With my data now secure (operable operating system or not), and the horse in the care of competent professionals, I ran a few last minute errands, and we left for Montana around 3 p.m. We wouldn't get too much distance because we were leaving so late, and our delayed departure meant we wouldn't be able to take a day to weave through Yellowstone on ( Read more... )

Wow, what a day. Setting aside my computer issues (which, if unresolved, at least not a total disaster because my data is safe), I'll focus on the real disaster that took place ( Read more... )

It took me much longer than it should have to figure out how to connect the PC's SATA drives to the enclosure I bought. It turns out that the connectors are all mounted within the enclosure, but I was looking for loose connector wires like the EIDE enclosures used ( Read more... )

I went to Best Buy and bought an enclosure for my PC's hard drive. I had three enclosures littering my apartment, but they were all for EIDE, so they wouldn't work with my PC's SATA hard drives. Meanwhile, my PC still won't boot--even if I disconnect my internal drives and try to boot from the Windows CD. Not looking good. People keep assuring me ( Read more... )

I took care of last-minute work details in preparation for the long vacation. A week and some change, and just in time. I'm getting really burnt out.

I started downloading a couple of audio books for the trip. But one of the books was taking way too long to trickle down from bit torrent, and someone recommended another bt site. Immediately upon ( Read more... )

I didn't get the packing done on Monday and Tuesday like I hoped to, and today I started stacking stuff on top of my suitcase, but that's about it. My GF and I leave Saturday morning. If tradition holds up, tomorrow should be pretty busy--tying up loose ends at work, finishing up my responsibilities, etc ( Read more... )

The conference call/webex  in the morning was important enough to plan my vacation around, so of course, everything went wrong.

Literally, just as it was starting, water started pouring out of my kitchen sink and onto the floor. It was coming up the drain. I heard the landlord working outside, calling something to the upstairs neighbor from below, ( Read more... )

Tonight's Steely Dan seats weren't quite as good as Monday's, but on the bright side, they were still pretty good seats even though they were further to the left--I was seated right at the end and so I could video the show with a less obstructed view, and pretty far from security if they decided to care tonight.

Taking It to the Seats (a.k.a. ( Read more... )

Tonight I saw Steely Dan play The Royal Scam. It was superb. But one thing I pay attention to at shows is the demographics. Very old crowd. At first, I thought everyone was old, but but then a few twenty year-olds came in during the opener, and me and my buddy were no longer the youngest. I guess this is the hip thing to do for the younger ( Read more... )

I quit the Atkins diet. I didn't quite reach my goal (172-173), but I got within 5 lbs. Ever since I started paying attention to this sort of thing late in high school, I don't think I've ever weighed less than 177. BMI-wise, it's acceptable but not perfect. I'll start dieting again when I start my running program after vacation.

In the short term, ( Read more... )