Lessons in Safe Computing, Part 1

Hey there! Well, Friends, it finally happened to me...I got caught with my computing pants down.

In other words, my computer died on me and I have no recent back up of my data. :-(((

My computer has been sharing the symptoms with me for a few weeks now, but I ignored them. My cooling fan in my desktop cpu began whirring randomly. What did I do? Banged the cpu with my fist until it stopped and went on with my life.



I was so smug. I researched and determined it definitely wasn't my hard drive, because that would be a grinding and I would not be able to make it stop like I did. But, did I stop to wonder what in the heck it could be?



Yes. I finally discovered it was my fan, but my mistake was thinking it would go on forever like that or I would know when it quit working. Wrong.



Then, my monitor began acting wonky. And my screen began to blink black, which was highly annoying, but when it started blinking every 3 seconds, I finally got scared.



You shoulda seen me. I was able, using remarkable perseverence brought on by panic, to navigate through a black screen every 2 out of 3 seconds onto the internet, find my latest video graphics card driver, download it, and then install it! After rebooting, problemo solved!



Or so I thought. It lasted about a day. Did I use that day to do a backup? Oh Hell No. No, I spent that day looking for computers online, taking my usual turtle-speed time. Then, I went to sleep for 10 hours and left the machine on. That is pure D confidence, lemme tellya.



It proved to also be stupid and fatal, cuz Monday morning the blinking started up again and when I rebooted, I got the Dell screen, then the Windows XP screen, then...a blue screen. I could hear the familiar sounds of the hard drive accessing the programs to load them at startup. Just could not see crap. Dead screen.



So, the bottom line is, I am pretty sure that my hard drive is okay, but I needed to figure out a way to be able to access it. I would have to, at the very least, replace the fan and the video card...and I also read that a few people had their ram cooked, too, so just repairing the pc innards might not let me see my info.



Missy to the rescue! I've been able to use her laptop when she is at work. I learned all about hard drive external enclosure cases that connect via usb. I learned that I could take my hard drive out of the desktop, put it into one of these cases, and then it becomes an external hard disk to my new computer. I can then access all my old files: my emails, my address book, my bill receipts, my usuernames and passwords, my photos, and last but not least, my personal and client tax return files.

Well, this concludes Part 1 - stay tuned for the exciting conclusion! ;-p

New Banner Here + New Blog #2!

Hidyhoyo!

(This is the current greeting among Missy's pals this summer...it's so hokey, it makes me chuckle every time I hear it.)

So, how do you likey my new banner? I have been wanting a banner-lift for a while, and yesterday I just rolled up my sleeves and made something I'd had in my head. I dunno, I kinda like it.

And hey, guess what? What's a year without me creating a blog, right? So far this year, I haven't done that. But, wait! LOL, yup, I did it again, hehe.

Seriously, I've been wanting to separate my life and opinions from my art. This blog has a good title for my life and opinion posts, so it became apparent the the new blog #2 needed to be the art one. That's how Paper Paisleys art journal blog was born!

There is still tons to do over there in the way of transferring links and decorating here and there, but I'll fill in those things as I go. Please go visit and see the banner I created for that blog, too. :-)

Meanwhile, here at the ranch, I need to catch up. I was blessed to have been given no less than 3 blogging awards in July, and I have them displayed on my sidebar.

Karyn awarded me the Twinks Award.








Then, Benita and Jill both awarded me the Brillante Award. Thank you very much, Ladies! (And Happy Birthday, Jill!)





The rules for the "Brillante Weblog" award are:
The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
Link to the person you received your award from.
Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
Put links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.
I am giving the "Brillante Weblog" award to the following bloggers:

1. Cheryl - she needs a tiny little pick-me-up right now
2. Lynn - I've been thinking about arthritis and wrestling lately, and that fits only one person I know! ;-)
3. Noelia - I've been working on a special sumpsump for her, a year overdue {hangs head in shame}, but good things happen for a reason and ever since I decided on something I loved, I finally started it last week. Soon, my friend. And hoping you are having fun on your trip. :-)
4. Maureen - she's funny and I have so many of her posts to catch up on {hangs head once more in shame}
5. Vicki - love this woman...and she and her DH need some healing thoughts right now.
6. Theresa - because she is the only female golfer I know :-)
7. Texas Kim - this girl needs another job and maybe this will be good luck. :-)

Onto other items of note, my health has worsened a bit since the spring. The arthritis needs strong meds and then I get complications that are a pita as much as the disease.

I definitely have to close up my tax shop and there'll be no more working for the next several months. I'm embarrassed to say that I have ADD now as one of those treatment complications. Lord, I'm really glad I didn't have this my entire life. They tell me it will go away once I finish the therapy protocol, but part of me wonders about it. And I'm also told that it gets better as I learn to deal with it better. Hope so. Typing is still a real chore some days.

I've really had to re-think my involvement in almost everything in my life this year. This is why I've not been blogging so much. That saved energy works better for me if I put it into my art because that calms me down and helps me practice focussing. Since "focus" was my Word for 2007, how creepy is that, that I would be taught the following year that I was then a pretty good focusser, after all, before I really needed work now.

Making things also helps me stay more positive. It's been tough to lose your previous life-as-you-knew-it, in bits and pieces, inch by inch, slowly. It just never stops, ya know? I am going to write more frequently though. Just maybe in shorter spurts. And then just upload images to Paper Paisleys with few words. On those days that a big old post (like this one! Already breaking my rules...) seems too complicated and hard to do.

That's my cue to sign off for now...Sooner and Laterz!

I Wish

I've been thinking that a lot lately, those two little words, I wish. When I was a child, those were almost sacred words, to be used most judiciously, lest the wishes wouldn't come true. Now that I'm grown up (most of the time), I think I might want to start wishing for my desires and as many as possible.

Like, I wish we'd had these cute little cartoon graphics on sandwich baggies when I was a kid...



And I wish that every Western Gulf hurricane goes in just like Dolly...

...not that today's gonna be a walk in the park for my part of the world. Just look at that radar image, above. That's as of almost an hour ago, 5:30 a.m. See the Houston area and all the rain we are getting? It's going to be like that all day long and maybe all night. The Houston news this morning is already predicting definite street flooding for today, since Houston floods at the first sign of spit. Brownsville and Corpus are getting the hurricane, but you hide and watch, if any rain band training occurs, some areas around me will be impacted almost as badly.

There is some weird-ass "black hole" type meteorological explanation for it, but we often get pattern "grooves" like El Nino a few years back, where storm clouds travel over and then are caught up in. So, certain areas get 10x more rainfall than other areas just blocks away.



I felt the first outer bands of Dolly exactly at 3 p.m. yesterday. I was walking out the back door to go drop off some mail and a gust of wind almost pulled the door out of my hand. It was a dry very hot wind. The second I got into the car, it began to slant rain. It squalled the entire time I was travelling, and then died down the moment I pulled into the driveway. Talk about timing!

Now, as the sun is coming up, I have been up all night and am on a naturally-wired Hurricane high, even though the dang storm is going in 300 miles to my South. It never fails. I've been this way (my "hurricane high") for every storm I've lived through since my first in 1961. I'll collapse later on and sleep, no worries, but for now, I'll just be grateful that in my alert state I've decided that I want to blog, LOL.

So, I also wish I can get back into regular blogging again. It's really tough when you're out of the habit.

Hm, I wish I could continue to create like I've been recently. I'm still working on creating organization more than anything else, but I am pushing myself to do my little art like daily exercise. Sometimes I finish in a day, sometimes in 3...




The first atc with the little boy was one that Tina liked on my Flickr. Thanks for the comment, Tina! And Reba likes the Bird of Pair-a-Dice (LOL, you know how I like my puns, thank you, Reba). I made the backgrounds for all of them: 2 of them with my new crayon pastels, distress ink sponging on one, and acrylic paints on one.

As for my organizing, my little homemade Clip-It Rack is growing and filling in...



Remember the 3-ring binder spine label I made, and said I'd probably have to change it out once I found a better use for the binder? Well, haha. It happened. I just turned the label over and made a new one on the back side. Here it is:



Then, I finally found a great yahoo group to join for trading and swapping 4x6 APC's (altered post cards). That made it necessary to create a template for this new size of art, so I worked one up (got a little silly, too):





I bought one of those templates for my ATC's at European Papers, and I like it so much, I tried to replicate the idea...really helps me visualize how an image will look on smaller-sized art.

And now, since I am seeing little lightning pops and hearing the rumbling of thunder, I'll close before we get any power interrupts, with a birthday photo of the most gorgeous young woman:



I am continually amazed I gave birth to this girl. Isn't she WOW to the 20th degree? Even though summer semester college algebra here at the local junior college is currently eating her lunch. Mega-homework and killer quizzes for a subject she doesn't really like and probably won't use much in advertising as a copywriter. 57 on the first quiz, yup, that's my Missy, LOL. I'm smelling a C, hopefully. Which is fine cuz the grade doesn't count, only the credit earned, if she passes. If she doesn't, she just tries again next summer. Since her aptitude in math is plenty high, having to take it a second time should be motivation enough to pass...

This is hard

Late Sunday evening --
Sorry, guys for missing my Wednesday posting day. I just haven't been feeling like sharing anything lately. Not that there's been anything really worth sharing, lol. Maybe that's it. All I can think to write about is how hot it is.

We got out this afternoon, late, 5-ish. Went down to The Boardwalk to have a birthday dinner for Missy, who turns 20 tomorrow. We tried Babin's a new seafood restaurant, but the service was so bad that Hubs insisted we leave after getting our salads. So, we went next door to Salt Grass, and had a wonderful time. Of course, I'm still stuck back there leaving a restaurant in the middle of the order, still a bit horrified, both at the audaciousness and at Hubs, who always talks about it but never does it. Till today.

After our meal, which we spent way too money on (even though it was very good), we rode the new roller coaster. Wow, that got our blood flowing! (And thankfully, no upchucking.) It was still so dang hot though, that I don't know that I'd do it again until October or November. Just standing around, with a breeze, and you feel like you've got gritty tanning oil all over you underneath your clothes. And I'd showered about an hour prior to starting out!

I'm just getting old and too fat, I guess. If I were able to cocoon in my home during the hot months down here, I could handle it alright. And that's getting more and more allowed (as in people thinking you are weird or not), what with the gas prices and the heat (cuz utility costs are rising too).

It's always funny watching a local TV news story about how to save gas, because there's really not much leeway. They shouldn't even run those kind of stories down here. Not running the a/c in your car is not an option, especially if you have children what with child endangerment and all. What else are you gonna do beside just not starting the machine up at all?

We're not speeding (anymore, hehe). We're consolidating our errands. We've forced Hubs to stop his gawd-awful grocery shopping practice of going to 3 different stores to save 5 or 10 cents on something. What made that doubly maddening once the heat set in, was that he'd poop out and not get it all bought in one outing, on account of the heat is exhausting. So, we were beginning to always be out of this or that, including stuff on my diet, which I of course have not been following religiously so I haven't lost much. Good take on that is I have not gained, either, but I digress.

Okay, well. I've been very busy mostly, back into working some on my RAK's to send out, working at finding some new yahoo groups to broaden my art horizons, and continuing to organize the snot out of my supplies. I am so slow, but I am making progress.




A couple of photos above of a 3-ring binder I re-purposed to hold empty magnetic sheets. I don't think there is anything that Crop-A-Dile can't punch through! Then, this is just like me, I decided this binder would be much more useful housing a year's worth of ATC collection when I decided to separate them by year received. So, I took that spine label and just turned it over and am now designing a title for my binder's new purpose. Oh well...and hey, shows that the label can be changed! LOL




The above photos show the other thing I've been playing with: making ring clips for my homemade clip-it-rack out of existing supplies. Again, Crop-A-Dile to the rescue! Yes, it can punch a hole in a wooden clothespin. I love the little mini ones. They're the same ones I used on my InspiraLine. Anyway, that project is going well.




I'm trying to patiently wait for the second season premiere of Mad Men on AMC, but I had to break down and rent season 1 at Blockbuster. Ahhhh! I love the over-the-top stylishness of it, like the Hollywood Rat Pack style applied to nonfamous white collar big city America. And since I know that the way they depict the sexism is pretty accurate for 1960, it blows my mind to realize how far we have come in just workplace behavior alone, not to mention marriages. The battleground for all that was the 1970's, when the nitty gritty sand lines were drawn. No wonder they were turbulent times. Geez.

Well, anyway, Mad Men's season 2 starts July 27th, and I can't wait. The season 1 finale blew me away with Peggy giving birth to a baby she didn't even know she was carrying and then refusing to take it. I'm guessing that means she wants to play with the boys and fight her way up the ladder from copywriter, and not just be a secretary. (Of course, the only chance she had back then was to be both in order to become a copywriter, but hey atleast she got that opportunity).

Journeying back...

Can't say as I'm all the way back to normal (whatz dat?), but my evil twin seems to be leaving the building lately. I actually opened up this post template and began typing like I used to do. I can't tell ya how long it has seemed like it has been since I've felt like doing that.

I finally broke down and wrote some brutally honest letters to a microscopically small handful of same-aged friends, and got it all out. That helped so so much. If we've emailed, then you know who you are and I am so not worthy...thank you to the moon. I just needed to talk it out with others my own age.

If I haven't written you back, please know I will. You're probably younger. Some of my feelings involve the younger generations and since well jeez a good many of you who read me ARE in those generations I didn't want to say anything that would personally hurt anyone's feelings. There's no snubbing or anger here. I love you all too dearly. Just needed my space in a real bad way for awhile.

You may or may not know about me that I am a fervent disciple of the Generational History theory, and 2008 has frankly blown my mind with how militant the Democrat Party has become and how they've copied both Karl Rove's and Bill Clinton's original strategies. It's happening faster than it should, too, and I don't mean to alarm, but that's exactly what happened with the Civil War crisis. I can only say, read the book. It will change your life and all the fuzzy things will turn crystal clear.

For purposes of what I'm trying to explain without producing a 23-page discertation, according to the GenHist Theory:
Silent Gen: 1925-1942 (birth years)
Boomer Gen: 1943-1960
GenX Gen: 1961-1980
Millenial Gen: 1981-??? (too early to tell yet, but probably 1998)
Homeland Gen (my nickname): probably 1998-around 2016

I'll be honest, I still have some real issues. The political primaries and the way the generations have been pitted against each other and all the respect that has been missing elder gens like we had to do when we were younger, it still causes me troubled thoughts. It's so in-your-face all of a sudden (or in MY face, anyway).

But if it were just the political expression, there would be no problem. I could handle it. What happened for me was, it was as if I awoke and everything's been shaded that way. I should qualify that. Everything in my online world almost. Nothing in my In Real Life world (except the TV). So could it be any weirder?

Being honest again, part of it is that Gen X is trying to wrestle the power away from Boomers and I don't think they are ready yet, okay? Then again, what year was the oldest Boomer at 47? Hm, 1943 + 47 = 1990. So, okay, my bad. It's just, if Bill and Dubya was all the shot we got, that sucks. Seriously.

Anyway, it's been really tough for me to accept. And then, when I look to the places art-related I hang online, it's like I'd pay money to have somewhere that wasn't so damn competetive. Everybody has a design team and everyone is workin the merchandise, on their blogs, the message boards. Look, this essay says it much better than I can. That's pretty much how I feel about it, too. I just want an environment where we are all doing this insane silly hobby cuz we enjoy it and it records our memories. I don't want to know the ScrapDiva personally, or get her advice on what to think every day. I just wanna lift a cool technique or use of product, dammit. LOL Yup, I'm all about the sharing of ideas. I don't want to crush on any famousness. This is why I'm allergic to Oprah. Why I bitch and moan sometimes instead of portraying all sweetness and light. I already read too many Stepford bloggers.

So anyway, that's out. And it leads me to explain why I was fidgeting with the blog comments. Sometimes even that gets competitive, like shades of it. I'm just wanting to give it a rest for awhile. Time's too short, at least for me. But, turning them completely off was not my only option, as a friend pointed out to me. (Duh, Aimes). I've now turned them back on, but they will get sent to my email where I can read them and respond. I'm gonna try that and see if it makes me feel happy about it.

So, okay. I'm sick of talking about it now, LOL. Probably put off posting in part cuz I dreaded that. Anyway, I don't want to jinx it but I actually created some art last night. It's still in progress, but dang, my Muse was feared lost forever. So I am feeling very relieved I found her again.

I do have some shots of my progress on my craft room. I'm just gonna throw these up in bunches, random shots, to save time, but you'll get the idea. Here's my befores of this particular corner:




Now, you might be thinking, what's the problem? Looks pretty neat. Well, it is, but it's not accessible. Too much piling on of stuff. Need to access my stuff better.



Then this lovely section. That was supposed to be just for my two big paper cutters, believe it or not. Now, it's a pile for the die cuts I haven't opened yet or haven't found a good storage option for. Enough! Driving me nuts.





Ah, my totally out of control ribbon section. It was all wrapped around 8x11" chipboard sheets, but I spent most of this year switching it to hangers. It enjoyed a home in Missy's closet until she came home for the summer. So, I had to get another shelf, but I definitely can access them more this way. Now, if I can just use some of it! LOL

Well, okay, I am going to try to get back into this. Wednesdays has always worked best for me, so I'll try to continue weekly. Thanks for checking in.

Okay, so...

...I guess I'm back, sheesh. I must confess, I took a little staycay away from the blog, the computer, the TV. I got outa the blog habit and into some health-oriented habits. I've been rockin' them lately and really kind of hesitaant to go back to devoting all the time I do to this writing and posting and reading.

Then, I got emails wondering if I was okay, (and thanks for thinking of me!). Turns out the blog entry I thought I'd posted almost 3 weeks ago to say I was taking a little time away is still sitting there saved but not posted. My bad! So, guess I should get back into blogging. Some stuff's gonna be different this time, though. I've closed blog comments. If you feel a genuine desire to comment or talk to me, please email me! I'll go into why I've done this later. It's all part of a bigger philosophy change on my part toward a lot of things.

First things first, though: thanks so much to Shirley for the blog candy she sent me! Such a gorgeous little notebook!

I love it, Shirley...thanks again!

So, anyway, to the (first - hehe) million dollar question: yes, I mourned Hillary's concession for a little under a week, but I got a heads up on it just a tad ahead of most (having volunteered on the campaign and still working the research with some of my old crew). So the first stage of my mourning ended right about the time she actually conceded. There was a little anger before and after, but then, finally, a calming whatever. I now can truthfully say I am open to both Obama and McCain, but there's no Kool-Aid drinking in my house. It's all about the issues with me now, and voting for either one is going to take some nose-holding. I pretty much think of them as McBama: Let the pandering to the center begin! Ya know?

And so now a second wave of just real sadness has hit me and it's still there behind the edges, in the shadows, under the bed, so to speak. I'm not sure that all of it is the campaign. I think some of it is the gloomy situations we as a nation and people are in, or at least many of us. The gas prices, natural disasters, the economy, the suckie states of medical care even with insurance, and hey, it's hotter than sizzle on a steak down here. There are solutions but I cannot see a clear choice as to who is going to choose the right answers and then get it bull-dozed into law. Oh, yeah, and I am finding that I can't enjoy any of the cable news channels now that I know how much some of them were in the tank and not objective and independent. I have absolutely no idea really what's happened in the world for the last 10 days or so, and for me, that is weird. I've enjoyed some good movies and a couple of those stupid Bravo reality shows.

Then, there is all the email I'm getting to join like 100 groups in the rapidly growing Nobama movement. People are pissed off, but I just want to get over being sad for the time being, LOL.

One decision I did make was that I got myself a life coach about 10 days ago. Okay, like, I wasn't looking for one, she kinda fell into my lap. We are bartering services with each other, cuz ain't no way I'm paying what she charges (and she probably thinks the same thing about me, lol). I set up her DH's payroll system for his company as my part of the barter.

Anyway, her name is Jenn and she has truly changed my life for the better. She hooked me up with an easy-to-follow nutrition-based diet and a physical therapy routine. It's all totally geared to what I will actually reach for and actually do.

The diet is calorie-based, and with my hatred of counting those buggers, this was a big challenge. She asked me a ton of questions about how I eat, what I reach for and why and when. She also recruited Hubs to help out by cooking more low-calorie fare when he gets to going in the kitchen on his days off. Basically, we decided I needed something similar to NutriSystem, but grocery store bought. I chose healthy foods that are easy to reach for and eat them over and over. So far it works pretty good most days.

I choose among Lean Cuisines, Slimfast Choc shakes, Nature Valley health bars, fresh fruits, salad greens, cereal, skim milk, and saltine crackers. None of these require me to cook them or spend a lot of time prepping them to eat. I just record what I eat and the calories, and most days I'm having trouble reaching my minimum target intake!

As for the physical therapy (which is also plain old exercise), I learned how to do tons of isometric routines in the pool, and it's very effective. I'm in there a minimum of 4 days a week and alternate that with my yoga tape and my exercise ball tape. I just added swimming laps full out today...just a few to start and build up gradually. I got Reggie some cute little Air Kong pool fetch toys that float and are made of rugged tennis ball material so that I can get him away from me when I'm swimming (he loves to zig and zag right in front of me, the little show-off, plus he accidentally scratches me sometimes as he's kicking, not fun). Reggie loves his toys and is worn out swimming and fetching by the time I'm finished.

My 411 Lately...

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Also, had a pleasant Mother's Day:

Missy had our fave photo of us sepia'ed and framed for my office.

Hubs got us chocolates.

And, my Muse has had me in a very anal retentive organizing mood lately. Into the minutia of cataloguing and indexing diecuts, which could last months but headway must be made before I literally go nuts over not knowing what I have that I can use to play with.

Here's a view of some of the index sheets I have completed. These are fun to look at, I think, but then I have a little bit of a diecut fetish:

Made a drawer into a basket with my antique kitchen cabinet handles:

And the Kids send Peace and Love to Blogland:

The whole blogging thing

is not my cuppa tea lately. Here's a bit of what I've been doing when I can remember to snap a photo.
















Struggling lately to post here once a week. I'm "nicer" and less myself on this blog than in real life where I'm pithier and more critical. Sometimes, when I'm not ready or able to turn those aspects of me down, I just don't attempt a post. I've never admitted that before, but lately it irritates me to censor myself and there you have it.

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep up the weekly posting up for now. Our "baby" comes home for the summer today. Hubs is leaving in a little while to go help her move out of the dorm. Since she is being mean and wants her bedroom back, ah! the nerve of her, winkwink, I've been having to spend a lot of time clearing out that room and finding places for a crapload of my art supplies and home decorating goodies. I've been really lazy and just using it as a storage room.

If I asked for your address, please don't give up on me. I have somethings in the works, it's just that the works keep getting interrupted. I've been timidly trying out...playing...with ink and stamping, and in between it all, continuing to cling cushion the world, I mean, my red rubber stamp collection. It just feels like I'm cushioning the world. I have commited to this, though, and will finish if it kills me, which it could I suppose. Yay for my courageous daring, winkwink.

Anyway, here's what can happen when you cover an entire piece of cardstock with off-stamping. (Since I was using Ancient Page, a permanent solvent ink like Stazon, which requires you to stamp off as much ink as possible before stamping on the cleaner pad and then onto very damp paper towels.) That cardstock in the above photo became the backgrounds for these ATC's:

The little inchie stamps are a very old Leave Memories set called Kiss-Off Cubes, and I'll tellya right now: they are addicting. The raven, nest and text are Collage Stuff stamps. And I forget where I got that brick background stamp.

The next time I do this technique, I am stamping off on paper that's been prepped with some gesso and some base color, and I could also paint some of the stamped images with my alcohol inks (I'm really wanting to play with those and I ordered a set of waterbrushes just for this). Then, there's also versamark-stamping and painting with Perfect Pearls, chalk, pastels, glitter.

Anyway, before I get too much into those daydreams, time to get back to dusting, vacuuming and clearing out Missy's room. I might be finished by the time she arrives. Wish me luck and have a good week!