The wurster, the better

After trying to get the biofeedback software to work on one of my old laptops, I finally gave up and bought one. I hope that things go smoothly with it and that I can proceed with learning how and providing the therapy to my daughter.

Having reviewed many store ads, I found one I wanted to get it was a Toshiba with 512MB RAM and an 80GB hard disk with a fast Athlon processor at CircuitCity. We went to the store and I spent over half an hour looking at all the laptop descriptions and asking some questions and listening to the salespeople talk to other customers. I am somewhat computer savvy, but the many choices you have nowadays for different processors and video options etc., confuse even me. Just imagine what the no-computer savvy people feel.

My brother told me one key thing to inquire – how were the memory chips configured so that you could easily and cost-effectively upgrade when you needed to. The Toshiba had 2-512MB chips. So, to upgrade to 2GB, I would have to spend 150-200. So, then I decided to look for a laptop which already had 2GB. I found another Toshiba and an Acer. Both had 2GB RAM and 160GB hard disk. The main difference was the processor. The Acer had an Intel Pentium Dual Core while the Toshiba had an Athlon. The Pentium was faster, but the video processor was not. So, since I wasn’t going to play games (as the salespeople pointed out was important to consider in my choice), I chose the Acer. It also had a built-in webcam.

Now, the fun part. You make your choice and think you’re done. No. At the checkout, you are asked for what kind of support plan you want. Then I was told that there were no recovery disks and I needed to buy them. CC would charge me $40 just for the disks. They said Acer would charge me $60. Then they said for $90, they would make the disks and reformat my hard disk removing the crapware (sample apps that come with the computer). So, I thought back to my early days with computers when the user did these things themselves. Now, apparently a lot of things are extra $$$. So, I didn’t get anything and was told I had 30-days to decide.

When I got home, I set up the laptop. I knew there was a way to build these recovery disks and there was. It took me about an hour. So what was the salesperson talking about? They are providing a service that costs money to people who don’t have the knowledge to do it themselves. Oh well, any way to make a buck.

Now, I have to get used to Vista. And now I have to get a new Vista-capable version of the biofeedback software I purchased. Then I can proceed.

Bottom line, I will support the computer as I have always done and then get help when needed. It seems that the BioExplorer software people have a philosophy of support that I don’t quite understand. They have a support email which they don’t respond to. They have a Yahoo Group set up that you need to join but apparently don’t frequent user requests to join frequently, as I was declined membership after 2 weeks of no-one responding to my request. Luckily there is another related Yahoo Group in which I asked my questions. They need to let users join their support group. I hope this now happens as I sent a comment in one of the other groups I belong to.

I’m just trying to learn and be able to provide the therapy to my daughter. If I can’t get help setting up the software, how can I proceed?

I just found a draft post I started a week ago and never finished. So, I finished it today so I can move on.

Time goes by whether you are busy or not or whether you don’t feel well or feel great or whether you are in a funk or not. I find I have a lot of things to say but can’t get motivated to write. So, now I’ll try to remember what’s happened this past week.

I like to be busy, but not as much as I would like at work. I could be extremely busy at home with all the things our daughter needs but I do other things instead. I work at my computer a lot, probably too much. This past week, I updated my zip2mail Vanilla add-on to archive the extensions and themes. I also started on a CategoryGroups add-on, but am stuck at trying to filter the Groups.

I tried to print an expense report from my work computer but then realized it only has usb ports. So, I needed a parallel-to-usb cable. I tried to buy one online but messed something up when I modified my PayPal account. I haven’t gone back to try again.

We made a big monetary commitment to continue biofeedback/neurofeedback therapy at home. We purchased the equipment that is being used for our daughter now at a cost of about $2000. At $100 a session, the payback will be quick and the benefit will be immeasurable. I’ll be trained and hope to get this going at home in a couple of weeks. Once I feel comfortable doing this with our daughter, I could provide the service to others who could take advantage of this therapy — but that is to be determined as to who can???

I’ll need to add memory to whatever computer this will be installed on (probably Alicia’s). It has 512MB now but I’ll increase it to 2GB. I’d also like to get the family computer updated with more memory. Maybe I’ll do it at this time, too. It will be about $100 to do this per computer, I think. Gotta check this.

We completed a autism support grant application (or should I say my wife did). This could help subsidize some things we would like to do with Alicia through the summer.

We had a scare with my Mom the other day because her phone was busy and we couldn’t get in touch with her. It was probably off the hook, but we didn’t know. So, my sister-in-law Sheryl went over after work and found it was off the hook. Thanks, Sheryl.

The webcams I ordered arrived and I hooked one up to my computer. It worked fine to capture video of me sitting at my desk. I need to find someone with whom I can have a video conversation.

I need to pick up my sister-in-law’s computer. I also need to return the solar energy system rental agreement so that we can be scheduled for installation. I just have to re-read the agreement and the online agreements before committing to the 25-year agreement.

Despite the rain last week (you know, “April showers bring May flowers“), the weekend started nicely. Saturday was my day to be taxi driver for our daughter’s therapy sessions. I was exhausted when we finally got home around 1:30 having left the house around 8:30. Now, I know why my wife has been tired this past week. And our daughter is also tired and overwhelmed by this process, I think. However, we are doing it to help our daughter in the long run.

My wife and I also got a little time to spend together while waiting for our daughter’s 2-hour therapy session to finish. We had lunch and walked around.

I found a new lightbox javascript for displaying images in php. It is called Lightwindow and looks very promising. I already created a Vanilla extension for using it and am testing it. I’m trying to come up with examples of how to use it’s capabilities in Vanilla.

I’ve been using Skype a little more this week since a friend in France is using it. We’ll try to chat soon using a phone headset. Should be fun.

I started making a Google Map for my sister-in-laws trip to China, but the online GoogleMap creation tool didn’t work because of the places being in China. So, I started building it manually using the api and tools found on Google’s site.

I got to mow the back part of our lawn for the first time this season. I was tired after that. I’ll finish up the front today. Now, I need to really work on landscaping the lawn both front and back. For the front, I want to get a new cement block installed at the beginning of our porch. Others on our side of the street have done this to divert the water flow from rain. We need to do this and also level out the lawn under our front window to also help alleviate flooding in our basement.

The back lawn needs me to lay down a brick or stone patio. It also needs the back part to be built up because of erosion. These are not simple tasks and I have put them off for a couple of years.

I’ve been getting a lot of email from my sister-in-law Donna who is in China visiting her son. They are very interesting and I know she is having a great time and will cherish this experience forever. I would like to visit him, too, and maybe I will if he stays there another year.

I’ve been mulling over some things I found out at work last week. Life plays strange tricks on you. You have to try and not break when this happens. Just makes you think.

I’ve been playing around with Vanilla php stuff and trying to learn more. I have a to-do list but haven’t updated it. I should do that here.

Alicia has started another 10-day tomitis therapy session. It is really a drain on her and Maria who has to provide the taxi service. This therapy is in addition to anything else that might be scheduled for Alicia (music therapy, private therapy, collage, biofeedback, horseback riding). Alicia has been a little more annoyed and vocal the last few days. Why? I don’t know.

Maria and I got to go to a wedding reception last Saturday. We decided not to go to the wedding because we didn’t want my Mom to be alone with Alicia for that length of time. As it turned out, she was there for about 5 hours and really had no trouble at all. However, it really isn’t fair to expect my Mom to be able to handle Alicia. Luckily Tabitha was there for a couple of hours to help before she went down the shore.

The reception was very nice. Maria’s cousin’s daughter got married. I was surprised to learn she was 30 and that her sister was 40 and had 3 children. All of our nieces and nephews who we remember as babies and now all grown up with families of their own. It was nice to see our family.

My eBay class will be over next week. It has gone pretty well. I’ve noticed that in this class which is larger (10-12 people), there is more interaction. There are more questions. And, the class time has been exceeded, much to the displeasure of the school custodial staff. They like to stick to the schedule. I think that I should expand the class to an hour and a half. I can then end it earlier if I run our of material for the class.

I bought two DVDs for Alicia on eBay (ABBA and Disney Mania Concert) that we’ll use in the biofeedback therapy. We need some new titles since we’ve been playing the same ones over and over again. We also bought a Dixie Chicks live in concert DVD when we were at Borders on Sunday.

I also set up selling some old Winnie the Pooh VHS tapes we have on eBay. I hope to learn something from this experience that I can use in class. Time will tell.

Is spring here? The calendar says so, but the temperature (in the 30s) doesn’t make it feel so. We had days in the 70s a week or so ago. But now we are back to winter.

Alicia has had nosebleeds this past week starting last Saturday with one pretty much every day. I checked my blog and found this happened 2 years ago at the same time. It could have happened last year, but I have no posts about it. Last weekend, they were gushers. But through the course of the week, have calmed down a lot.

I’ve been kind of melancholy lately. I can’t seem to get motivated to do anything. Alicia did very well this past week being home from school. She has been talking and communicating much more and better. Something struck me today when my wife asked me to work with Alicia on the computer because she had asked to do this. Sometimes my wife does things selectively or doesn’t fully understand responsibilities and how much work is needed to be done. Alicia asks and talks about a bunch of things (old friends and teachers) but this doesn’t seem to phase my wife. I think that it would be good to contact the school and her friends directly to see if we can give Alicia the opportunity to see them before they graduate this year and are on to college.

And, on a similar note, we have a new TSS, meeting her this past week on Wednesday. She seems very nice and is right out of school. She will be starting next week, but I have some concerns, primarily one. She is allergic to cats and dogs. We have a cat and dog. So, we need to clean up the house really, really well. I noticed that when our dog went near her, she was a little afraid. Now I know why. My concern is that she will not be focusing on Alicia and what needs to be done. But only time will tell.