Things That Make Me Cranky

Well, anything really, but I have some specific things in mind:

1. Being told to write 100 pages a week. That was on Monday, and now on Friday, I have written zero pages this week. Yay.

2. My office smells like skunk. It's just my part of the building, and it really, really stinks. I have a headache.

3. Because of 1 and 2, I had a "disproportionate response" to a software problem this morning. I own a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro, which is awesome because I get to do a lot of great things with PDF files. However, I also have installed copies of Adobe Reader, for simpler things like web browsing. Turns out this morning that the latest update to Reader took over my registry and wouldn't let me use Acrobat Pro. This is a problem since I paid for that software and intend to use it until it's worn out. So in a total flame, I called Adobe tech support.

"Hello, ma'am, may I have your customer ID number?"

"No. No, you may not. This is because I don't have the docs with me and I can't open the application to give you the registration number."

Short silence as Bangalore Kid absorbs my words and tone.

"OK, describe the problem for me."

Which I did, using my nice voice and my quiet words. But...

"OK ma'am, I'm not sure what went wrong, but we no longer support Acrobat 6.0, the current version is 9.0."

"You can support me, and you will."

"But ma'am, that version is no longer..."

"I don't care about that, just fix it."

"Um... it sounds like the new version of Reader has taken over some Registry keys, and the best thing you can do is un-install Reader. For more intensive support, I'll have to charge you $39."

"You must be joking with me. Why would you issue a version of Reader that interferes with Acrobat? That's nonsensical. By the way, I'm not paying for anything. I bought this software just 5 years ago, and it would be perfectly good if you just supported it."

"Um... would you like a case number?"

"Yes, of course. I'll just un-install Reader while I'm at it, and that better fix the problem."

"Have a good day, ma'am."

So just a service announcement: 5 year old software may not be supported by the issuing company.

Of course I know that I could have just uninstalled Reader in the first place, but then I wouldn't have had the pleasure of harassing a perfectly nice kid in Bangalore. Doing it the cranky way got me extra pleasure and a touch of summer, just like a vacation, but cheaper.

All better now, and I bet I can knock those 100 pages out this afternoon.