the above title says it all, doesn't it. on top of that, my hard drive up and died, crashing my computer hard. so for a long time i could do nothing about it, being cashless. but an infusion of xmas dough has helped tons, and i got some excellent deals on a new huge (120 Gb) hard drive, 256 Mb of new memory, and a spif new VGA card. all this should really help my little ol' pentium II limp along a little faster. [the wife and i are lusting after the dual processer G5 for our next computer. it is so awesome, but costing over 3k. thats not going to happen for a while.]

so after i update the bios on my motherboard to not freak out over the new hard drive, then get the drive jumpers configured, get the drive formatted, and get windows installed, i find that windows wants a product registration key. fuck. i have moved three times since i got that computer. this magical number is nowhere to be found. none of my friends seem have a win 98 cd along with a valid product registration number. as a last resort, i call my mom. she saves everything. she upgraded their computer to a nice p IV, but still had all the old stuff. so its in the mail. and i'm waiting. for godot, it feels like. i fill out job apps and send out resumes daily. and usually nothing comes back. i got an interview at one place that care for folks with closed head injuries. they asked such lovely questions such as 'how would you feel if you went into someone's room and they were masturbating? or having sex with someone of the same gender? or having sex with an unusual object?' that last one stumped me. the interviewer went on to say that one fellow there has sex with his mattress until his penis bleeds, and staff there have to stop him before he hurts himself. i would think that the practice would be self-limiting, but apparently not. there were more questions about changing an adult female's diaper while she is on her period, and brushing the teeth of someone who has just scooped and chowed a handfull of their own feces, fresh from the crapper. this person needs to be observed while 'toileting.' i thought i was doing pretty well, meaning that i hadn't run screaming from the room. my downfall question was 'what would you do if a resident hit you and gave you a black eye or a bloody nose?' i said i would call the police. this earned me a quick exit from the interview. they said 'we are looking for someone who will wipe the blood off their face, go back in and work with the resident with a smile.' a little beyond the pale for me. but it irks me that they were so judgemental about my answer. i mean, i hadn't suggested anything abusive. in fact, my answer was official policy where i used to work, caring for mentally ill adults. they must have a lot of people lined up to be changing those diapers.