Reading

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It's Book Swap Day* at the library. Last time I was lucky and found both volumes of a book by one of my favourite authors. This time I came out with almost the whole Masters of Rome series plus a bonus one about Troy, all by Colleen McCullough. Only the last one is missing from the Masters of Rome series. I'm sure I can source that some other how when I get that far. There's a lot of text to get through first. I have never actually read anything by this author before, but hey, there's literally nothing to lose by not trying and if I don't like them, they can just go back again.

*This is awesome. They do it I think once a month. You can donate books you don't want anymore (there are a few exceptions that they don't want) and you can take any books that seem interesting to you. It doesn't cost anything and you don't have to bring a book to take a book. I've found some gold nuggets there! (And a few regrets. Last time I stupidly didn't take the full set of 1001 Nights. 16 volumes. I think they were even illustrated. I don't know what I was thinking)

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New computer is now up and running. I am just about finished moving in, I think.

I mentioned that because my current monitor is really old, an adaptor was necessary to deal with obsolete cables, but that Husband could just pick one up as click and collect and the whole process was only delayed by a few hours while waiting for the shop to open.

Turns out that wasn't the last of our problems! This old monitor was constructed in such a way that the sockets are in a little cavity on the back, probably so that there wouldn't be anything sticking out and looking unseemly or something. What nobody had foreseen, however, was that cable + adaptor was too tall for said cavity!

Creative solution: Having first determined to his satisfaction that all the electronic bits were elsewhere and the bottom edge of the cavity was indeed just plastic, Husband proceeded (with permission) to make a hole in it.

It was a nothing to lose situation, really. Alternative to it not working was to get a new monitor. Alternative to not trying was also get a new monitor. So you might as well try, right?

Result: Works fine and you can't see it.

Rebuilding journal search again

We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

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So I was keeping an eye on the new super-mouse for when it would be in stock. It was estimated to be in stock by the 30th, but that date has been moving around quite a bit, so I was checking it daily.

Two days ago, it was in stock. They had 25 of them. I ordered one immediately. (Parcel tracking info says I can expect it tomorrow.)

Because I was curious, I checked it again today. All gone. Not just 'out of stock, expecting more at this date' gone. It's gone!

Good thing I jumped on it as soon as I had the opportunity, because clearly it wasn't just me.

In other quite closely related news, the new computer is ready for me to move into, except for the tiny detail of my monitor being old and it turned out that an adapter was necessary because the cables are obsolete. Luckily Husband was able to source one as click and collect which he has just gone to pick up, and it's a very cheap item as well. Delayed the process by a few hours, though.

I do have plans to upgrade the monitor as well, but I don't want to do so yet. Come winter when we will likely begin the process of redecorating my room, there is also going to be some changes to the furniture, which means I might have room for a 2 monitor situation. I see little need to start replacing it until we know whether this is in fact the case, because the only thing wrong with the current one is a tendency to sometimes turn itself off completely instead of remaining on standby. This is mysterious and slightly inconvenient, but hardly a huge problem. Especially considering it's been in daily use for 15 years.