Monthly Archive: May 2007

About the time I got my computer back to almost-what-it-was (and about 70% of the docs and pictures I CAN recover, recovered)… 4 am on Sunday my ex-wife/best-friend/guru Beth and her SO James arrived as expected.  We had a great (roughly) 3 days together, wish it could have been longer.  Beth just called, they made it to Jacksonville FL (future stops = Freeport, TX and then back home to Ponca City, OK) safely.

I’m getting settled back into being by myself, catching up on my email and forum posts and restoring my browser’s bookmarks.  Been online almost 4 hours doing all that, along with a couple of reboots and such when something got installed or updated.

The magazine project did not happen, because the owners wanted to take all the equipment and leave all the liabilities and were asking far too much.  But you never know what may happen.

Aum Ardhanariswara swarupaya Namaha!

Hugs,
Me

I had known for a couple weeks that my primary hard drive was beginning to fail.  I purchased a used drive to replace it with.

On Friday, I got out my original Setup disks and unplugged my secondary drive (for protection — all my documents, pictures, music, etc. were on my secondary disk).  I completed the setup, and plugged my secondary drive in.  The system rebooted every time I tried to dial in to the Internet.  After a while of trying to fix that, it started rebooting every time it rebooted, a closed loop of booting.  So I got out my old Windows 2000 Professional disk, and installed that.  It kept booting up to Windows XP.  I had no clue why that happened.

Then, upon inspection (performed using an old Windows 98 boot floppy), I found the problem.  Using the Windows 98 boot floppy, my system failed to recognize the new primary drive, but saw the secondary drive, and so it formatted and installed Windows 2000 to my secondary drive.  (I was already panicking over the first install not working, so I forgot to unplug that drive.)  If it weren’t for the fact that this WIPED all my saved files, that wouldn’t be much of a problem.  But at that point, I had lost all my files, except those I have posted to the Internet at my many websites or those I have sent in email using Yahoo or Gmail (I still have the Sent mail).

My old friend John came over with a present to lift my mood — a brand new 160 Gb hard drive.  He offered to sell me a copy of Windows XP Professional for $80, and would take payments.  OK, my troubles were over… I just had to spend days getting my favorite software installed on the new system, and then more days trying to get what files I could off the Internet to replace my lost files.  I’ve spent a few days doing that, and am almost done…

Then Microsoft, as part of doing updates, scanned my XP Pro and determined that it was a counterfeit copy.  This means that my system will shut down in a few weeks, if I do not replace it with a new copy.  (They generously offered to sell me a copy for $149, and even offered a $30 mail-in rebate.)  So, I still don’t have any money, and have to buy a new OS disk — and start over with getting my programs and files back. 

I’m hoping to have something happen that will allow me to get a new, REAL copy of XP Pro.  But if that doesn’t happen, I still have one option.  I still have my old 60 Gb secondary disk with 2000 Pro on it, although I did not complete installation and updates… if I make that my primary disk, make the new 160 Gb disk my secondary, then I can save the files and downloads I’ve already done (although I’ll have to reinstall the programs, at least I won’t have to wait through hours of oft-failed downloads at dialup speed again).  I’m going to wait a few days before making my decision.

If anyone has a better solution, let me know.  The old adage holds, “Experience is directly proportional to ruined equipment.”

Hugs,
Me

Today I went to a party thrown by my friends Sherry and Scott in West Asheville.  As usual when I go over there, I had a great time.  I got to play some music, talk to Sherry, Scott, and other friends, meet new people… Sherry got out her copy of the new Spring 2007 issue of PanGaia Magazine (available at bookstores and certain gift shops everywhere), which I had been wanting to see.  My friend Devi Spring got her article published, “The Emerging Indo-Pagans”.  What I didn’t know and didn’t remember was that I had done a rather extensive interview with Devi, and some of my comments and feelings are part of the article.  Damn, didn’t know I could talk like that.  It was a great article.  Sherry gave me her copy of the magazine… she’s too good to me sometimes, I love going over and talking with them.

Frankie and I started another book.  So far we have read one book and part of another by Spider Robinson, 11 books by Glen Cook, and are starting in on a tome of a collected series by Randall Garrett.  We’ve been at this since not long after we met, with a break last summer when she was in and out of the hospital for a couple months.  All this is going on by telephone.  I love reading aloud, even more so when the person being read to loves it as well.

My ex-wife, Beth, and her boyfriend James, are on the road.  Sometime around the 20th they should get here, and will likely leave the morning of the 23rd.  Hope there’s enough time to do what we want to do together (including a possible trip to Sylva to visit Frankie).

And my favorite band, The Polyphonic Spree, are coming to town on Tuesday for a performance at The Orange Peel.  Somehow I got lucky and had enough money to purchase a ticket.

Hugs,
Me