"Just to Cheer Up Dan..." (NOT)

[Michele Zone]

Happy belated birthday, Dan. For you and only you, so you can have a little perspective on the whole "being mad at your pda" thing, my computer died -- solely to commemorate your birthday, I am sure. Those little clicky sounds (that my computer professional brother-in-law says are death throws of something really really important, like the hard drive, I think) couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.

eG -- I am not a total idiot: I did back up My Documents after the 3rd Blue Screen of Death for the day shut my computer down and the 12 or 15 attempts it took to reboot sort of hinted that maybe this was a tad more serious than your usual Hiccup. However, I may need a copy of your last e-mail to me. Before I could do anything to back up all the e-mails from you, the 4th Blue Screen of Death kind of hinted at the fact that my computer would never boot again, not even with the help of a recovery disk. Sigh.

So, if no one hears from me for a few days, you can safely assume that I am not "mad at you" or "ignoring you" or anything remotely antisocial. No, I am doing Fun Things like frantically searching for my warranty, notifying a few zillion friends and e-mail lists that I can't respond to the last X dozens of e-mails in my inbox (since my Outlook inbox has ceased to exist -- thank goodness for webmail-- I am not totally through dealing, although my "closets" have been thoroughly "cleaned" <chuckle>), etc, and further forms of How To Party Down by the Light of The Blue Screen of Death.

I guess if I were more succinct I could sum up those 3 paragraphs with something eloquent like: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[el Guapo]

No problem. I have been up to my ass in gators at work all week anyway. Good luck.

 

[Dan]

Happy belated birthday, Dan. For you and only you, so you can have a little perspective on the whole "being mad at your pda" thing, my computer died -- solely to commemorate your birthday, I am sure. Those little clicky sounds (that my computer professional brother-in-law says are death throws of something really really important, like the hard drive, I think) couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.

I may consider myself a good hacker, but I wouldn't do that to you, Michelle!

Hard drives are CHEAP now. A couple hundred bucks on newegg.com will get you enough hard disk space to ... well, store a hundred or so DVDs uncompressed. It's scary what you can get now.

 

[Michele Zone]

I may consider myself a good hacker, but I wouldn't do that to you, Michelle!

Hard drives are CHEAP now. A couple hundred bucks on newegg.com will get you enough hard disk space to ... well, store a hundred or so DVDs uncompressed. It's scary what you can get now.

lol, I didn't mean to imply you hexed it, much less that you hacked it. I find this stuff funny. In fact, I am a little disappointed that no one jumped in on the fun to tell their computer sob stories. I am sure every last person here has a few.

We bought a warranty -- probably a 2 or 3 year warranty -- and I have only had the thing about 18 months. They replaced the hard drive for free and I paid for a memory upgrade while I was there. My brother in law told me that 256mb wasn't really "enough" to run XP properly on a laptop, that it would slow it down. And I have had issues with things being slow when I try to multi-task. (In the words of a friend of mine: XP is a pig., lol)

But, I now have to reinstall all kinds of software, etc. I need to figure out some way to back it up that will work for me, so if I have to recover it again (more like "when", not "if"), I can do so with less hassle. I guess I can bug my brother in law about that <grin> when we are on the phone, walking me through getting me set up right with a free GIS so I can use some of that spiffy and expensive knowledge that also gave me the dubious privilege of 13+ months of drug withdrawal. lol.

Seriously: this is not something I consider to be a REAL crisis. I did kind of have my hands full, but a REAL crisis is something that involves a trip to the ER, you know? lol. This is no big deal to me. Daddy fought in both WWII and Vietnam; mom grew up in Germany during WWII and its aftermath, starving and witnessing atrocities I cannot imagine; I have two special needs kids, one of whom has multiple issues (several of them rare, obscure, and seriously handicapping) and we are still working out all "the answers" for the kid; and I nearly died 3 years ago and I am still recovering from it. A dead hard-drive is an entertaining distraction: woohoo! an excuse to go to Sacramento and shop in Fry's while they work on my computer.

But it did make me think of your comment about being "mad" at your new widget (whichever one you are mad at -- PDA?). lol. Cheer up, Dan -- it could be a whole lot worse!!! lol. (Gee, and I wonder why only my oldest son and the "Home Schooling with Chronic Illness" group find me funny. lol.)

 

[Michele Zone]

No problem. I have been up to my ass in gators at work all week anyway. Good luck.

Hey, I meant to say this earlier, but I sort of had to go to Sacramento:
You know, I am surprised that such a competent planner, like you, hasn't passed a zoning ordinance or something that forbids people from bringing their pet aligators to work with them. Besides, isn't it a tad cold and dry in your neck of the woods for 'gators? Well, whatever -- since you seem to have this gator problem at your office, maybe you need to ask some of the planners in Georgia and Florida and some of the other coastal Southeastern states of the U.S. how they handle gators. There is something just not right about being up to your ass in gators at work. Very "not right". Ask around -- maybe someone knows where you can buy gator repellent or something.