cleolinda | Entries tagged with computer: betsy

You haven't heard from me much because I have been really, deeply, severely depressed for the last couple of weeks. I tried to write up a huge entry describing what it feels like, and then... I got too depressed to post it. Maybe I'll polish it up and post it later, because I think it might be valuable for 1) people who might recognize themselves in it and 2) people who don't have depression, but want to understand what it's like for a loved one who does.

( Data storage question, writing, Black Ribbon, aromatherapy, BPAL )

Anyway. That's what's going on over here.

Reminder: The Final Lostnesday is on Sunday, and it's going to be a huge Super Bowl/Oscars-esque thing with a pre-show and then a 2-1/2 hour episode and then a Jimmy Kimmel post-show with the actors (and alternate endings? I don't know if these are parodies or real). I would love to liveblog it, but honestly, I'd rather actually pay attention.

I have a couple of other things to discuss, but I think they'd get lost in the rambling here, so: we'll do that later.

It's not Tonner Alice. ) :

(Wow, Twitpic, way to go with the weird-ass thumbnails.)

I think this is meant to be Bryce Dallas Howard/Eclipse!Victoria. Which makes me sad, because I thought Rachelle Lefevre was pretty fierce. Good job on Alice's hair, though.

(Speaking of which, this just in: There's another new Eclipse still, and--I don't know who on this production hates Peter Facinelli and Jackson Rathbone, but someone hates them bad.)

Meanwhile, I think I'm sliding into a depressive phase again. This is a lot less grim than it sounds; it's almost more of a physical problem than a mental one, as it makes me feel very draggy and unmotivated, which is kind of THE LAST THING I NEED RIGHT NOW. I mean, I know there are ways to cope with depression--medication, therapy, exercise, sunlight, vitamins--and I'm pretty much using all of them. I'm just saying, I think we're going into that direction again.

ETA: Oh, the Resurrectionist says that he can get 94% of Betsy 2 and 100% of Betsy 1 for $315. Which is what I was expecting, and less than I had feared. I can probably even scrape it together, even.

ETA 2: ~Dramatic~ headshots. It is just an Eclipse kind of day, apparently. I'm going to try not to think too much about what June will be like.

ETA 3: Come with me if you want to dazzle.

So. It is time to catch up.

First of all, I have taken Betsy (my previous computer, lost to the Compocalypse) to the Data Resurrectionist, and he says that the OS (which is pretending not to exist) isn't just the problem--some of the files are corrupted as well, perhaps 10% of them, but he'll retrieve what he can. God knows how much this will cost. Footnote-writing takes on a new urgency. I wanted to have the Vampires e-book out before Eclipse, but then, I also wanted it done before last Christmas. This is something else entirely.

Meanwhile, the asshole kids down the street (we are pretty certain) have now started tampering with my stepfather's tires, creeping up to our yard and cutting off one stem valve at a time (you know, where you pump air into the tire). It costs $30 to replace a stem--and that's if you notice it. That's if your tire has helpfully gone flat while your car is still in the driveway, which is not what happened last week--rather, my stepfather was out on the interstate when the tire gave up the ghost. He could have had a blowout, could have crashed, could have been seriously hurt. As it was, the tire had to be immediately replaced. For $300. Which we so totally could afford right now.

Yeah. The police have been called. And if you're reading this, assholes, this particular officer's mother used to work with my stepfather. They know each other. He's taking it seriously. So these four tire-slashing shenanigans have been documented by the cops. When you get caught, you're going down for all of them, and your asshole parents who won't rein you in--who deny that you threw bricks onto our patio and left a ladder to climb over our fence and rang our doorbell at all hours even though we saw you running back to their house--are paying for all of it. Yeah, YOU. I hope you're reading this and you DO recognize yourself and CUT IT THE FUCK OUT. I don't care if you're fourteen. Hope you enjoy juvenile detention.

So... um. Meanwhile!

Sam has gotten his summer cut!

Let us document Sam before he gets his summer cut this weekend on Twitpic

Speaking of which, I think I must have tripped over the dogstacle course that is our house and hurt my right foot--maybe landed on my toes or the ball of my foot weirdly, or too hard--because it's been bothering me since two Wednesdays ago. Basically, since the funeral. And I've been limping a little. It doesn't feel like the bones are the problem--maybe I've pulled a muscle or a tendon? I don't know. It doesn't hurt very badly, but enough to be a pain in the ass. Well, figuratively.

A quick way to catch up on my Tumblr: The infinite-scroll photo collage archive.

Let's have a little linkspam: ( Read more... )

So. We returned everything to Best Buy--laptop, Geek Squad contract, Microsoft Office disk--and got a full refund, no questions asked. (Say what you will about their stock or their tech support, but their customer service desk has been a treat.) So we're done with them now. They could be the best store in the world (...), but it was to a point where I just started to feel like they or I or both of us were cursed. So: done.

But I've fallen in love with that Dell Studio 17 laptop (yes, I will build it on the Dell site), and here is the artwork I want to splurge on because after THREE WEEKS OF COMPOCALYPSE I am pretty much beyond impulse control:

The screencap has a ton of extra white space around it because I can't figure out how to crop in freakin' MS Paint. OH GOD I WANT MY OWN STUFF BACK.

(

particle_person : "Of course it's purple.")

Anyway. I'm probably going to end up spending a lot more than I intended to, but when I sell something, that'll pay it off (like kings, Caroline! KINGS!). I'm to a point where I want to max out the service/support contracts--people have spoken very highly of those, and since it's a laptop and perhaps more prone to damage, I'll probably need it; also, I'm told that if you order through "business" instead of "home user," you get to talk to tech support in the US rather than in India. (Which is nothing against India; if I were Indian and I got routed to some American whose accent I couldn't understand, I'd be equally pissed.) My point is, if I max out the service contracts, I ought to be okay, they'll come out to the house in a timely fashion, they'll replace things, good times. But that's going to cost a good bit. And I want to upgrade a few options here and there, because while laptops do not last as long as desktops, generally speaking, I intend to keep it as long as it'll work, and I want to buy ahead on the technological front. Which will also inflate the price. And then, my completely gratuitous custom artwork. So... shut up, is what I'm saying.

(LIKE KINGS!)

Our current problem: data retrieval from Betsy. Because I'm going through my backups--which were helpfully saved on three different sites online and a thumb drive--and apparently I didn't back up THE STUFF I ACTUALLY NEED. I mean, the Black Ribbon stuff and the poetry (THE POETRY?!) are okay, but somehow I neglected to actually do anything about THE SHORT STORIES, which are what one might actually be able to sell. GODDAMMIT. And I've got to have my music back; the un-backed-up files just make data retrieval a bit more urgent than before. A friend of mine in town has recommended a local IT guy, so I'm going to try him--I mean, yes, I hear that you can get an external casing and put the hard drive thinger from the actual CPU into it, but... I ain't touchin' that. With my luck and inexperience? Hell no. I'll get someone to transfer the hard drives from both Betsys--I've been holding on to Betsy 1.0 all these years for that reason--and then we'll be back in business.

(Oh God. I hope we'll be back in business.)

Meanwhile, the iPhone's doing pretty well. I really don't want to spend a huge amount of time on it--the battery tends to run down like whoa--so I'm not putting a ton of recreational apps on it. But it's nice to have a way to look at Twitter and my email now and then, especially since I don't have a computer of my own at the moment. I hate "typing" on it, though, because I'm wordy and not used to expressing myself with just two fingers. I mean, it's still a shitload better than "press a number key four times for the letter D," but I can't write the kind of emails I'm used to writing, you know? So it's good, but it's not my life. I did remember that I have a little woven blue purse--from Delia's, I think, way back from college--about the size of a 5"x8" index card, so it's perfect for toting the iPhone and its little charger cord and headphones around. I mean, not that I'm doing this oh-so-fashionably 24/7, but it's good to put the phone in while it's charging, or to chuck in the thumb drive as well while I'm moving my work stuff around the house.

(Can I just say? I looked at the thumb drive and it has a capacity of 64 MEGABYTES. WHAT IS THAT. THAT IS LIKE A FINGERNAIL PARING OF FILE STORAGE. I mean, I know it's five years old, but WHAT DO YOU EVEN PUT ON THAT? [Not the backups I actually need, apparently.] I just saw a three-pack of 2GB flash drives for $26 at The Cursed Store the other day! What the hell, people! WEAK.)

So. Anyway. Things are looking a bit up, and I would dance the dance we dance when we have our life back if I could retrieve my files off the Betsys. Wish me luck on that account.

You are not going to BELIEVE this. I take Camille 1.2 out of the box. It does exactly what Camille 1.1 did--that is to say, went to a BIOS/DOS screen and then eventually went black. I was actually prepared for this, because my life just sucks this bad; I figured I'd call ASUS and have them tell me some incredibly simple solution.

( Are you for real, are you really for really real )

Current Mood: SO VERY, VERY OVER THIS
Current Music: I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED READING THE COMMENTS ON THE OTHER ENTRY

[Error: unknown template qotd]
Are you for real. What. Honestly.

Thoughts:

1. Carpet cleaner people have just left--our two stairs were filthy and hard to clean ourselves (we did everything else with our own much-abused steam cleaner). If we can just get through the next four days of Family Reunion Preparation--it's been going on full-steam for three weeks now--without killing each other, I will consider it a victory.

2. FAMILY REUNION EVACUATION PLANS IN PLACE. It's my stepfather's family--about 30 of them--and God bless them all, I've never met any of them. Well, my stepbrother and his immediate crew. I don't think they're going to miss me if I escape. WHICH I WILL. How badly I wanted to have Other Plans: I OFFERED TO GO SEE GI JOE.

3. Compocalypse '09: Going back to price an Asus 6GB/RAM drive. (Asus: the one brand NOBODY hated. Apparently their motherboards are excellent. WINNAR!) Basic question: "Okay, what's NOT on it?" Because I don't think anyone's including Microsoft Office in their price packages, the assholes. Apparently I'm expected to write my novel in .txt files or Microsoft Paint or something.

4. My mother is hilariously enthusiastic about the whole process, although she suffers a bit from not knowing anything about computers, which means that Making Things Happen OMFG is not as easy for her as usual. I'm just kind of numb and apathetic over here, like, "Whatever. New computer. I don't know. Betsy 2.0 is DEAD, okay? BETSY'S DEAD." She's all like, "OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A COMPUTER. YOU HAVE TO HAVE ONE. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THIS. THIS IS WHO YOU ARE. THIS COMPUTER IS YOUR LIFE." Yeah... thanks for reminding me.

5. The chair in the office ("office") downstairs is killing my hip. I mean, it seems comfortable enough at the time, but afterwards, I feel like I have a pinched nerve.

6. I just really want to sleep right now.

7. ETA: Your collective recommendation to go with Open Office will be considered.

I'm hanging out at the party page, working on pool stats while the earlybird E! coverage drones on. (Fun fact: Charlize Theron tried to get the lead in Showgirls.) The tagboard is up, although the features FOR WHICH WE PAID have not kicked in yet. GRRRRR.

It's exciting, because this is my third year covering the Oscars for the Digest, but it's only the first that I've actually sat here and covered them live. Unlike the other award shows, just about everyone around the world gets to see this one (granted, sometimes they have to stay up until crack-thirty to do so, but it's available). So the theory was that there wasn't as great a need for a recap. That's why I'm calling this one a "party" rather than just a recap, because it's more about us all sitting around, warming our hands by the glow of the tagboard, and shouting at the TV.

The really weird thing is that, since I started the site in September 2001, I have never not had a Lord of the Rings movie to cover. I honestly don't know what I'll do next year. It's like graduating from college or something: all the yearly patterns are over, and now we've all got to find our own thing to root for. And I do think ratings will go up this year--they do have some pretty big stars nominated, but more than that, I think there's a suspense factor in seeing if these LOTR movies are finally going to win or not. Considering that the third one just cleared a billion dollars worldwide--only the second movie to do so--I'd say there's an audience for the show tonight.

Anyway. It occurs to me that I need to go ahead and shower while things are slow. I do have a nice stool/TV tray setup that I get to move Betsy onto when I come back, so that I can actually see the show this year. Be back around... 2 pm my time, I guess.

Current Mood: bouncy

Tag Board! Still! Not! Upgraded! Paid! On! Tuesday!

Withmoneythatisn'tminebutwasdonatedbyreadersforanOscarstagboardOMGUPGRADEITNOW!

AH! AH! AH!

Okay. I'm all right. I'm fine now. No, really.

We're up to... 46 players. Yes. I really, really, really want to get a news update up, if only to give people something to look at when they come for the Oscars on Sunday. I say "want" instead of "am going" because every time I say something like, this, a migraine or a tornado or a computer crash comes through and I end up not being able to do it. So you didn't hear me say that. Say what? I didn't say anything. You need to get your hearing checked, I think.

They're READING something you WROTE, MORON.

Hush, Betsy.

GET BACK TO CLEANING MY HARD DRIVE, MINION!

Yes, Betsy.

Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: Vanilla Sky, "Afrika Shox"

So. Throat hurts, but in a really weird way only on the left side, so I actually called the dentist to make sure it wasn't a wisdom tooth complication. (It wasn't. Felt dumb. Oh well.) Am tired and achy and in the middle of trying to update the news for the first time in three ~~years~~ weeks, my computer flipped out on me. I knew I was in trouble when I was over at the Buena Vista publicity site trying to download Hidalgo publicity stills for the Digest--now, remember, these are huge. I'm talking 10 MB per still. I'm talking life-size pictures, here--and the first message popped up: "You do not have enough room on your computer to save this file. WHORE."

Then an alarm message popped up:

You only have 7.85 MB of space remaining on your computer. This is a critically low amount of space. Seriously, are you stupid? You need 200 MB just to run me, goddammit, how many times do I have to tell you? And seven megabytes? Are you kidding me? That's not even enough to rub two MP3s together! What do you have on here, anyway? One-of-a-kind Orlando Bloom goat porn? In bitmaps? In triplicate? GOD.

So I spent the night (and today) cleaning files off my computer and transferring them to CD-RWs. The problem is that I've had an extremely high corruption rate, and so I'm scared to have files exist only on CD. Also, I only have 10 GB of storage space to begin with. (Yes, my computer is getting on five years old. Hush, or she'll yell at me again.) But I realized that the latest "Error! Move all critical files to another disk" isn't a disk error--it's an ACDSee (image manager) error, and when I move things straight from the file folder, I don't get that. So if I do get that, I can ignore it. Or something like that.

So now I have 223 MB free on my computer.

That's still pathetic, you know.

Hush.

And that's not even why I actually procrastinate--that's why I ended up putting off the news update, but here's why I continually procrastinate: it pays off.

jedi_funk found an error in the Oscar pool ballot I coded yesterday, which really was inevitable given my coding inexperience, and so now I have to email 20 people and ask them to resubmit their picks for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Now, had I gone all out publicizing the pool and posting the announcement on the

dailydigest feed and on the Yahoo Group newsletter, I would be super-screwed right now, instead of mildly screwed. (Seriously, we have more pool players than we've had the last two years combined, after the pool being up for 24 hours.) In fact, I like to think of procrastination as a bit Darwinist: that which is really not that important never gets done anyway, and that which is flawed won't make it too far before something better gets done in its place.

Which is also to say: the Oscar pool is ready and, as far as I can tell, bug-free. Get your ballots in early, because I'm not going to have a lot of time on Sunday to collate these things. :)

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: "The White Tree"

OMG, I just got back from the grocery store, and Harry Potter totally bagged my milk and bread. I am serious--hair, glasses, everything. I kept trying to discreetly peer up under his bangs to see if he had a lightning-shaped scar, but no dice.

You know what the worst part about my paper-induced dementia was? That paper only had to be eleven pages plus bibliography, on a subject I like, about two poets I liked. I've waxed papers twice that long. (Keeping a journal and a blog and all that really does help you keep your fingers limber, so to speak.) But I just. couldn't. do it. After my computer crashed and I lost my work, it was just over for me. It's like my brain had already checked out and gone on holiday.

Even worse? I have the exam for this same class tomorrow, and my brain is off skiing.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: ROTK, "The White Tree"

Vladimir and I are talking on IM. Topic: how Elf stomped both Master and Commander: The Far Side of This Title and Matrix Revolutions this weekend (as I said it would). Problem: ever since the announcement of this movie, I have been able to hear nothing but Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant," which is basically a bouncy little ode to the joys of S&M, playing in my head whenever I see/hear/read anything about this movie. And given that Billy Boyd is in this movie, I am fighting the hobbit imagery as we speak. To the death. And losing.

("Let's play! Master and servant!")

Tried to take a nap this afternoon. Didn't work, despite the fact that I only had two hours of sleep last night. Desperately need to start cleaning off my hard drive (again) because it's crammed within its last 100 mb with movie stills and MP3s. Have a lot to get done for class this week, but it's not as bad as last week. It's more like, "Let's let it build up a couple more hours to really get that panic energy going."

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Depeche Mode (guess)

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Cleolinda everywhere

Classy dame, sparkle consultant, gothic enthusiast, sporadic recapper.

Entries tagged with computer: betsy

Checking in: a number of things

ALERT ALERT eh

Checking in with links

Compocalypse '09: Treading water

Compocalypse '09: I AM SO OVER THIS

Compocalypse '09: The Pricening

Oscar party

AHHHHHH

Why I procrastinate

This and that

Whp-chaaaa!