I had come to the conclusion that the whole day was just a disaster by yesterday afternoon. Things went well until Tracey asked me to set up an email account for her new Palm.
I logged on with the provider and after giving them user name and password —— they wanted my security key. I had no idea what a security key was or why they would want it.
So I clicked on the “Forgot Your Key” link and started all over to have them email me 1. I had to give them my username and password again, guess they forgot who I was in that click of the mouse. Then they wanted the name of my favorite city. I couldn’t remember what I had told them eons ago but finally managed to stumble upon it after only three tries.
So they email me the Security Key and I start all over all over again and find out it is only a temporary Security Key so we go around again to pick a New Permanent Security Key which I am sure I will forget again in the next couple weeks.
Finally —— we are ready to set up the email address for Tracey (remember an hour ago when this all started?) and I discover English wasn’t the first language of whomever wrote the ridiculous instructions.
Now in the middle of this foolery Aaron comes up with his new air soft gun and announces his ammunition clip is not working AGAIN. He bought this made in China piece of sh junk last Wednesday and we couldn’t get it to work because the instructions were wrong.
I had to take that one back Friday and exchange it to get one that finally worked. Anyway it quit working yesterday afternoon in the middle of my tech support gone wild session.
So I take this ammunition clip apart and —— of course —— it involves springs and stuff that leap out when you pull it apart. There was also a small piece of broken plastic that didn’t appear to go back in anywhere!
Tracey and I messed with that stupid toy for at least another hour, maybe two, and we end up late going out to eat with Mom, DD and Alan.
Dinner was good and although the waitress wasn’t the best —— we had a good meal with good conversation. We went to Mom’s trailer and I hadn’t thought about our fiascos at home until we started back home around 7:30 p.m.
Long story short I managed to fix the toy gun AND get Tracey’s email address working by 9:00.
How? By completely disregarding the directions written in Chinese, translated to German or Arabic and Bolivian before being translated to English.
It turns out the broken plastic piece must have been the problem all along and the email thing was simply stupid instructions that left out a few important steps —— like NOT checking the box for secure password authorization to receive email and CHECKING the box for sending in secure mode. Just the opposite of most ISPs I have dealt with.
I went to bed satisfied I had triumphed over international translation and geekspeak problems!
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