Computers baffle me

I've been trying, for nearly a week now, to upload video of J's graduation so I can share it with family and friends. Hubby bought me new software so that I could edit it, etc. But it seems that software now comes in a DVD format, and my computer does not have a DVD drive, so we installed it on his laptop instead. No big deal, right? Right. So I go to connect the camera to his laptop, and imagine my frustration when the camera drivers weren't compatible with Windows Vista!

Can't anything just be simple? Seriously.

I'm going to look around and see if there are any updated drivers available, and if not I'm probably just going to go and get a DVD drive for this computer. It seems I need one anyway if I intend to keep up with modern technology.

A Public Plea

After nine years of faithful service, my good old computer finally bit the dust.

And while I do not completely mourn it's passing, I do curse it just a little bit for going to the grave with everything I hold dear inside--- like all of my transcription stuff, my pictures, my bookmarks, and my email contacts.

I'm still hopeful that hubby can wave some sort of magic wand over the hard drive and make some of the stuff reappear, but as the weeks go by with no action, I am now putting out there a public plea...

If you were once in my address book, and occasionally enjoy a message from me, please, oh please, oh pretty pretty please, send me an email at mommyleek at gmail dot com, or mommyleek at cfl dot rr dot com, so that I might recover at least some of the addresses I've lost.

Further, if I seem to have been ignoring your blog for the past few months, I'd really appreciate dropping a link in the comments so that I might rebuild my bookmark folder.

Thank you.

Still no pictures

We got our cable, and our internet service back on Sunday, so on Monday I plugged my old computer back in, and sat down to do some catching up on my favorite blogs and various other online thing, and also started backing up my photos and other important files that I'd been neglecting for the past month or twelve. Sure enough, about an hour into my work, the poor thing went into convulsions on me, and was later pronounced dead.

We have two other computers in the house, so it's not like I don't have any alternatives, but that was MY computer. My comptuer with my files and my bookmarks, set up the way I like it.

We're going to try and pull the hard drive out and slave it to J's computer to see if we can retreive any of the stuff that's still on there-- ahem... like ALL of my transcription stuff that I'm truly ALMOST done with. Man, if I have to go back and re-do all of those reports I'm going to just sit down and cry! And I don't even want to talk about all of the pictures of J-man that are stuck on there, possibly never to be seen again.

Lesson learned-- I'll be more diligent about backing things up from now on.


On the knitting front-- did I tell you that I finished the ballet cami? Well, she's done. A bit too small, even after blocking the heck out of it. But if I block it a little less firmly, it'll fit my sister perfectly, so it wasn't a complete waste of knitting effort. She tried it on the other day and loved it, so I'll be glad to see it go somewhere where it'll get used.

I've cast on for the Shalom Cardigan, using an even thicker yarn than the pattern calls for, so I'm thinking it should fit just fine. Besides, it's a pretty forgiving pattern as far as size goes, I think. I'm loving it's simplicity, and I could see myself knitting this pattern again and again. Now to just wait about 10 months until we have weather cool enough to wear it!

Also working on a pair of Monkeys that I'm not in love with. The pattern, of course, is fabulous, and I like the make-up of the yarn I'm using, but the color is horrendous! It's stuff I've had in my stash forever, given to me by someone a long time ago. I'm considering finishing them up and then overdyeing them to tone down the blinding brightness and erratic color changes. Right now I'm calling them "puke-monkeys" and will share a picture of them just as soon as I have the capabilities.

Today we're meeting up with Michele and Thomas for a little while. The boys are going to go see Speed Racer, and Michele and I will do the usual coffee and yarn. Looking forward to it.

Size does matter

We had some rough weather a few nights ago, and when I woke up in the morning I realized we'd been hit with a power surge. Fortunately, everything in the house survived except for my computer monitor. Poor old thing! She was a good monitor- big and bulky and taking up far too much room on my desk. But I loved her and all her 17" of pixelated glory. She served me well for nearly 8 years, connecting me to family, friends, school, and all sorts of strange places in between. So I sighed a heavy sigh when I came to accept the fact that no sort of fiddling with her power cord was going to revive her.

New monitors are cheaper than ever now, and I'm really looking forward to an LCD screen and the smaller amount of space it will take up. Can you even buy an old fashioned monitor anymore? The reality is, no matter how much I'm looking forward to a new monitor, my checking account is not looking forward to shelling out for one, even at the cheap prices they can be had for. I suppose cheap is a relative term.

But I can't be computerless for weeks on end. That's like an alcoholic going cold turkey while working at the liquor store. Too much. And yes, I do admit that I spend far too much of my time on the computer. We all have our problems, right? So what's my solution?

My ancient little (I think it's a 15" that was hiding out in the shed. I got this baby for almost free back when I worked at Best Buy. $12 total for it and the little computer with the 4 gig hard drive that I was so glad to have. Amazing how quickly technology changes and we get spoiled to the new stuff, isn't it? I'm telling you, looking at this tiny monitor is doing terrible things to my eyesight! But it works, I think it might actually have a better picture than my old one, and it'll do until we're ready to buy a new one.

Sometimes I'm proud to be a packrat.