As of August 10th the rachitic fabled shpakOO’s German server has been retired…[`][`][`]let’s hope that the current setup will be slightly easier to manage=updated more often. 

it seems that recently certain other(s) have been posting more on my blog than myself…

that does not mean that i have nothing to write about, just the opposite, in fact, there is so much happening that simply there is no time to think about blogs… Nonetheless…I’m sitting in HGS waiting for Dean’s Reception (a.k.a free food), my apple computer is back from repair shops, and purring in the background, i guess happy that i’m making it work so much … I have a few seconds before the food is unleashed upon us, or the mysql query that runs in the background crashes on me whichever happens first…let’s write.

The new school year started.

Pavi and I already agreed that classes do not fit well into our schedules 🙂 After a whole summer of lab work, the rigour of classes kindda caught us by surprise…

The shopping period is not over yet, but I thing I’ve already made up my mind about what to take:

• AI, why not…
• Molecular Mechanisms of Disease, i might actually learn something
• one more… ah, yes, Translational Biomedical Informatics…

(40 minutes of battery life left)

Let us go back to whatever happened to shpakOO in the last few weeks ( shpakOO’s flaky memory implants do not allow him to reach back in time further than that…) shall we?
So… Damon has finally moved to a new appartment located in an extravagant neighbourhOOd of SONO, i helped moving, there were Revelations, overall, however… he’s been around in my life for way over 9 months, and i really hope that the 5 year rule won’t apply here 😉 (you know who you are 😉 )

My brother and I went camping together in Lake George ! That was wicked cool. Besides certain incidents related to excessive drunkardness of two Irish who by some strage coincidence decided to tag along, it was a great trip, and just what I needed to reload my batteries before the new year…

Painted Pony Rodeo show has opened my eyes at how strange this world can be if a dozen middle aged cowboysmen attempt to wrestle the very cows while the enthusiastic crowds cheer, the beer flows, and kids purchase mini-lassos from a vendor…

My first game of laser tag ended, obviously, with an overwhelming victory for MY team 🙂 I guess that made me feel slightly better after a horribly rigged gokart race when I was given a deffective, the slowest, vehicle and ultimately arrived at the finish line doubled or even trippled by some… oh well 😉

(29 minutes remaining… that mysql query is eating up a lot of juice… i should optimize)

Very good time… unfortunatelly the weather was a bit less than optimal.

The week following that escapade, Damon and I spent some time together on a Clam Festival of SONO …  or was it Oyster festival? Hard to tell, because both were VERY hard to spot… hmmm… false advertising?Clam chowder was decent but again, not good enough for an event of this magnitued and with focuse on New England Oyster Industry… Luckily, thanks to Stew and his Leonard, Damon and I ( i just can’t seem to be able to write that enough times :)) prepared a scrumptious soup which was consumed while watching some Faulty Towers… yum and yum.

Now, parents escaped to Poland for some 10 days of reunioning, family feud’ing, business taking-care-of’ing… I hope they get home to Grandma & Grandpa safely =)

well… with 22 minutes left on my battery-meter, i think it is time to put the virtual pen away, kill the mysql query which should have been done 20 mintues ago, and go get some food before they run out of hot-dogs and beer 🙂

hugs to everyone, expecially to certain somewhat who shall not be named here, all i’m gonna say kudeta, yo, and 3 random digits
~sh

It’s been noticed that someone indeed reads this stuff, (wow!!!) and responds 🙂

and he(…) thought that goes unnoticed…

far from it.

In fact, the administrators of this website would like to thank all of those who-shall-not-be-named’s of this world for their continuing efforts to keep the community of shpakoo.com growing and entertained.

ps.ilu

so… this is a week two of my adventure with my new and shiny apple macbook… or should I say “mis-adventure”, since the thing died on me pretty much in the second week of usage. Since then, one would think: an integral and rather large part of a computer, the motherboard, which was diagnosed to be defective (unoficially: in 10%-20% of all macbook units) cannot be located anywhere in the mainland US nor, apparently in China (where it is manufactured in one of apple sweatshops factories).

SO, I’ve been waiting on various support lines until another “Nicky” or “Theresa” or “Tony” or “Jon”, or a generic other Currently Available Customer Service Representative listen to my bile and either issue another “ticket of expediting the part search” or, emphatically, switch me over to a Dispatch Specialist, while patronizingly “completely understanding my frustration”… Unfortunatelly due to the unusually high call volume, the waiting time is usually 15 minutes … or longer…
So, the business days pass away like a bad gass in a crowded classroom, or like the consecutive deadlines that i have to make up for by some other means than by using the tool i spent circa 2000 smuckers on… First 3-5 business days for initial part ordering, then another 2-3 business day until the part is located somewhere in the state, then another 2-3 to look it up, i guess, somewhere in the country, someone on the line made an unpleasant joke (I sure hope that was a joke… or was it?) that it will take about 10 business days to locate the motherboard in the universe afterwards… I did not laugh. I demanded other options… Unfortunatelly, now i have to wait until the part location process ends… I guess the wheels of beaurocracy have turned beyond the point of no return…or whatever… It’s been two weeks, and i’m yet to hear an estimated completion date on the repair. (which will happen hopefully in this decade.)

HOWEVER…The lovely Dispatch Specialist, offered me an ONLY option available in front of me at this point. (she stressed the “ONLY” part)

An ultimatum.

I either get what she offers or i’ll be stuck without a computer. (i’m pretty sure i heard an evil laugh of her and Steve Jobs standing behind her as she uttered those ugly words…)
Option # 1: I was offered to BUY another computer in the store. Let me rephrase that: i was offered to buy another REFURBISHED computer in the apple store. This translates to another 2000 dollars that I’d have to spend while waiting for my other thing to be fixed (who knows when.) Then,(after the old comp is fixed, who knows when) she added that I could return the refurbished gadget, without the restocking fee !!! YAY no restocking fee… too bad i don’t have, (nor if i had, would i want to shell out) another 2000 credits. Why? because i just spent it on the computer that broke in the 7th day of using it !!!

waiting for other options…

Generally, along the way, people were rather supportive, but still… i’m having a bloody aftertaste in my mouth after DEMANDING JUSTICE for hours…

Today’s Apple adventure lasted from 6:15pm till 9:47pm. I’m waiting for my Beloved Dispatch Specialist to let me know whats up around 11 tomorrow… there is ONE store of last hope which could potentially have the missing part… I won’t find out until tomorrow… the anticipation is killing me. I think i won’t be able to sleep
until then i think im gonna go get myself drunk…

stay tuned for more options.
yours

shpakOO