Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Before I get to the main reason for this post, I was signing up for an account on a message board. I think it likes me!


Now, my laptop. A few months ago it had this same problem. I use it like a desktop machine, so I leave it plugged in 24/7. One day I noticed the battery icon wasn't full anymore, so I hovered over it. "Plugged in, not charging" was the worrying message.

I phoned Toshiba tech support, and the person was amazing. He knew just how to fix it, he was a pleasure to speak to (clear, calm, knew what he was doing). I can't recall what the fix was, but I think it was a change in the registry (or BIOS? Something I usually wouldn't touch on my own).

Months passed, then Saturday I noticed the same thing. Battery wasn't full and "plugged in, not charging". So I called tech support again.

Night and day difference. It was a stereotypical bad India support call. The person clearly had no idea what she was doing. She had an accent so heavy I could barely understand her. She gave me incorrect information just to get me off the phone. (A different phone number I was supposed to call for help... but the number didn't work.)

So I called back again. Different person, but same thing. I know there are good India support people, but this was not one of them. Once more she gave me incorrect information to get off the phone. (A website to order parts from... but the website didn't exist, just redirected to elsewhere on the Toshiba site.)

But in all my rebootings and fiddling with the cables, somehow it started charging again. Not wanting to deal with these people more (I spent TWO HOURS on the phone with them), I decided to hope for the best and hope it wasn't going to happen again.

Today it's happening again. "Plugged in, not charging." I've had this laptop a year or so now, it always stays at 100% and "plugged in, charging".

Does anyone have any idea how to fix it? The first India person suggested that I needed a new AC adapter, but that good support person from months back said the problem had nothing to do with that, and when I talked to a warranty parts person, he agreed.

This is my first laptop ever, so I don't know much about these things. :/

Edit: Windows 7, battery light is not on (the one on the edge of the laptop), AC adapter is hot (it's always hotter than I think it should be).

At risk of not being PC, this ableist thing rubs me the wrong way. I'm in no way saying it's okay to push "differently abled" people down stairs, but when normal words can't be used in ways defined by their official definitions, it really gets under my skin.

In a post on a LJ comm, someone complained about something being "lame":

It's kind of lame. And boring.

Cue the shitstorm of "Using 'lame' in this context is ableist." comments.

From the Merriam Webster online dictionary on lame:

Definition of LAME
1
a : having a body part and especially a limb so disabled as to impair freedom of movement b : marked by stiffness and soreness [a lame shoulder]
2
: lacking needful or desirable substance : weak, ineffectual [a lame excuse]
3
slang : not being in the know : square
4
a : inferior [a lame school]

Slang, yes, but it is there. I have major issues with people not being supposed to use 'crazy' or 'insane', too. As in "95 degrees in the middle of December? That's so insane!".

It doesn't help that this whole ableist thing seemed to crop up overnight.

Am I being too sensitive about this? Or are crazy/lame/insane words now the same as saying 'nigger' or 'faggot'?

As a side note, I suddenly understand my mother. She just doesn't understand that homophobia isn't okay. Maybe this ableist stuff is generational, too! Younger folks are probably rolling their eyes at me. :P

Googling "Naked dungeon run" gives surprisingly work safe results! But not the information I'm hoping for...

( Non-WoW folks will likely be bored by this... )

Thanks! <3

A cookie to anyone who can tell me who this fellow is. Most cosplayers are generally pretty meh to me, but I like him.

The Iron Throne is at Wondercon and anyone can get their photo taken in it! That post has lots of other cosplayers in/with it.

I just finished Curse of Chalion (Best Book EVER, seriously!), and I went to start the next one, Paladin of Souls, but I've been thwarted by my Kindle app. As an "ebook extra", there's a glossary of terms, characters, places, all that. That's fine and dandy, I don't need it but I can ignore it.

Problem is, every time one of the terms from the glossary appear in the book, it's a blue underlined link. Mind you, all the main characters' names, all the major places, all that is in the glossary, so I have a blue link in almost every sentence. It's amazingly distracting.

Is there a way to turn that off? home (in Kindle) -> info -> settings has only three options listed, and none relate to this.