Weird Statistics

I've been slowly futzing around with the blog, which you may or may not have noticed (or cared about).  Mostly, I've just been cleaning up old links and adding new ones and the like.  There are some new blogs listed on the right now, and some old one have been removed.  I strongly encourage everyone to visit Hyperbole and a Half.  Hi-larious.  Also, go read XKCD, which is often funny, and always odd (protip: there's mouseover text, so hover your cursor over the comic when you're done reading it for more funny/info).

In all this messing about, I just discovered that Blogger provides stats.  I assume this is a fairly new thing; I mean I don't pay loads of attention, but I've been on Blogger for a over two years now, so I figure I would have noticed it at some point.  Either way, it's very neat to see some of the visitor statistics.  I'm not well loved, but that's cool, because I'm not set up to be crawled by search engines (this is intentional).  What is odd, however, is some of the locations I get visitors from.  The United States, of course, and the UK, since I have friends (and homes) in both locations.  But then it starts to get odd.  In order of most hits (US and UK are the top two), I've also got the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Luxembourg, Angola, Switzerland, Moldova, and Mexico.

Here's the thing.  Most of those only have 2 or 3 hits (ever), except for Russia and the Netherlands.  Why?!  Do I have followers or friends (or stalkers) there?  If so, totally awesome, and if you're in one of those places, you should comment so that I can say hello.  And quite frankly, ask why the hell you care about my rather mundane life, or at least my mundane posts.

In other random news, I'm going to start writing again.  With the death of Geoff a few months ago, I put my one novel on hold, and the historical fiction one has been on hold indefinitely (main character is stranded at the moment, as history is a wee bit sketchy on that part of his life).  I was writing the non-historical fiction one by hand, and I'd started transcribing and editing what I had so far when Geoff blew up, and I just haven't gotten back to it when I got Henry (wouldn't have a Willy or a Sam) up and running.  That was at Thanksgiving, which was immediately followed by Christmas and New Years, so it's been crazy around here, as I assume it has been for most people.  Sadly, I'd love to share my new book with everyone--it's truly perfect for blog format--but as it's journal style and about work, that's not so bueno.  It will be heavily fictionalized, but even though I hate my job, it's the only (paying) one I've got, so I'd rather keep it.  I'm trying, however, to find other things to write about to keep the masses entertained.  Adam and I are going to Iceland in about 3 weeks, so that should provide some interesting fodder for at least a couple of posts.  For now, we'll just say that Adam thinks I should have done more research.  He might have been right.

Obligatory Posting #2

So once again, it's been quite a while.  I apologize, but since I just spend about 15 seconds searching for the hash/pound key (#) on Adam's laptop, that's my excuse.  Yes, ladies and gents, British keyboards are different from US ones, and even after about 2 months of using Adam's computer daily, I still can't find stuff.  But soon, my dears, soon, I shall have a computer of my own again.  I'll be ordering a new MacBook Pro, to be delivered to my folks shortly before Adam and I arrive there.  Which happens in just under 2 weeks.  Yay!!  Most excited.  Lots of tasty food, a better bed, and a puppy who (hopefully still) loves me.  However, I fear Adam may be right; after Faith sees me, she'll look behind me and see Adam, and then look behind Adam in the hopes that she'll see Mark, whom she loves because he played with her several times each day when he went out for a smoke.

Beyond that, I'm sick.  I have the plague.  I'm blaming one of our regulars at work, who had a cold last week.  Carmel wanted to know what we were doing.  Hell, for that matter, I'd like to know what we were doing.   I'm coughing up chunks (yeah, it's more unpleasant for me than the image is for you). The cold nicely matches all the other physical crap that's been going on for the last few weeks (strained groin muscles, leading to a pregnancy scare, which, if I decide to write about it, is it's own whole post and strained intercostal muscles, which led to a prescription of nice high-powered drugs).

The good news, though, is that Karen is back at work.  She came back last Friday, and is working her regular schedule this week.  It's really great to have her back.  She's doing as well as can be expected, which is good, but it still makes me sad; she told me that she cries her eyes out each night before she goes to bed.  It's only natural, but it's heart-wrenching.  Even so, she's coping pretty well at work.  And it's really nice to have her and her sense of humour back with us.

Lastly, I'm envious of Mom and Dad.  They abandoned the puppy--to be left at home, in the care of an apparently very nice British woman who's house/dog sitting--and headed off to Napa Valley for a week.  They're staying in the same B&B that Adam and I stayed in for our honeymoon, and are actually staying in what was supposed to be our honeymoon room (we were upgraded because there were "plumbing problems").  Monday they went to Conn Creek and blended their own wine--as Adam and I recommended, because it's the most awesome experience ever--and last night were supposed to go to La Toque, where Adam and I also ate, and was also fabulously delicious.  I am most envious, and both Adam and I want to go back to Napa (actually, we've decided we want to move there, but that's down the road).

I'm tired of writing, so I will abandon you all for now.  Again.

Catastrophe, Catastrophe

Of many sorts.  Here's the short version (seriously, I'm going to abridge it dramatically), and why I really haven't posted in a bit.

Work: I've been working many hours and many days.  Illness and injuries have abounded, as have holidays.  Most recently, my coworker's husband died (the funeral was today, as a matter of fact).  Karen was on holiday for a week, but instead of heading out of town as planned, her husband had surgery the Monday they were to leave.  She kept the week off, since a week of not being at work is better than a week of being at work.  Sadly though, about 6 days after his surgery, he died; he had had a heart attack (which I presume was brought on by complications from the surgery, but obviously I'm neither a doctor nor the coroner).  Stuart was only 53.  So Karen was out two weeks ago for holiday, last week, this week, and what we presume will be at least two more weeks.  Poor Karen is not doing well, which is unsurprising, but still quite sad.  Additionally, Carmel is going on holiday starting Monday.  That leaves me as the only shop staff for our shop for the next 2.5 weeks.  That means 6 days of work a week for me.  I will be sent help, at least.  But the next person who tells me to think of the money will get a foot in the ass.  I have thought of the money, and it ain't enough.

Computer: To make matters worse, my laptop (Geoff), had a catastrophic failure on Sunday.  I know what caused it, but I don't know why.  For those keeping score, this is the second time in 15 months that I've forced a shut down on Geoff (ie. holding down the power button until it shuts off, something you only do when you have no other options), and the second time in 15 months that it has caused a massive hardware failure.  Last year, it physically broke my hard drive.  Not a "oh, you somehow corrupted the data on the drive" failure, but a "the spindle broke and if you want the data, send it to a data recovery company with a clean room, and pay them about $1500 for it."  This time I'm not getting the "sad Mac" face or folder with a question mark (which means it can't find the boot disc, probably because you corrupted or broke it).  I'm getting nothing but a gray screen (so the monitor isn't toast).  That implies to me that either the logic board is fried, or the processor blew.  If it's the logic board, I'll get a new computer, because replacing it is half the cost of the computer (and they probably replaced my hard drive last year with another faulty one anyway), and I'm betting the same will go for the processor.  If I'm lucky and it's the hard drive though (heh, "luck"), I'll buy one myself and replace it myself.  And I'll get a solid state drive this time, because when there are no moving parts, they cannot break.  Note: I'm not saying solid state drives can't be trashed, just that there are no moving parts to them, meaning spindles cannot break, thereby screwing you out of 9 months of data (how long I'd had the computer before the drive broke.  I now have a nice 1 terabyte external drive on which everything is backed up.  Sadly, Adam's computer cannot access it, stranding me without my videos and music).

So yes.  This is why I haven't posted much.  I've been working loads, not wanting to talk about work for a variety of reasons, and now I'm computerless.  Or to be accurate, using Adam's windows desktop.  And if I end up buying *another* friggin' new computer, it won't be until we're in Oregon in November, so this state of being could last a while.  Plus, Adam's not thrilled, because, despite his complaints about how and when I use my laptop, he also likes it and uses it.  Mine is on whenever I'm home, so it's always easy and quick to look something up, whereas he doesn't like leaving the desktop on, and it's not portable, so it's not as handy to look up porn stuff on IMDb.

Oh well.  I might be getting a MacBook Pro this time (MacBooks don't come with solid state drives, only the Pros do).  I fear I may also waste $300 on an extended warranty, which I hate doing, but it's shown me this time that I need to.

Righto.  I must make tea (supper for those who don't hear it called tea all the time) for tomorrow.  Butternut squash stuffed with lardon, onions, mushrooms, and apples.  And probably some cheddar, since we don't have cream cheese.

The one damn time...

When I started writing, I rigorously made a point of backing up--on three different stick drives, mind you--my work. Because I knew, just knew, that if I lost everything, I would lose my mind (as you can tell by my continual bitching of lost photos, music, etc.).

So guess what...I've lost about 500-800 words of my second chapter. I left my protagonist stranded in a foreign city, because I couldn't figure out what to do with him there (history tells me nothing, so I'm on my own). I finally had inspiration on that two nights ago (a cop-out, really, but it would get the story moving again, and his location in the foreign city really isn't that important, just a historical necessity), as well as on my other story--which is handwritten, so that's safe (unless there's a fire, etc....knock on wood). As such, I finally sat down and started writing again tonight, determined to bring my protagonist home.

Except that where I left off is not what I have on paper (so to speak). Granted, my second chapter was sucking, but it wasn't my plan to edit it and start a chunk of it over again just now. Yurgh.

Well, I suppose on the bright side, I know what I'm working on tonight and tomorrow. Dammit. Hopefully I'll get enough done in the next 24 hours to get to where I wanted to by the end of tonight's writing session, not tomorrow's.

Like losing a part of my mind

I got Geoff back yesterday.

Even though I knew I would be getting my computer back sans all personal data--so fresh and clean, in fact, that I had to reinstall the OS--I'm not sure anything can really prepare you for the loss of EVERYTHING. I knew that my personal files wouldn't be there, and I knew that all the software I have acquired over the years (legal, thank you very much) would have to be reinstalled, but I forgot all the little things that would be different. My Dashboard has to be reconfigured. I managed to get old versions of my address book and my Safari (web browser) bookmarks, but it's not the same. Geoff's a stranger now, not an extension of myself.

I've lost so much. All my music, all my photos are gone (I do have much of both backed up, and much not). In some ways, what hit the hardest was the complete and total destruction of my email. I keep nearly every email I get, and I had folders for everyone. That's all gone. I'll start again, but it's painful to open up my email and not see the long list of folders of friends past and present.

I also had to reset up my Dead Gentlemen email. That was a right pain (but thanks to Evan for a prompt response), mostly because DG now uses Google to host, and I also have a Gmail address. Wires were getting crossed, but--hopefully--it seems to work now. The good news is that I had all my communications with Matt in the webmail, so I still have his script and my notes on it, as well as our communications. And oddly enough, there some photos of my dear Faith in there as well. Though not the one I had been using as my desktop photo (Mom and Dad should have that one).

I still haven't decided if I want to try and salvage the data off the old harddrive. Part of me desperately wants it back, and part of me just says "fuck it, I'll start again." I've been keeping my novels backed up on 3 different stick drives, and I had--at some point--backed up my resumé/CV/cover letter folder, so I have some of those (thankfully, as I paid for a service to redo them. Didn't really help).

In some ways this is good. It forces me to take stock of what I really need/want, and what I don't. It forces me to do a proper clean-up of my computer, something I've needed and (kinda) wanted to do for years. But it's a pain, so I haven't. Now, with a fresh new system, I can fix some of that. But I didn't want to fix it at the expense of everything.

My old laptop, Jeffrey, was fully copied onto Geoff (hence the naming) when I got Geoff last September. So I'm backed up until about then. In Eugene. My external HD is backed up from 2006...yeah....When I get back to Eugene, I'll make a decision about data recovery. It should be a bit cheaper there (rates for repair are about $100/hr in the States, and £100/hr in the UK).

In the meantime, this forces me to properly set up my address book, something I haven't done since...possibly ever. So, if you read my blog, please email me the following information (if you don't have an email address for me, post on the blog), and feel free to pass my request onto others. I will also send out an email in the next few days, so you may get asked for this twice.

Full Name (include maiden if appropriate)

Partner's full name (ditto above)

preferred email address(es) (partner too, if you're/he/she is willing)

Full mailing address

cell phone number

home phone number

Birthday (day and month, year would be nice, but as we get older, I understand the desire to hide that)

Anniversary (if appropriate)

any online blogs, photo albums, etc

anything else you want to send me: employer info, etc.

I know that's a lot of info, and some of it strange, but I want to have the ability to contact people in a variety of fashions. I also want to be able to wish people happy birthday--please don't assume I know/remember your birthday. I really suck at that. Or your anniversary.

Right, I need to go exercise. I shall try to blog again tomorrow, and tell you all about the joyous day I had in Manchester picking up Geoff. Highlights include bra shopping, a broken-down train, and 10-year-old wannabe hooligans. Amongst other joys.

Additionally, I'll try to get back onto my Sunday reviews this weekend.

Crapstick

Thank you Matt, for that brilliant word. It sums it all up perfectly for me.

Geoff is still dead. I got the install/software discs from Mom and Dad today, but they can't repair the problem. So...the next step is me off to Manchester, where there is not one, but two Apple Stores. The actual Apple Store, authorized and such by Cupertino (ie where Apple is based). They have a "Genius Desk" where staff can try and solve problems for free, and if they can't, will recommend service as needed. I should still be under warranty, but Cheesus only knows if I'll actually be covered (seems like they don't cover some things that they should). If they can recover my files, yay! If not, I'll be posting here and sending out a lot of email asking for addresses and phone numbers and the like.

And possibly photos--I believe that I will have lost all photos of Kristan's wedding, let alone anything else since mid-March 2007. Though that said, Jeffrey (Geoff's predecessor) will have everything (I hope) through August of 2008. Assuming I uploaded the photos prior to getting Geoff.

I hate this. I have a plan, for when I have lots of money. It involves a laptop and a desktop being synced nightly, and weekly backups to what I would like to be a 500 terrabyte drive. Never let it be said that I don't look to the future of hard-drive glutting programs and operating systems. The only reason I haven't fully backed up Geoff is because it takes SO much time. And because I don't have an external drive that's big enough, or enough space on my iDisk to back up EVERYTHING. Though I should have enough space to get the important bits regularly. I just hate how long it takes. Guess I'll be sucking it up more regularly though.

Dead Computer

Geoff just suffered an unexplained death. I don't know why or how but he can't find the boot disk. I'm sincerely hoping the loss hasn't wiped the drive or corrupted anything other than the boot disk, but until I find out what and how much I've lost I won't be blogging or emailing. It does not help matters much that Adam's wireless currently isn't working. Typing on an iPod touch isn't much fun.

I'm going to contemplate suicide now.