Mac-Forums' Bar & Grill II

Not as productive as I had initially wanted. I did get a decent chunk of my research proposal done though.

Did some drinking last night and watched the Leafs win again which is a little disappointing (we need a high draft pick).

Funny story....

This evening, while I'm cooking dinner and feeding finger food to my 11 month old sitting in his high chair, I decided to log into Facebook. All of a sudden, my cursor starts going crazy, almost as though someone is holding down the right-cursor key. I try to click on the Apple menu to shut down, but no dice - now my menus are cycling from left to right over and over. Eventually I just hit the power button and force it off.

So, before turning it back on, I try blowing the keyboard out with compressed air. I check everything and make sure there's no debris anywhere around the machine. Power it back on and it seems to work fine.

A couple of hours later, I've put the kids to bed and I once again open the lid on my MBP. Shortly after, my machine starts beeping like a lunatic - now it's like something is shorting out the apostrophe key. Undeterred, I reboot the machine and it comes up fine, no problems.

So, I'm at a loss. The machine is perfectly clean and tidy. I've made no major changes recently and I can't think of any reason why my keyboard is apparently shorting out.

Then it hits me....

My Apple Aluminum keyboard is sitting in my bag in the kitchen. I turn off the Bluetooth control and everything is fine. Apparently this whole time, some pressure is being exerted against the keyboard, which is transmitting across the house to my MacBook Pro

Altogether now, say it with me...... DUH!!!!

And I thought it was haunted......

I obtained a new desk chair today, well, not really new, but something different for me.

This chair is absurdly comfortable.

Haha, funny thing is that my grandma has a chair that looks similar to that for her physical therapy!

Well kids, I might just not be around for a few days/weeks these coming times.
We just had a car accident in January in the family and my life may not get back to normal for a few more months.

I'll try to check in.

HOpe everyone is well!

Derek McNelly said:

I obtained a new desk chair today, well, not really new, but something different for me.

This chair is absurdly comfortable.

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Looks like an exercise machine that my mom use to have. You rode it like a horse, it was a very odd contraption.

cwa - you should have posted it without the answer - It would have been fun to see what people came up with to troubleshoot that one -

so, probably for the last month, maybe more now, i've probably only stopped in a couple times.

a couple of you have contacted me via facebook or messages here, just to check on me. i just want to let anyone who was concerned at all know i'm fine. kind of busy at home, and i'm not online much. most of my off time when i'm not watching the kids is spent gaming.

at work it's just getting harder to spend time here since the red and white doesn't blend in very well...

my only recent news, is that after about 32-33 years of regular to heavy use, i've given up caffeine. last sunday was my last day with any caffeine. the withdrawl has been nuts. still suffering a bit even after a week.

eric said:

my only recent news, is that after about 32-33 years of regular to heavy use, i've given up caffeine. last sunday was my last day with any caffeine. the withdrawl has been nuts. still suffering a bit even after a week.

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Best of luck on that. I know some habits are hard to break, and something that seems as trivial as caffeine is a real hard thing to eliminate.

i'm guessing you've seen my facebook updates Derek - it's been a bear for sure.

thanks.

eric said:

my only recent news, is that after about 32-33 years of regular to heavy use, i've given up caffeine. last sunday was my last day with any caffeine. the withdrawl has been nuts. still suffering a bit even after a week.

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Congrats - my use is only getting worse (grad school will do that to you). Caffeine really does deserve being labeled a drug.

well, the withdrawl has been recently classified as a real 'disorder' in the DSM:

CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL RECOGNIZED AS A DISORDER

DSM-IV sourcebook - Google Book Search

i've seen it likened to heroin withdrawl (though obviously a bit less intense)

One cup a day? I'm toast. I'm working on number 6 right now.

I tend to take what the DSM says is a disorder with a grain of salt though. This is the book that had homosexuality categorized as a disorder at one point.

well, of course. the entry is pretty solid though.

at worst, through a lot of my 20s and 30s i was drinking about 40-60 oz of coffee a day, add huge glasses of iced tea, the occasional 16 or 20 oz hot tea. when i was a kid it was pretty evenly split between coffee, tea, and soda (which i quit in college in favor of more tea and coffee).

i work in computer operations where you're sitting for 12 hours a day and staring at a number of monitors in near air traffic controller readiness. coffee is almost a prerequisite for the job. i'm not sure how i'm going to get along without it, even once the withdrawl symptoms are over...

eric said:

well, of course. the entry is pretty solid though.

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So was homosexuality .

eric said:

at worst, through a lot of my 20s and 30s i was drinking about 40-60 oz of coffee a day, add huge glasses of iced tea, the occasional 16 or 20 oz hot tea. when i was a kid it was pretty evenly split between coffee, tea, and soda (which i quit in college in favor of more tea and coffee).

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How did you function? If I had that much caffeine, I'd be shaking all day. I would be in a state of cat like readiness all day.

ha!


it slowly ramped up over years. i was in maintenance - it really didn't keep me more awake than normal, it just kept the headaches at bay. i'm sure it affected me in a number of ways - the withdrawl is a sure sign of that, but i could drink a big 20 oz cup between 8pm and 10-11pm and still go right to bed - no problem.
you'll get there too. we all do...

eric said:

ha!


it slowly ramped up over years. i was in maintenance - it really didn't keep me more awake than normal, it just kept the headaches at bay. i'm sure it affected me in a number of ways - the withdrawl is a sure sign of that, but i could drink a big 20 oz cup between 8pm and 10-11pm and still go right to bed - no problem.
you'll get there too. we all do...

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Something to look forward too - hooray!

If I have a coffee at night, I can't fall asleep. I'm pretty sure if I develop a tolerance though, I'll find some other legal means to alter my consciousness.

like moving to denver co and taking up jogging?

or donating a lot of blood.

My wife is going to KILL me. Right after I finally paid off the credit card, slickdeals.net had to come along with this. $188 after coupon:

Dell S2409W 24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor