My Parents' Visiting Day
Jul. 23rd, 2005 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_ytI was very lazy today, but I got my laundry done, and I'm doing well on my knitting. Contrary to what I said before, I was not close to finishing my swatch, because I actually unravelled it again. But now I'll finish it. Honest.
Mom and Dad came this evening and we went out for dinner. Mom was surprisingly un-bothersome and approved of the apartment. I don't know if her not bothering me was just because she was in a good mood and we hadn't been in each other's company long, because she felt like she shouldn't be nagging me now that I'm on my own, or what. I wonder if it will last the rest of the day tomorrow. Anyway, the parents brought me gifts from Spain, including olive oil in a beautiful bottle, a hand-painted fan, some chocolate tea and chocolate incense. But I just got tea with chocolate in it yesterday...
Dad brought an old bike rack from home and found that yes, it will fit on the used bike I got, although we will need some different screws for it. We're getting a Kryptonite lock for it too, and some groceries and other things. The visit is going well so far.
On an unrelated note, I seem to be having trouble with my monitor. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, not a desktop, so it doesn't work like a regular monitor. It's an LCD screen. My problem is that a lot of the lighter colors - yellows, greys, pale oranges - seem to be faded and washed-out. I thought I should change the contrast on my monitor but I can't figure out how to do that. There's a way to change the brightness, and that's all I know. My monitor may also be wearing out. I guess I could get a new one, but that would be pricey and I'd rather find some other solution if I can. Any suggestions?
Oh, I almost forgot. I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel today. And it really does live up to the hype. That and more. It's funny like a Jane Austen novel and scary, compelling and mysterious like Neil Gaiman's stuff. It's like a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Stardust with a bit of the Baroque Cycle and a pinch of the World of Darkness mixed in. Although that doesn't do it justice. If you haven't started reading it yet, you should. It is a long book but very much worth every page.
Mom and Dad came this evening and we went out for dinner. Mom was surprisingly un-bothersome and approved of the apartment. I don't know if her not bothering me was just because she was in a good mood and we hadn't been in each other's company long, because she felt like she shouldn't be nagging me now that I'm on my own, or what. I wonder if it will last the rest of the day tomorrow. Anyway, the parents brought me gifts from Spain, including olive oil in a beautiful bottle, a hand-painted fan, some chocolate tea and chocolate incense. But I just got tea with chocolate in it yesterday...
Dad brought an old bike rack from home and found that yes, it will fit on the used bike I got, although we will need some different screws for it. We're getting a Kryptonite lock for it too, and some groceries and other things. The visit is going well so far.
On an unrelated note, I seem to be having trouble with my monitor. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, not a desktop, so it doesn't work like a regular monitor. It's an LCD screen. My problem is that a lot of the lighter colors - yellows, greys, pale oranges - seem to be faded and washed-out. I thought I should change the contrast on my monitor but I can't figure out how to do that. There's a way to change the brightness, and that's all I know. My monitor may also be wearing out. I guess I could get a new one, but that would be pricey and I'd rather find some other solution if I can. Any suggestions?
Oh, I almost forgot. I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel today. And it really does live up to the hype. That and more. It's funny like a Jane Austen novel and scary, compelling and mysterious like Neil Gaiman's stuff. It's like a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Stardust with a bit of the Baroque Cycle and a pinch of the World of Darkness mixed in. Although that doesn't do it justice. If you haven't started reading it yet, you should. It is a long book but very much worth every page.
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Date: 2005-07-24 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-25 12:20 pm (UTC)The other solution would be scrounge up an external monitor, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop.
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Date: 2005-07-25 12:24 pm (UTC)The good news is that I seemed to have fixed the problem in another way. I turned on high contrast mode with standard Windows color schemes (which helped a bit). I also downloaded the latest video driver for my monitor. I don't know if that actually did anything, but when I reset my computer the colors were fine again.