News and Notes



« Tue.12.21.1999 »

I'm going home tomorrow for the two-week Christmas break. I will return to Bursley exactly two weeks from today, January 4, 2000. That assumes everything here is all Y2K-compliant. :)

While I'm on that subject, I honestly don't believe more than about 2% of the Y2K bullshit I've been hearing. I mean, it's probably always a good idea to have a small extra supply of food and water handy -- Michigan does get hit by natural disasters, such as severe thunderstorms and the occasional tornado -- but frankly, I'm not worried about losing power, the possibility of armed looting in the streets, the end of the world, or whatever the paranoid people want to tell me. I don't even believe that any of the electronic devices my family owns, such as our TV, VCR, microwave, or otherwise, are going to fail catastrophically. The VCR might be the most at risk, seeing as we bought it in 1989, but even that only keeps track of the day of the week. So long as it indicates that it's a Saturday on January 1, it'll have no problem.

Speaking of electronic devices, I finally got the printer situation resolved earlier today. I'm going to a UPS shipping outlet later this evening to return it. I will be refunded everything but the original $19 shipping charge, and I'm paying $27 to return-ship it, but being out $46 is better than being out $158. In short, I've learned a lesson: Don't order stuff online, especially computer hardware, from a company you've never dealt with or heard of before. Stick to the better-known, reputable "big boys" of the e-commerce industry.