davejenbarnes

I have worked for a few companies in the past — I’m not limited to Roma ISD as a previous employer — and those companies DO NOT like negative word-of-mouth advertising. In fact, one company even flat out told me as an employee to make the guests say positive words in reference to their quality of product to associate their brand name with the positive word that the guest thought of when asked a specific question. That particular company was Texas Roadhouse and they LIVE for this kind of advertising: Texas Roadhouse has THE BEST steaks I have EVER had from a restaurant. Their filet is the best steak I have ever eaten (have to get it medium rare, though, for the real thing). Texas Roadhouse steaks beat the living daylights out of anything Outback can cook. And they didn’t have to pay me to say that, either.

One company, though, deserves some negative advertisement: UNICARE. This is an insurance company. DO NOT EVER use UNICARE for your insurance needs. When we first opened a policy with them, back when we still used our credit cards, they charged our credit card twice for the first premium. Since then, there have been many bookeeping and records keeping mistakes that are simply unacceptable. For instance, when I had my last annual checkup, all three claims were denied on basis that I did not exist as an insured person. Because They Had My Birthday Wrong. They had my birthday listed as David’s. More recently, the third claim from the same appointment back in May of ‘04 has been denied THREE TIMES because they are filing the claim under David’s old account which was closed in early 2003 so they’re saying that the patient was not active at the time of service. I don’t know how they got David’s old insurance ID number associated with that claim. This was a Women’s Clinic, which had never even seen David, which had a copy of my insurance card. I had copied the card for the billing agency (which billed me after the first two claims were denied due to being processed incorrectly by UNICARE in the first place) and they re-filed the claim. There are many more examples but need I go on? This is just rediculous. That last one just set me off. Why would you process a claim for a PAP Smear under a MAN’s policy? Sheesh. I know David and I are identical twins an’ all, but we have totally different social security numbers. Come ON people! Needless to say, I will never do business with UNICARE again.

My mom and dad are in Kansas City this week visiting my Grandma and Grandpa. I hope we will have time to visit the horseys and give them some love. Rascal is getting very very very old… I worry a lot about him dying in pain. We all know his time is nearer now than ever before, but it is so sad seeing him lose so much horsey-weight and seeing his big ol’ bones jutting out everywhere. I will miss that horse so much, even though I rarely rode him. Here’s praying Rascal is still alive when mom and dad get back to Texas.

Rascal on the fourth of July

I would like to wrap things up tonight with a little bit of good advertising. Our Apartment Complex rocks. Anyone looking for an apartment complex in the North Austin Area, drop us a line. We had breakfast with the staff a few Saturdays ago and Greg, the leasing manager, stopped by where we were sitting and checked in with us. Not wanting to complain, but still wanting to mention some things, we briefly told him about the ceiling fan in the bedroom. This ceiling fan had a High-Low-Off-Off setting the medium setting was missing or turned off or something. We got a new fan. Not a new version of the old fan. A new buffed-up totally better brand of fan. This fan is sweet. And quiet. Not only that, but the maintence guy replaced the ballast in the kitchen fixture and it is SO blindingly bright in the kitchen now. Greg and Mark who work here, you guys are the BEST! Thank you guys for all the hard work you do to keep our place in tip-top shape! We have never been disappointed.

After much discussion, via forums of various sites, we have decided to invest in DiskWarrior to repair our B-tree, but we will be waiting on my pay day. In the meantime, the iMac will continue to need two start-ups each time to get it running from the LaCie disk which actually still works. so far.

This is the iMac the day it died. It had been sitting there for about an hour when I finally got impatient enough to manually turn the thing off. Before I pressed and held the power button, I snapped that picture. No spinning thingy under the apple. At least it was a pretty screen of death. with a pretty apple.

Our situation has improved by only a slight step forward… more of a slight hop to center one’s gravity, like the gymnasts when they don’t quite land perfectly balanced and have to quicky compensate for their off-balance condition or fall flat on their face or toosh. The good news is that the iMac is running. I’m using it to make this post. The bad news is that it is still BROKEN on its own. We’re using the LaCie external hard drive as a crutch. A very nice crutch, but still not a permanent solution to our situation.

So… what’s going on in our lives? Mainly, the 40 Days of Purpose study. Oh, that reminds me to read my daily chapter. We’re hosting a group and, although it is small, we feel God’s got a reason for every person being in it.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

If you have the opportunity and curiosity about the study, pick up a book and start reading. It will make you think.

Tomorrow David plays at church. Apparently, the service will be very music-intensive. He was at rehearsal until very late on Wednesday night, but he got to burn some CDs so he had a good time. David is very curious about the sound board and has talked to the right people about it and is praying for an opportunity to learn more about it all. He has told me many times that he loves anything electronic with buttons and knobs and the sound booth at church has all of those!

A big thanks to the Millers for letting us chill at their pad this afternoon and evening. We watched Star Wars Episode IV, played some Burn Out 3, caught the Saturday version of The Apprentice, and ate some yummy dinner. All the while snuggled up with The Professor. Thanks again, Mark and Becky! You guys ROCK. I like that.

Okay, here’s what I know about the iMac and its woes.

The first time the iMac had troubles, I thought that it was related to my having recently repaired the permissions on the internal hard drive. Upon using the disk utility software that comes with OS X Panther, I discovered that my “B-tree” was corrupted (don’t know exactly what a “B-tree” is, but everyone who did know what it was said that it was bad news to have a corrupted one).

Symptoms: Slow access to files on hard drive; inability to write to the hard drive (disabling journaling allowed read-only access to the drive); several corrupt folders (well, technically the file that tells the computer how that particular folder should behave).

Diagnosis: After talking to people much smarter than myself, the corrupt “B-tree” really did seem to be the root of the problem (no pun intended).

Proposed solution to this problem: Back up our information on a removable hard drive (thanks mom and dad Knight) and re-install the system software.

Outcome: The computer ran smoothly for about a week, then unexpectedly would not boot up.

Re-inspecting with Disk Utility uncovered the same “B-tree” problem. At this point, Jennifer was in Minnesota, and we had just recently backed up all of our information, so I didn’t really spend time talking to people about the problem, I just came to my own conclusion (the plausibility of the conclusion is still uncertain to me). My conclusion was that when I re-formatted the internal hard drive, the corrupt information technically still existed on the drive, and therefore could still corrupt the drive.

Proposed Solution: Zero out the hard drive, and re-install the system software.

Outcome: The iMac worked as it should for the next month.

Two days ago, the iMac started demonstrating some of the aforementioned symptoms (slow access to drive, non-bootable-ness etc.). But this time is a little different, in that I can find no problems with the drive or software with Disk Utility. We have received no error messages, and since journaling is active, we can still write to the drive. The iMac just feels like it is about to self destruct each time we use it. I would absolutely love to take the thing apart and replace any malfunctioning parts (specifically the internal drive), but as of now, nothing is “wrong” with it.

Proposed solutions: Take the iMac to the Apple store and have some Geniuses take a look at the little tyke; Purchase more advanced Disk Utility Software; Buy a new Mac.

The three solutions all require money which, at this time, we are short on. We will be saving over the coming months, and using CPMS’ iBook until we can afford to solve this problem. I do not plan on re-formatting the hard drive, as this plan of action has been unsuccessful on two previous occasions. I may, however, make the removable drive bootable, and see if that helps in further diagnosis of the problem.

Until then, I’ll teach Jen about the secret button that turns on our iMac, but I’ll just let all of you guess what it is. G’Bye

Yes, the iMac is sick. Very sick. It might be dying. We think it is dying. A very slow and painful death process it has been for all three of us. The iMac. David. Me. There are few things we know for certain, but we will be setting up a new category for the costs of serious repair or replacement starting in October’s budget.

Now, I’m not an expert on this whole computer thing, but when the iMac sits there with a white screen, a grey apple, no spinning thingy for 50 minutes without booting up, I know Something Very Bad is taking place. Oh, the little apple with no spinny thing. So sad.

David has communicated that it has something to do with the iMac and its ability to access its internal hard drive because none of the software will run from the internal hard drive but the software on the external hardware will run, albeit very slowly, but better than Not At All. Right now it is on and sort-of running. We don’t have any apps open on it, but it is at least not showing us the dreaded blank face of a white screen with a grey apple. Dave pressed a secret button that I do not know about to force it to start. Since everything David has already done to the thing for the previous two crashes, we are pretty sure it is not the software unless we keep installing the same messed up software over and over… but you’ll have to ask him what all he has done to the thing if you want to know.

I am not a Mac Smarty Pants. I just use the thing because it is what we have. If you want to communicate directly with David about this issue, I am sure he will be glad to hear from any Mac Smarty Pants out there who might have a clue past the previous two crashes we have lived through. His co-worker’s iBook also died today. It has been a hard week on some macs very close to our hearts. Thank God for David’s school iBook. It is sustaining our onlineness for the time being. To reach David, you can either leave a comment or email him at satchmo890 at gmail dot com with iMac somewhere in the subject line.

Sunday afternoons are usually uneventful for the two of us. We always go to church where we are each involved in a ministry. David plays trombone in the Worship Team and I work the first service in the Resource Center. The Resource Center is pretty cool. We sell all kinds of books and sermon series that particular groups in the church are going through together. It’s like having a Family Bookstore right there in the church. So cool. And I get to wear a spiffy name tag. I mean, this nametag is pretty darn nice. Sometimes after church we will get a bite to eat if the budget allows (today was a Subway day) and pick up some groceries, then come home and take a nap. Oh, the napping that can take place on a Sunday afternoon! Dave is getting in some serious nappage now with the nap on the couch.

Today is pretty normal. In fact, I would almost say that if I didn’t have a camera with me during the grocery store part of the day that I would not remember today being any different than most Sundays other than the fact that it is the kickoff-Sunday of the 40 Days of Purpose study that our church is doing in small groups. No, other than that… I wouldn’t remember this Sunday… But I did have a camera with me at the grocery store. Take a look at this:

H.E.B. Grocery has a mascot! FOR. CRYING. OUT. LOUD.

seriously

Look again… it’s a person dressed up as a SACK OF GROCERIES. What the heck? What is happening to the world where a grocery store has a mascot walking around scaring children?

Just an example of a company vying for children’s attention. Just like the Band Festivals sponsored by VISA… This is an outrage! These companies are trying to get children to recognize them . . . grow up with them . . . make a mental association with that particular store as being fun . . . all for the sake of making money in the future. What I saw today is a bit too much. Shopping for groceries is not supposed to be like going to a theme park! I guess it is now, at least at the new 1431 HEB in Cedar Park/Round Rock/North Austin.

Last night, David took me to the monthly CapMac meeting with an iBook in tow and some burrito in our bellies. Their meetings are held in the new Pharmacy Building on the UT campus, so we had the time of our lives parking at UT while school is in! There are so many students at UT — I couldn’t believe it. Baylor is like 1/100th of UT, only Baylor is in its own red-brick, perfectly manicured, no driving through campus, wide open spaces world. UT is like downtown… with streets! You can drive through campus! Drive! With a car! And park, if you’re lucky. We did not have a permit of any kind so we resorted to a parking garage a few blocks away. Not the garage mahal, which we would have if we were back at Baylor, but a regular, plain, concrete parking garage. I think Baylor is the only school to erect a garage rediculously fancy enough to be dubbed “garage mahal” or the “taj magarage” as I have heard some people call it.

The walk over to the Pharmacy building was downhill from the garage. It was a nice evening stroll following an older man wearing a Mac shirt talking with two older women to the crosswalk where we were joined by two others. David pointed out that all the conversations were about Macs… namely the new iMac and Tiger. My man loves his macs. He especially loves hearing others loving macs! and in public! It was enough to put a smile on his face for the rest of the walk.

The room where the meeting was held was like no classroom I had ever been in before. The seats were auditorium-style with desks that spanned the width of the rows of seats and every two seats had an electrical outlet and two ethernet jacks. This in itself is not extraordinary… but the fact that I had never been in a classroom like that before is extraordinary. I mean, I’m a teacher. I’ve been in lots of classrooms! We both agreed that we would not get much work done if we were students these days with a laptop in that classroom.

The meeting proceeded as any meeting would proceed. There were two iPod minis given away as well as JBL Creature Speakers II and an iTalk by Griffin. Dave won none. The presenter, Meredith Tucker, was from Intego software and presented her company’s software for macs in a very professional manner. All their programs will be worth the investment when David and I have children that will be database administrators at the age of two! Ha! I can only pray that our future children will be so smart.

At the end of the meeting, one of the CapMac Members who works for Apple walked down to the front of the classroom with a very large bag… and out came a brand-new 17 inch white iMac. oh, the iMac. Yes, the new one with all the white. I must say that in my original impression, from the pictures online, the latest iMac design simply looks like a very white iBook-type laptop-on-a-base kind of computer. Not so. This thing has mass. And it is very white. In person, it is easy to see how far off I was in my first impression about the laptopness of it, but the whiteness cannot be mistaken. The thing is thick… it is very large, and it is heavy, and did I mention that it is very very white? The white iMac in all its white glory was there in the room with us and I think David began to drool. Anyhow, I sent him down to meet the white shining heavy large iMac with a camera and he got some good pictures.

I don’t know why the woman on the far left looks so disgusted, but I love the picture. Overall, I had a great time and really enjoyed seeing Dave be surrounded by people who love Apple as much as he loves Apple. CapMac is the place for Dave and I’m glad I was there to see the new iMac in person.

I just did a quick email check on the ‘ol gmail account and I’ve got a few invitations I’m holding onto until they come in handy (No, this is not one of those Everybody Beg For Gmail posts) and at the bottom of the gmail window, Gmail had included a link: “Invite Humana to Gmail” … :) My question is… “All of Humana?”