Bereavement

I finally began the latest round of counseling for my current problem, not my Aspergers, and apparently what I currently am suffering from isn't quite depression but bereavement. The man who saw me today says it's an emotional response to the loss of a loved one, and the more pain you feel means the move you loved the person you lost. But this feels like depression to me anyway. I imagine you can have Asperger's and still suffer from depression or bereavement.

At least there's a word for what I've had a problem with so far. I hope in the course of counseling I can get help for a bunch of the other things I'm having problems with. The man I spoke to said it will help to just be able to talk about things.

A Perpetual annoyance

found on alt.support.autism

"Autistics do not have the right body language, which to the ignorant makes us all appear suspicious or weird or strange or "off" etc."

I have this problem in spades. Completely, no doubt.

When Windows Movie Maker won't save for some reason

I've been trying to figure out this one lame problem on a laptop I've been working on.

The problem began with a Flip video MP4 clip shot in HD resolution. You can't import MP4 clips into Windows Movie Maker and edit. You need to convert first.

Problem is this file is 3.9G and runs 51 minutes. I didn't know the Flip device did that. Anywho, I find Mediacoder and it makes an AVI that Windows Movie Maker was able to import and play. The problem I ran into was trying to save it as a WMV file. I even tried plain vanilla MPGs of just a few seconds, and his install of Windows Movie Maker refused to save it. Memory was not an issue, disk space was not an issue either.

What I discovered was saving it as a Digital Video file - as an AVI. It's not compressed as an WMV that Windows Movie Maker can create, but at least it can save shorter clips from the 51 minute video file that converted into an AVI the first time is about 700MB, not the huge almost 4G file it was!

At least these shorter clips could be uploaded to Youtube and shared. I'll have to see what Youtube's limit is per clip space wise. I know it likes clips under 10 minutes long, I just don't recall at the moment what the file size limit is.

Speaks For Itself

This lady

Doesn't like wagons.

Mom's CD burner problem maybe figured out

Well, I finally decided to try reinstalling mom's CD burner, an OEM model Samsung SW252s, Rev. 901. There was a firmware flash utility on Dell's support site to make it Rev. 902 - the reason? It was supposed to correct drive detection which as Rev.901 it had problems (and I can't tell you how much of a problem it was!!!) and eventually ended up non-functional. Even though Samsung had a rev.953 for the drive, I decided to stick with Dell's updates and flashed the drive. Restart the computer, the desktop comes back up, but I'm having problems getting the Device Manager to come up so I can check that yes, it's now Rev.902. Eventually, I get it and see that. But now the system is sluggish. My Computer takes forever (actually not at all) to detect what drives are attached to the system.

The CD burner is giving me problems again. AH! But this time, I think I know what's the problem!! So anywho, I reboot and it's doing what it did back in January, so I disconnect the burner and make the Mitsumi CDROM drive the Master again. System comes right up, Device Manager has no problems, My Computer loads up fast.

The Samsung burner has a problem where IDE detection messes up the entire computer. I can't use that drive ever again. I knew some day I would figure out the problem.

So right now I'm looking for another decent CD burner, a model that recognizes doing an 80 minute CD burn. The CD burner in my other P4 tower won't do anything over 70 minutes. I want to find an IDE power extender to get those running.

Actually, I'm also wondering if the motherboard in Mom's Dell Dimension 2400 is having problems with more than one device on the same IDE channel? Or if given enough time, the Samsung burner Rev.901 would have also done the problem with booting up anyway, since the system came right up after putting it back in and before I flashed it.

I guess I confirmed my theory or whatever - there was something wrong with that Samsung burner from the start and it just got worse over time.

Saw Pat again

Learned something new about the LJS place I used to work at. The claim is they didn't make money. Heh, I can believe it after I left! plus one other lady I liked got caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

When the power goes out

It's annoying. I was in the middle of some stuff this morning upstairs
when the power went out around 9 am. So I find the electric bill and
call their reporting number. A few minutes later, a fire engine comes
through and up over the hill, followed some time later by an electric
company cherry picker truck.

I wonder what happened. My first thought on that was some redneck
neighbor up the road (and over the hill) knocked over a power pole. It
could be an accident of some sort. Oh well.

It took about 13 minutes more than the automated voice on the phone said
it would take. Generally the electric service around here has been more
reliable than where my grandparents' home is where it would go out even
on just a rumble of thunder some days, and some times just go out for no
reason at all.

Traded one leak for another?

Due to the incessant rain storms this past week, I was not happy to be
woken up at just before 5 am to hear the sound of a drip inside my room.
What the hell is that? Where the hell is it? What the hell is it
dripping on? The kitchen roof leak just got fixed! Bloody hell. I don't
know if I should tell my sister as she'll just use it as ammunition in
selling the place or some other fucked up decision that screws me over.
I mean, it should be an easy fix, nothing to get bent about.

tonikaku... After much searching with lights turned on and unsteady
standing on my bed, I found the leak. It's also in a spot that if you
remember me spreading down plastic sheeting in the attic above the rooms
on the 2nd floor, it's in a spot the plastic sheeting could never have
reached. It's like right under the edge of the roof but far enough to be
just inside the wall between the windows, and a 2nd spot just over one
window. I'm annoyed, and after looking at it a while, I'm not surprised
where it is. If I consider possible damage the ice dams might have done
this past summer, I figure some good sealant of some kind along the edge
of the roof may very well stop this intrusion of nature.

I was so annoyed a few years ago when the roof was being re-done about
the damage to my possessions that I bought a roll of plastic sheeting at
Lowe's and while I still had the physical ability to do it, crawled up
there and spread it down, stapling it in place. I wrote about it some
time ago. I am sad to say I don't think I'm going to be able to go up
there again to check on what the hell is leaking this time. At least not
without a lot of ibuprofen or a 12 pack of beer consumed rather quickly.

My father for some reason seems to think this rash of storms is caused
by some part of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and evaporation of stuff
involved with that. I have yet to ask him to consider that 1) it's the
time of year for this kind of weather, and 2) It's not an El Nino year,
either. We're in a La Nina event, so we're going to get the storms this
time.

Stormy Weather...

4 waves of storms today has kept me off the computer , and I post to my blog with my mobile.

IS THIS HOW EVERY MORNING IS GOING TO BE???!!

So Anywho, I'm finishing up my last Ranma 1/2 TV subbed VHS to DVD disk
and it's around 9:58 AM, and I'm getting harassed by my sister. She's
making the dog bark, then she's tapping on the window at the top of the
stairs from the outside. She's calling the phone line. I hear that if
she can't get in, she's calling 911. Oh yeah, right.

If she calls 911 for this, which she can just wait a bit longer, she'll
get arrested. A few minutes later, I'm face to face with her, and I
mention that. She says she'll claim that I was "suicidal" and I tell her
you don't know that. Never mind it's 10 am and all. I told her how one
friend's story about being locked in an attic (or something like that)
and he called 911 to get let out and he got arrested for a false report.
That seemed to satisify her.

But anyway, she got an answer for my one thing I called earlier in May
about. The one doctor who got me my Asperger's diagnosis says they've
closed the case (it was closed due to financial reasons, which I've paid
their bill already) and they _can't_ see me anymore - EVEN THOUGH I WAS
GETTING COUNSELING THROUGH THAT OFFICE! And once again a referal to
Columbiana county counseling center, which I've been through already but
it was under Title 20 which expired after 6 months. So I guess I gotta
go through them again?! Even after having Medicare A&B? (I've already
explained the MedicAid situation.)

I was hoping my BVR lady would have set up an appointment so we can try
getting some place to interview me and all by now.

Anywho, my sister mentions her job interview (I know when it is because
my dad told me on the phone the last couple of conversations). I PRAY
SHE GETS IT. Just please let her get it!!!

I guess I'm finally going to get that new pair of glasses ordered.