Week 18: Tech fail

(Apr 30 – May 6)

The tech fail continues this week, and is incessant. It starts to feel like a conspiracy against me; as if there’s a big secret joke to show many things can stop working before I, too, break. Truly, it’s getting a bit ridiculous now.
I also have my birthday looming. I’ll be a year closer to fifty (though a few years yet until I hit this milestone) which seems a ridiculous age for me to be. Surely I’m still a teenager?! I don’t have many specific thoughts about getting older. It’s happening and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m grateful that I still feel (and act) relatively young, even though the creakiness of my body grows steadily louder with each passing year.
I still look to my grandmother-in-law for inspiration: 82 and she’s over every week to help out with my washing and watch the kids. I feel like I have barely half her energy even now, but at least she proves that with a bit of luck, good heath, and positivity you can remain active for many years past retirement.

Monday

I wake up in the middle of the night with a random piercing headache. It messes me up enough that I decide to take the day off work. I medicate myself with sofa, coffee and old Doctor Who episodes.
When I’m up to it I call my ISP to find out what’s at the root of my ongoing NBN outages (which are largely to blame for recent tech fail). They detect a fault in the line, 29 metres from the node. Great. This means the NBN co can finally come out and fix it for me. Spoiler: they don’t.
After school I attempt to connect the Kinderbeast’s new iPad (which is, not coincidentally, my old iPad). It works by creating a local wifi network so the iPad and the robot can communicate. I’m totally unable to get it working, even though it has worked on every other iPad I’ve set Cozmo up on.
After that, having explained to the Kinderbeast that Netflix is currently no-go due to the internet issues, he elects to watch Plex. Somehow, I’m unable to get the TV to connect to my Plex server. The local network wifi is working. The Plex server is running. But nope.
After this I decide I’m not even going to bother trying to start a new series this week. Instead I go to bed and read. So far my iPad is the only device that hasn’t failed me in any way. Yet.

Tuesday

I get in the car to take the kids to school and … the car doesn’t start! Fortunately school is close enough for us to get out and walk, but this certainly puts a damper on any hope of getting to work. Fortunately I have roadside assist with my car insurance. I call up and they arrange for a tow truck to be there within the hour. I then call my local garage to make sure they are willing and able to check the car over.
My google diagnosis suggests its either the starter motor or the ignition switch. Naturally it turns out to be the battery. The garage doesn’t have a replacement in stock, but the manager drives out to pick one up and I’m back on the road by lunchtime.
In lesser news, the NBN co schedule an appointment to fix my internet connection, and then cancel it on the same day. For reasons. My ISP nobly tries to resubmit the issue, but I don’t hold out enormous hope of getting NBN to do anything this time.

Wednesday

I take the kids to Macca’s for traditional Late Start Wednesday breakfast. While there it slowly dawns on my that the 4g has stopped working on my phone. This is particularly inconvenient given that it’s my only source of internet at most times currently. Luckily I find a fix relatively quickly, and am able to drag myself out of the it of this particular tech fail.
Tech fail isn’t done with me, however. In the evening I try to download a new iOS app for the Kinderbeast. I’ve done this dozens of times, but this time I simply can’t get it to work. The Elderbeast is also completely foiled in his attempts to watch YouTube, despite my efforts to help him.
Finally, I print out a list of games for the Kinderbeast to play on his new Google Home and send him, excited, into his room to try them out. He comes back and says they don’t work. I go and try, only to find out that virtually every single on “is not available in this region”.
FFS!

Thursday

I seem to escape the clutches of tech fail for the day. What I do get to do is go to a friend’s house, with the kids, for a delicious stir fry dinner. So that was alright.

Friday

It’s Friday!. It’s my pre-birthday. I treat myself to a lie in, and we have a morning tea at work.
My Fridate friend brings me a wonderful gift: a limited sixth Doctor action figure (limited because it has a totally different costume) that I remember coveting in the day, but couldn’t justify the cost.
We then pick a film from the shelves in order to avoid tech fail. Almost immediately we agree on Sunshine. I pick it up, it’s still in the wrapping. I take the wrapping off and find that the security seal is still in place.
It’s as if someone up there doesn’t want me watching films. Ever.
I’m determined not to be beaten. We look up techniques for removing the tags on YouTube. After some failed attempts using magnets, I finally pry the box open (without damage!) using a kitchen knife and we sit down for our movie.
It’s both just as good and better than I remember. Clearly in the shadow of Alien, Silent Running and 2001, but a pretty good homage to the genre and a solid film in its own right. I always recalled the final act standing out as a disappointment, but it seems to work on this viewing. Maybe it’s because it’s Fridate Horror and we demand some horrific action.

Saturday

It’s my birthday!
I get up and open presents from the Kinderbesten (a cool LEGO creator set and some awesome jammy pants) then we do the traditional Saturday morning shop. A coupe of people drop by during the day. I, otherwise, alternatively relax and tidy up in preparation for my guests in the evening.
Guests arrive in due course and a most excellent evening is had, helped along by Exloding Kittens and Cards Against Humanity. It’s the perfect way to end the day.

Sunday

I spend the day utterly shattered, even though I barely drank anything last night and it was *that* late a night. I did, however, anticipate this and have already planned to do nothing for the whole day.
Apparently the internet had similar thoughts as it remains out for the whole morning.
Late in the evening I find out that my father-in-law has been in hospital all day and is currently undergoing surgery after collapsing earlier in the day. It’s a pretty big shock (but all turns out well in the end).

Things I Did buy

• $47 Google Home Mini

Watched

Tech fail. Lol/sob.

Read

More of The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. More Aliens comics.

Eaten