Feng Shui Part One

So I am in a History and Philosophy of Science with an Emphasis on Biology class (super long title, I know. They don't offer a physics one, so all the teaching majors have to take the biology one. lame.).
A major part of our grade in the class is a paper and group presentation on a pseudoscience.

Pseudoscience: a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology (thank you wikipedia).

Our ideas at first were well witching (or well divining), medical magnets, acupuncture, and Feng Shui. The list slowly was narrowed down as we addressed acupuncture and well witching in class, and another group picked medical magnets (anyone reading this, please don't be offended if you believe in medical magnets. All I am claiming on that is that it isn't exactly science, not that it doesn't work. And if you are still offended, don't be. I'm not worth getting offended over.) And then we started getting excited about Feng Shui.
For those of you who are like me, you won't already know what that means. For those who know all about it, bear with me (or even correct me) while I attempt to explain it. Basically it is a Chinese tradition of interior decorating (which they probably would be offended to have it be grouped with) that is supposed to improve the qi (the energy flow, circulation of life energy) of your room, making you happier, better rested, and basically improves all parts of your life. It uses the ideas of yin and yang, and tells you what will hurt your qi. Furniture and wall decor have to be done in a certain way as to not hurt your qi. Some of it is intuitive like, clutter is bad for your qi, but some of it I would have never thought of.
Anyway, I have to write a seven page paper about it by Thursday, so I have a lot of research left to do. But, as part of my project, I am going to Feng Shui my room!!! Lizzy, my roommate, is excited too. It will be hard to find things for our prosperity corner (we need purple, black, green, and money in that corner - definitely don't have purple, black, green, OR money.) And we might be lacking in the relationship corner (I guess family pictures can go there). But it will be fun. And I might find out that that is a totally westernized version of Feng Shui anyway, and not need a prosperity or relationship corner (I'm sure that almost anything we find will be a westernized version considering I can't read Chinese). But it will be fun. :)
I will update you later with pictures about what I learned and what I did, because it will be fun. And we will see if I sleep better, study better, and feel better afterward. :)

Printer Fiasco Turned Victory

Recently I bought a printer. Exciting, I know. Front page news.
 But really, I was excited. It was an HP Officejet 4680 - an all-in-one.

It prints wirelessly, scans, copies, faxes, and walks the dog. Except maybe the walking the dog part. With my dad's coupons and some serious haggling, I bought the brand-new printer, ink refill, and a two year warranty for $36. Not bad, if I must say so myself.
Then I brought it home. It was supposed to be an easy set up, but for some reason my computer didn't like the software. It didn't even recognize the driver disk as software, and I had to look through the files on it to find a setup button. After struggling with it for a long time, and inviting over one of my computer friends, we got it mostly set up, and started to set up the wireless part (the part that sold me).
My printer printed out its own report card. The right column was full of "PASS"es, and one big, fat, ugly "FAIL". I had bought a faulty printer. The wireless didn't work. It even knew that it didn't work. Ugh. It could print with a USB cable, but what is the point of a wireless printer that can't print wirelessly?
A couple of days later I gave up and called HP's 1-800 number. And I know for a fact that the guy I was talking to was from India, or somewhere very like that. He was friendly, but we had....some difficulties communicating.
"Yes! A as in alpha!!!"
Anyway, after over a half an hour on the phone, he was convinced that my printer was not working. He told me that they could send me a new one and that I could mail my old one back to them, with prepaid shipping. I was fine with that. A minute later he changed his mind. "um, I thought of something better. What if we just emailed you a coupon for $139 to our website to buy a new printer?" I was like, "Yes!" And I would get to keep my old printer, which worked just fine besides the not wireless part. Sweet! "Okay. If you don't get the email within a couple of days, call this number, and enter this extension." Nice.
Well, it didn't come. Of course it couldn't be that easy.
And then "Jessica" (also Indian, from the sound of it) left a message on my phone for me to call her back.
Long story short, Jessica was from an entirely different branch and just needed my info for the records. Then someone else called me to make sure I was happy with the coupon - which still hadn't come. After more miscommunication,
"Yes! A as in alpha! T as in tom!!!!"
they got my name and email address right.
And now I have a shiney new printer, the HP Photosmart D110a.

With $139 I was able to buy ink and a warranty as well. What a relief to have that all over. Willie got the old printer, and the wireless (along with the nifty ePrint feature - I can email print jobs to my printer from anywhere) works on this one. Whew.
In the end I think I was just paid for the frustration, but I am happy with how it ended. Score on my part. I'm sure Willie isn't too disappointed either. :)

Catchin' Up

I recently had a friend get after me for not updating my blog so let it reach the top of my to-do list. After all we know how much I love blogging. :)
I decided that instead of doing all the updaters, stories, and thoughts in one post I will split it up. It will be more exciting that way. Are you excited? I am. So look for it - a bunch of unconnected, maybe short, maybe long but definitely April posts. Ready...Set...Apostrophe!