to fix the problem, but before long the problem had returned.

I couldn't figure it out. It was something stupid that was making my computer useless. As a last ditch effort, I unplugged the receiver for the mouse. I couldn't believe it could be the mouse, but it was. I probably should've thought of that soon, because that receiver was also a keyboard receiver for the keyboard I used two keyboards ago.

I probably should get a wired mouse. There is no real reason for the wireless mouse. It uses batteries like mad (I have rechargeable ones so it isn't too bad). The wireless keyboard is useful, because I can use it from my bed and that makes the lazy in me very happy. It is easier on batteries than a remote.

MLS First Kick is only two weeks away.

Also, I think it's time for a Hunger Games reread.

Exciting times in my life.

-Michael

Apostrophe Day

It's Presidents' Day. Or maybe Presidents Day. Or maybe even President's Day. There is no consensus on which is proper. The major problem is that this holiday's common name is not it's official name. The Federal Holiday is "Washington's Birthday":




Let's break this down

Presidents' Day: A day of all the Presidents

President's Day: A day of each individual President

Presidents Day: A day about Presidents

My calendar went with "Presidents' Day." I'm sort of partial to President's Day. I don't really want to celebrate all the Presidents. There have been a lot of shitty or forgettable Presidents. I'm glad to celebrate the Presidencies of Washington or Jefferson or Lincoln or FDR. However, Buchanan's or Harding's Presidency I don't want to celebrate. Those guys don't deserve a holiday.

I'm actually more partial to calling it "Washington's Birthday." He is worthy of a holiday even if it doesn't actually fall on his birthday. You don't really get more significant in American History than George Washington. His role was never of being the architect, like Jefferson, but he was the biggest/best player we had in early American History. He commanded the army that fought for and gained independence and oversaw the creation of our 2nd (and ultimately successful) attempt at governing ourselves.

I'm not big on moral relativism*. I believe that some things are just wrong regardless of culture or time. So, whenever anyone looks at almost any of the Founders including Washington there is this terrible cloud of slavery. They were smart guys who knew that owning black people was the exact opposite of all the liberty stuff they were preaching.

I'm not sure if a straight up or down vote on banning slavery would've had majority support at the Constitutional convention. Probably not, but it would probably have been close. However, the Union was not strong enough to survive that. I don't think the most of the founders were gleeful about keeping slavery around. The former colonies couldn't afford to fragment at that point. If they had, it would've been too easy for the British to take back each smaller country.

So, they punted and put some terrible things into the Constitution. Seventy years later the states fight a bloody and terrible war to settle the issue for good. It's a terrible mark on American history, but I think of the terrible marks that we have it's the most permissible.

Thanks for reading an please comment

-Michael
*but here I go anyway.

P.S. Would you want more posts about history? My own life is so terribly, terribly boring and I need stuff to write about.

Avoiding Triggers and Stuff

Since last time, I've been making an effort to avoid things that trigger my depression. That mostly means avoiding things that make me anxious, because anxiety and depression are like best buds in my mind right now. It isn't particularly easy to do when my biggest anxiety trigger won't leave me alone. My only coping mechanism for him right now is refusing to give a fuck.

As for the other things, I'm not really going to get into the specifics. I just know that they're working pretty well. I haven't felt too terrible about myself or life or anything for nearly the entirety of this week. That wasn't the case last week and it's a bit early for the antidepressants to be having an effect.

I can't afford proper therapy. I'm positive that it would be very useful, because I hardly to anyone besides myself. However, I have started to writing down when I'm feeling particularly bad. Not anything down. It's just an acknowledgement of the feelings. It's good for me. It's doing something with them other than feeling bad. It isn't really doing anything to get at the root causes, but that' why I'm doing the other stuff.

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I started watching Friends again. I've seen every episode of that show multiple times, but I had stopped watching the reruns several years ago. Mostly due to a new lack of other options, I started watching it again.

I'm enjoying it. I'm also finding it somewhat weird. It's strange watching a sitcom where the internet and cell phones are uncommon and not so important to socializing. I can remember when there were new episodes on TV, but I feel like I can't really remember a time where the best way to communicate wasn't the internet. I certainly don't think those are bad things, it's just seems like a time before all this was so long ago.

And there's nothing more exciting to tell about.

-Michael