So, I decided to just take matters into my own hands and reset everything. I rebuilt the entire account from scratch—which was a pain because I realized I’d accidentally wiped my data folder too, so I had to rebuild that from the ground up as well. Now, incoming mail is working fine, but outgoing? Not so much. It’s being temperamental. Messages just sit there in the outbox, staring at me, and then—after a few hours or even longer—they finally decide to actually send. I dealt with this exact same headache recently and, honestly, it just fixed itself without me doing a single thing. My new laptop should be arriving in a couple of days, so until then, I'll just be juggling things by using Bill Gates for some stuff and sticking to webmail for the rest. Thanks.
So, I went ahead and manually wiped everything off my hard drive—emptied the Trash and everything. In the process, I accidentally nuked all my messages too. Total disaster. I'm going to try to fix this by just recreating the account from scratch.
I was trying to clear out some space on my hard drive, but I went way too aggressive with it—ended up wiping out every single one of my emails in Microsoft Outlook in the process. Here’s the real kicker: now my emails aren't even showing up in the app anymore. My account settings are perfectly fine, and when I send myself a test message, it hits my webmail just fine, but the second I open Microsoft Outlook, it's just... empty. Like, totally blank. Did I go overboard with the cleanup and break something? What am I actually supposed to do to get my emails flowing back into Microsoft Outlook again?
How talkative are your teenagers, say around the 14 or 15-year-old mark? I look at my buddies' kids and some of them—honestly, they just don't shut up. They come home and spill everything about school, who they talked to, where they went, the whole nine yards. Then there's the complete opposite end of the spectrum—the ones who act like talking is physically painful. All I get is "I don't know," "nothing," "fine," and so on. That’s the kid I’ve got. Some coworkers have even confirmed this happened to them with their own kids too, and they basically just say it’s a phase that eventually passes. I was browsing online looking for some perspective, and everyone seems to be preaching about "finding oneself" during adolescence and the need for parental support without being overbearing or pushy. I honestly have no clue where the line is for what counts as "normal" behavior, but I certainly don't remember going through some grand period of "searching for myself" when I was that age.
It feels to me like that selection method is what people call "mic po mic." 😁 After we initially set the budget at $7,000, we realized we could actually get away with spending just $6,200—but then it turned out it would have been smarter to bump it back up to $7,000 or even $7,500, and if we added just a tiny bit more, we’d be looking at $7,800.
In the end, we pulled the trigger on the Asus GL552VW. I was hell-bent on getting this sorted today before the snow hits—which actually played a part in the decision since so many local shops were closed for inventory today, making everything unavailable. Even though the chassis is plastic, it’s still a gaming laptop, so it should be built well enough for what it's meant to do.
If I were picking for myself, an SSD would be an absolute must-have, but I’d honestly prefer to look around for a Fujitsu somewhere out there—you can only find those basic models my kid has used before around here—because I’ve had nothing but great experiences with their gear.
On Monday, we’re cracking open Windows, and then the little guy is jumping straight into Battlefront 👍 so he can blow off some steam while the holidays are still going, otherwise his grades might start slipping later on.
Huge, huge thanks for all the detailed answers, examples, and guidance. I actually learned quite a bit along the way.
Thanks a million for such an incredibly detailed response. In the meantime, I’ve been doing some digging on PC Connection, and they strongly suggested we definitely aim for the Nvidia GTX 960.
We already pretty much settled on the N550 JX for $6,250 at home, but that recommendation really gave me pause. I need this laptop to last at least three years—if it can't even handle running Battlefront 4 properly right now, what's going to happen with all the new games coming out down the road? (The kid is also looking at stuff like GT 5, that's his kind of thing.)
Also, in the interim, the little guy decided he doesn't actually care about how the laptop looks as long as it's "good." He says whether the keyboard is backlit or not doesn't matter because he'll just be using an external keyboard and an external monitor anyway. He only uses the actual laptop during our summer trips to the coast. (And I have to give him credit here—he's planning to pay for half of it with his own savings.)
The N series caught my eye specifically because of that metal chassis, and when you compare the specs to the GL series (those JX models), it seems logical to me that the N should be more expensive. This N model for $2367 is interesting too, even if it does have the "weaker" graphics card. From what I can gather about the K series, they don't bother putting the 960M in there because the weaker graphics are apparently enough for whatever that specific series is intended for.
Before I stumbled upon your post, I was seriously considering the Asus GL552VW for $2500. So, the dilemma basically boils down to: The N series: Intel i7 4720HQ and Nvidia GTX 950m, or The GL series with an Intel i5 6300HQ and Nvidia GTX 960.
There is, admittedly, an N series option that packs an Intel i7 and a 960M for $2600, but aside from being way outside our planned budget, I'm guessing it's probably overkill anyway.
😁 This guy practically ran out the door, absolutely stoked about grabbing a new laptop.
darkowl72, looking at these remaining links from the Aquarium—which one should I actually prioritize: the GL series or the N series? I’m hunting for something for my kid with a budget of roughly $700, since this was a totally unplanned purchase, but it needs to handle some gaming—even if the little one isn't some hardcore gamer glued to the screen 24/7. I was thinking at least an Intel i5, 8GB of RAM (but please, nothing with soldered RAM on the board), and an Nvidia GTX 950 or better. A 15-inch screen is plenty because it’ll mostly be hooked up to an external monitor anyway. Oh, and the keyboard definitely needs to be backlit.🙄 I've been eyeing the Asus GL552jX and the N550 JX. I honestly have no clue what the F series is like. Is there anything else in that price range that would be a smarter buy? Asus is offering a 2-year warranty, which is a plus.
Yeah, that’s the bottom line right there. I don't think anyone has actually touched on how refunds work when you're dealing with facilities that don't have a direct contract with State Farm. It seems obvious enough—you pay the bill upfront and then file for reimbursement—but I’m honestly not 100% sure if that’s still the standard procedure. Ever since this spring, has it changed to just paying directly at the pharmacy if they have a decent card reader? Does anyone know??? Anyway, look—if we're talking about something like hospital stays where the costs skyrocket into the thousands of dollars, the usual move is to grab an estimate and send it over to State Farm so they can cover it. The patient should only be out of pocket up to $167 (and then they file for that refund). If the cost goes over that, you go with the pre-payment route. At least, that’s how my agent laid it out for me.
Joshua Gray75 said:A brilliant strategic move—paying for $25 now that Medicare has slashed its coverage rates for $23... and naturally, the USA remains absolutely silent... just... well... you know... 🙂🙂🙂
Don't even sweat it. If you only knew the kind of absolute nonsense Medicare can pull out of thin air... this $1.75 difference isn't even worth mentioning.
I seriously can't thank you enough. This whole situation has been eating at me for months—and honestly, even my dean at the university didn't have a single clue what was actually going on.
On one computer, every single time I try to open a PDF, it insists on launching Photoshop—which is honestly just tragic. Photoshop tries to display every single page of the document all at once, so then I have to manually click on the specific page I actually want to see, and after that, I have to close everything out just to start the whole annoying process over again for the next page. Meanwhile, on my other machine, PDFs always open in Acrobat, and it’s a total breeze to scroll through multi-page documents. The pages just stack neatly one after another with those standard black margins. So, here's the question: what exactly do I need to tweak or install on this first computer to stop Photoshop from constantly getting in my way? To be clear, I already have Acrobat Reader 9.3. installed on that first machine too.
Look, after twenty years of dealing with my own dental issues, I’m telling you—go see Dr. Sanja Grabarević over in Mikulić. She’s patient, she actually does a thorough job, and she's genuinely kind. Honestly, I don't get why everyone is so obsessed with finding a dentist just because they live a few blocks away. Like, who cares about the zip code? At the end of the day, the only thing that actually matters is how good their work is.
I’m posting this more because I genuinely want to help rather than because I actually have any solutions myself. Still, it crossed my mind—if there's any way to swing it—that maybe they should get a full-body MRI (I was just reading that those can run you about $1867), or at least go segment by segment, starting with the head. Honestly, if they just rely on social services, it's unlikely they'll find anyone capable of looking at the whole picture instead of just treating symptoms in isolation. By the time you finally navigate all the referrals and wait through endless lines at the VA...
Exactly, Normabel is an anxiolytic. A dose of 5 mg three times a day isn't some massive amount—the maximum prescribed is actually double that: 10 mg three times a day. At the end of the day, how your body reacts to any dose is entirely up to you. Some people are knocked sideways by just 5 mg, while others don't even feel like they took anything at all. Besides, Normabel is even given to pregnant women during critical situations. I was prescribed it here and there during my pregnancy just so things similar to what you're going through wouldn't hit me quite so hard—which, honestly, happens all the time in high-risk OBGYN wards. If you feel like you don't need it, then don't take it. If you can't sleep or just can't make it through the day, maybe try just 2 mg, but don't make it a habit. That's not how you use Normabel. I'm with you on the breathing exercises, running, and all that. You didn't specify exactly what your symptoms are, though. If it’s "just" grieving, Normabel isn't the real solution—at least not in the long run. If you see a psychologist, they’ll undoubtedly tell you that you need to face what happened and accept it rationally. That’s always the advice, and it's probably true, but man, is it hard to actually do. Whenever we have to sort things out in our own heads, it's a hell of a lot harder than just swallowing a pill. The absolute worst part is when a therapist or psychiatrist tells you that everything depends on *you*. I went through some horrific stuff myself regarding my pregnancy and postpartum period, and I truly believe all of that leaves a mark on your body and your psyche. All that trauma—even if you aren't consciously aware of it—can act as a "trigger" during certain moments, like built-up stress. It's incredibly difficult to just "rationally" move past something like that and pretend it never happened. My grandmother once told me about her mother's experience back in the early 1900s. Let's assume people weren't as bombarded by stress back then; the rhythm of life was completely different. Her mother had eleven children. Two girls (or young women, I don't remember exactly, maybe around the 1920s) died from the Spanish Flu. Decades later, my grandmother asked her mother if, amidst all the other kids and the chaos of the 20th century, those two girls ever crossed her mind. You know what she said? "There isn't a day goes by that I don't think of them." I still tear up every time I remember that, even now. I wanted to share that to illustrate that no amount of Normabel or anything else is going to change what happened to you. You're always going to live with it. It would be good to have someone in your circle you can talk to—you shouldn't keep it bottled up, because suppressing everything is bad news. If you don't have anyone like that, come to this forum. You'll always find someone here to cheer you on. Use Normabel only as a last resort—if you feel your heart racing uncontrollably, or you can't catch your breath, etc.—because those states put a massive strain on your system, so taking Normabel is the lesser of two evils in those moments. I really hope you start feeling better soon; I truly mean that.