Putting Some English on English

 

I slipped and fell
Into a hole
Not just part of me
But my whole

The hole was a spiral
Around it wound
Then I hit bottom
And suffered a wound

It wasn’t the fall
That I could bear
The wound came from
A grizzly bear

After he hurt me
I cried “No fair!”
And then he told me
He was from a sideshow fair

He then had to leave
He had a clock to wind
But that poor clock
Was blowin’ in the wind

A nurse healed my wound
She was a good wound sewer
I no longer felt
I’d been dropped in the sewer

My insurance wouldn’t cover it
The bear made my claim invalid
It didn’t matter that now
I felt like an invalid

I understood their point
How could I object?
I was just another number
A statistical object

Thus ends my story
No more words shall I produce
Like an apple on a shelf
One more piece of produce

 

****

 

I have always loved the English language.  The above nonsense is a nice little poetic way of showing off its more amusing idiosyncracies.

 

Once again, I missed Nothing Day.  So here’s what’s going on:

 

First, my video card finally decided to be fully functional.  My email conversation with ATI concluded with something to the effect of, “Sorry, buddy, you’re screwed.  Try to exchange the card through whoever you bought it from.”  I bought it last August, over six months ago, so exchange seemed unlikely.  With this in mind, I decided to make the Displayport port on it the only connected video connection again, as I had nothing to lose anyway.  The last time I tried this, it failed to help, but it is possible I still had one monitor attached.  In any case, this time it worked, although not right away.  The monitor it connected to did not come on until Windows finished loading and not until I was making a disparaging remark about it.

 

Speaking of monitors, I now have six connected.  Big monitor #5 arrived on Monday.  I discovered I did not have a DVI cable long enough to reach it, so I ordered a pair of ten-foot DVI cables.  The cable for the monitor below the new one did reach, but it was a tight stretch at best.  The cables arrived yesterday and worked perfectly.  Between that and the Displayport now working on video card #2, I now have all six monitors connected between the two ATI video cards.  The motherboard’s built-in video card (also and ATI) is no longer in use, although that may change sometime in the future.

 

The Displayport-connected monitor has exhibited a strange behavior.  If I turn it off, Windows suddenly thinks it has lost the monitor.  Turn it back on, and Windows recognizes its presence again.  Very weird behavior, in my opinion, and something to post in a forum somewhere for an explanation.

 

Meanwhile, a new problem has arisen.  If I leave my system on for awhile–not sure exactly how long–and then restart it, one or both of my SATA-connected, large capacity (one and two terabyte) hard drives stops being recognized.  I suspect it’s a problem with the SATA bus.  I think something in there is overheating just a touch and not working.  At some point, I am going to move the two drives to different SATA connectors.  I have six available, and they have been on connectors three and four for awhile.  (Connector #1 is a DVD drive; not sure why I skipped #2.)

 

That’s the news for this week.  I have some hope of social news next week.  See you then!