(no subject)

Removing xupiter involved using "find files or folders named *xupiter*", deleting every one of them, and then rebooting and emptying the recycle bin. I could not uninstall the thing -- and it was a package of programs. I could not delete the programs, or rather, I could delete them, but I could not then empty them from the recycle bin. Removing it broke the search from address bar feature completely. But better reinstalling IE 5 than reformatting and reinstalling Win98, which I thought I'd have to do. I am not happy with this. The files were created two nights ago, around 3 AM. I was at work then. I left Rhapsody running, apparently. I have changed the BIOS password and given the thing a password-protected screensaver. Hopefully that solves the problem, since she's set to boot from C: first and they'll have to do considerably more to tamper with anything now.

Did I mention that I'm not happy right now?

The machine is my baby. The software is the afterbirth.

And sometimes I gnaw off the cord with my teeth. And feel better for it, too.

The software is replaceable. The software is expendable. The software is sometimes where I vent my frustrations. Truthfully, I could have looked harder for a solution with more finesse. But I was irritated, and somehow I generally feel like the computer is not entirely mine anymore when someone else has installed something or uninstalled something or changed settings without my knowledge. Sometimes I just shrug and deal with that. And then sometimes I'm angry. Today I was angry and I did something that reasserted my ownership, in a way. It's my machine to build, rebuild, improve upon, or break. I don't generally choose to break it. Today I did. I forced a change I wanted, when I might have looked around a bit for a gentler way to implement it.

You know what?

It was satisfying.

Ohyeah... and it's all fixed now. ;)