Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Bookfool Survives Meltdown Disaster, Film at 11

Whoo, boy, yesterday was a day! My computer started making a grinding noise on Monday and hubby was so darned busy that I never did get around to telling him because we were playing phone tag most of the evening. He's been away on business, as usual. So, by yesterday the computer was shutting itself down repeatedly . . . and the shutdowns got closer and closer together each time it happened. Things were growing ominous. Then, the hubby finally got in touch during dinner and said, "It's hard disk failure, so you need to do some backing up very quickly. "

Well, all I can say is that the cats had a mighty fine time licking up the cheese on the dinner I abandoned. We did salvage most everything. If you are one of the lovely souls who email me at my personal address, I've lost your email. But, my photos and documents were saved with the help of a Very Wonderful Teenager (Praise God for teenage boys who have technical knowledge and can translate Husband Nerdspeak).

Other news: I surpassed 50,000 words on my 2006 Nano Novel! Woohoo! I'm a "winner"! So, I haven't actually finished writing the book, but I can stop to pay the bills. Assuming I can find them. I got a little messy, this month. Blushing, here.

Finished: Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper - review forthcoming.

Reading: Once Upon a Time by Gloria Vanderbilt (Anderson's mommy)
and still working on To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King

Currently fighting: One darned slow connection; I'm unable to load any cutesy images. More later!!

16 comments:

  1. Glad you're back up and running! And thank goodness you didn't lose your novel after all that work! That would have been worse than pictures and docs, right? ;) I try to remind my hubby (you know, the guy who's Publications Editor for Smart Computing) to run a back-up on our music, pics, docs, etc. once a month. He's pretty good about doing that, especially if he's been programming. Anyhow, welcome back to the blogosphere. You were missed!

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  2. Thanks, Les!

    I would definitely have been heartbroken to lose my novel, especially so near to the goal line. I was at just under 49,000 words when the computer started shutting itself down and we had to hurriedly back up. Whew!

    LOL about the funny husband who has to be reminded to back up! I must admit that photos are really crucial to me - I nag my hubby to back them up almost weekly and he's pretty good about it, but I can't usually get him to sit still for very long so the documents are often skipped. The new computer has some cool features, so I hope it will be easy to back up (fingers crossed). My files aren't set up just yet, so I haven't figured out how to upload photos. I forgot what a pain it is to move everything!!!

    Thanks for the welcome back. I've missed blog-hopping regularly!!! Isn't it funny how addictive blogging is for the friendships? I was so convinced I'd just be talking to myself that I put off blogging for years!!

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  3. Anonymous6:25 AM

    Hi, Bookfool!

    So glad you managed to salvage your precious photos! We've had computer breakdowns several times in this house and the only thing I wept over was my family's lost digital pics...we now use a backup so hopefully, even if my computer should die again, I will have my pictures!!!

    Congrats on not just completing but surpassing the Nano goal, yeay! Guess you're going to miss it for a while eh?

    I haven't read Anderson's book (yet) but being such a private person I was so amazed that he was prompted to write a book about things that affected him so personally. You must tell us what you think of his memoirs.

    Have a wonderful day, bookfool!

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  4. Whew...saved in the nick of time! My heart would have broke for you if you lost your book.

    So...what do you think of your final project? I'd like to hear about it. :)

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  5. and are you going to share your end results of NaNo with us?

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  6. Anonymous12:28 PM

    Technology. Can't live with or without.

    Happy to hear you were one of the fortunate ones that was able to back everything up in time!

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  7. Mailing off your book today!

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  8. Hi Lotus!

    I constantly worry about my photos, so they're backed up pretty frequently. I would definitely cry if I lost mine - it always has broken my heart when film got lost (the photos of my youngest at birth were lost - that was horrible) or exposed and ruined.

    I will miss the challenge and the fun of watching the little Nano bars rise, yes! I need to take a couple days off before continuing, but I love the challenge and I've got to figure out how to make a bar chart so I can watch my progress on a regular basis.

    I posted a review of the Cooper book but it showed up as a Monday post. Hope I did a decent job reviewing it. :)

    You have a wonderful day, too! Thanks!

    Hi Joy,

    It was definitely a relief not to lose that novel!! :) It's not finished, yet, but I will have the luxury of being able to go back and fix a few things, now, so that's nice. We'll see what I think when I write "The End" - always a fun moment. :)

    Hi Angela!

    I'm not quite finished, but I'll be happy to share soon. I could at least post parts of the intro. It's kind of a long scene, though, so I might have to do it in serial form. Hmm. Will have to think about that.

    Thanks on the book. I'm looking for that Jack Finney book. Wow, I have a knack for losing things. Have you read Touched by Angels by Debbie Macomber? If not, I'll send that one, also. It's a sweet book.

    Nessie,

    I've lost a lot of info in the past. Some old stories just stayed on the old computers when we threw them out and moved to new format. What a waste! I do feel fortunate, that's for sure! Technology is good and bad.

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  9. Anonymous7:11 PM

    Whew! Glad you were able to save some of the stuff before your computer crashed. What an inconvenient thing to happen during Nano month, but you still accomplished the task. Good for you!

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  10. Thanks, Booklogged.

    Yep, it was very inconvenient. But, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had plenty of help getting everything moved over (except email addresses, but there's still hope). We did once lose everything and had to send a hard drive to a recovery service. That kind of thing would have really ruined my Nano month!!!

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  11. Anonymous10:08 PM

    Congrats on successfully completing Nano!! And so glad you managed to survive the computer crashing without losing anything crucial. I'd hate to lose my pics too and really should backup a bit more often than I do.
    Welcome back from me too. I missed seeing new posts from you! :)

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  12. Thank you, thank you, and thank you, Nat!!!

    Those photos are like our babies, aren't they? I suppose one nice thing about posting some favorites is that they're another form of backup, in a way. I can't currently post photos because my files aren't quite set up, but I hope to be back to posting to my other blogs, soon. :)

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  13. what is Touched by Angels about?

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  14. Angela,

    Here's part of what I wrote in my review:

    "The storyline is wrapped around three silly angels: Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. Known to be troublemakers, the archangel Gabriel has assigned each to deal with simple prayer requests. But, the angels have their eyes on a tougher case that Gabriel warns them is far too complex for their limited angelic skills. The angels actually don't appear as often as I expected them to, but I enjoyed their occasional antics.

    Regardless of its transparent, interwoven plotlines, Touched by Angels was the right book at the right time, for me. Will I enjoy another book by this author? I have no way of knowing. In general, I read slowly and savor words. A book that isn't worth marking up with post-its is not, in general, usually going to end up a favorite. But, it was uplifting and fun, and I even shed a few tears. I thought my time was well spent."

    I enjoyed it enough that I've looked for more of this series and I do plan to read more by Macomber. Her writing is not anything to jump up and down about (if you're picky about technique, as I am), but it's sweet. I also have an extra copy of The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (which I haven't read - I bought an extra in the library sale corner and then discovered I already had a copy) and Midwives by Chris Bojhalian (sp? - same thing, haven't read it, bought 2 accidentally).

    Basically, whatever floats your boat will land in your mailbox. :)

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  15. lol, well we have similar tastes in books so far, so whatever you think i'll like sounds good to me!

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  16. Okay, I know what I'm sending, Angela!!!

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