Laptop internet works once more, runny nose, work incident, wizard rock, back on YouTube!!!, and other stuff

Yeah you read that title right. The internet on my laptop works once more!! What happened was last night I got an IM from a friend of mine from Tech Links who knew I was having problems with the net and that I'd just done a full system restore on my laptop. He said, "Let's get on TeamSpeak [a voice chat program] and I'll try to help you fix it." And so I grabbed my laptop, some earphones and my mike and logged onto TeamSpeak. And we tried different stuff. Or rather I tried different stuff on my end suggested by my friend (I'll call him by his TeamSpeak nickname, Kakeru). Finally, he asked me to open up the wireless networks window and have it search for networks. I tried connecting on the first network available, and this stalled in "acquiring a network address." So he asked me if there were any networks I could get onto without needing a WEP key and such. I said yes and tried one. It connected, and I opened Internet Explorer. It worked! Then Kakeru, who thinks IE is a pretty bad browser, insisted I download Firefox. So I did that. I tried a few other sites, and found the internet worked fine. Yay!!!!!

I am worried cause I have had a constant runny nose today. I hope I'm not getting sick -- I have been sneezing some too. Well, spring is coming up, so it is probably the pollen in the air (I'm allergic to pollen). Plus the weather here has been funny as usual.

I had a stressful work incident today. To make a long story short, I ended up getting to work 1 hour and 45 minutes late because I misread my calendar and didn't realize when I needed to be in. I also ended up working like 10 minutes overtime in order to try to finish cleaning the cheese slicer, and right now they don't want us to work any overtime. It was only 10 minutes though so I don't think they'll be too mad. Since I came in close to noon (11:45), they'll probably be ok with me being clocked out by 9. The good thing is, I finished the tasks assigned to me for closing (cleaning windows, breading chicken and prepping quarter legs, and cleaning the two deep fryers). So I'm happy.

I am investigating the fascinating world of a genre of music known as wizard rock. Basically these are bands who sing about nothing but Harry Potter. I've gotten songs by 2 bands so far: Harry and the Potters, the sort of granddaddy of all wizard rock bands (I wasn't totally thrilled by their song "Platform 9 3/4," but I like their song "Save Ginny Weasley" -- it has a really catchy chorus) and a folk/Celtic wizard rock band called Hollow Godric (who I haven't listened to much yet). I went to wizrocklopedia.com and looked at the band profiles there, and then checked out a few of the bands listed in their complete band list. Not all the bands in the complete band list had profiles, unfortunately, so I mostly had to resort to listening to songs on the bands' Myspace pages. I only listened to one full song ("Song for Sue" by Sue and the Hufflepuffs) -- the rest I'm going to check out later (I'm too tired now). I did find a music video though on wizrocklopedia.com for a band called The Hermione Crookshanks Experience, which was recommended on some other wizard rock band's Myspace (I forget which one). The song was called "Float Away" and was done really well. The girl on there (who appears to be the only member of the band -- lots of wizard rock bands are like this, I found from my research) has the cutest little stuffed cat, which looks just like Crookshanks, and which even has a little Gryffindor scarf! Kawaii!!!! (You can visit The Hermione Crookshanks Experience's Myspace page, where you can hear some of the band's music, here).

Speaking of videos, one of the first things I did after getting the internet again on my laptop was to re-signup for YouTube. I had to create an account, delete it, and create a new one because I couldn't remember how to get into the Hotmail account I'd set up for YouTube. So I linked it to my new Gmail address, created for something Kakeru, Wartonchan from Tech Links, and myself are doing (we're trying to keep it hush-hush right now, so I won't elaborate, sorry). And now I'm in. You can find me at: http://www.youtube.com/AleraofRavenclaw

Well I said other stuff, but I'm too tired. I haven't been doing much. I downloaded some stuff from sailormoonfansubs.com tonight while waiting for YouTube to finish its scheduled maintenance, but so far I haven't done much else tonight except eat dinner. I just finished uploading all the videos I had ready to upload, now that YouTube's out of its maintenance period. This is aside from my videos that are on Putfile, which I am downloading one by one from there so I can upload them to YouTube. I also need to get the MovieShaker ones from our family computer. Then I'll be up to date. Plus I have some new vids planned, mainly "Code Lyoko" ones. I just have to get the CL eps again cause I lost them in the system restore.

Plans for tomorrow (or today, rather, since it's past midnight) are mainly to go to work on time (I'm working 2-7). I may go out before that and get my brother's birthday present. I'm going to get him some Xbox game. I don't know which yet. I may go to the mall so I can check to see if I can find a couple books I want. One is a book that is either out or is coming out called Brainiac. The book is about trivia and is written by Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings. I read a review of it in some magazine (Time I think). The other one is one I've been hearing about on MuggleCast a lot called Mugglenet.com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love, and How the Adventure Finally Ends. It's written by staff people from Mugglenet, including MuggleCast's own Ben Schoen.

Speaking of MuggleCast, Jamie the Brit is back...yay. He was out sick for several weeks, I guess. I missed him, since he's one of my 2 favorite hosts (Laura Thompson, the sole girl on the show, is the other).

On a related note, I have found a fellow Harry Potter fan among my coworkers. It's Matthew, a 40-year-old homosexual guy that works in my department. (He doesn't call himself "homosexual" though...he says he prefers the term "queer"). It's nice that we have something in common to talk about...it takes my mind off my uncomfortable feelings about his sexual orientation. (For the record, I've never worked with any homosexuals before...at least none that admitted it). I just feel uncomfortable because, from my Christian point of view, I view homosexuality as a sin. I don't want to act like I accept his behavior, and yet I don't want to insult him by saying I don't. So I just say nothing.

Ok I'm tired. G'night.