…and I feel fine.
I would do an end of the year list but I really didn’t keep up with that stuff this year. Maybe next year.
A pretty low-key New Year’s Eve has been planned by Kristin and I. We are probably skipping out on the legend(wait for it)ary party that Jana says she’s going to. I don’t know. It’s way up north. I don’t know anyone who’s going to be there other than the people I’d be going with. Also, I tend to think of New Year’s as something spent with friends and family. I just can’t see being at some big party feeling uncomfortable as I sip drinks and worry about getting home because of all the drunks on the road. Who wants to be a designated driver on New Year’s anyway?
The plan for today is to go see Juno at the Alamo, dinner at DK’s Sushi, and then a quiet night at home (possibly with absinthe and Hitchcock movies or the 1st season of X-Files). It sounds good to me.
I love public access TV. It’s such a crap shoot. Today I turned on the TV to check what time it was (I had given the clock to my mom so she wouldn’t miss her plane) and fell right into a block of ’80s videos. Stuff like Kim Wilde’s "Kids in America", Devo’s "Girl U Want"…not typical stuff you find on the ’80s countdown things.
I want my own show.
Mmmm. Susanna Hoffs.
The time of the year when families gather together and watch the holiday classic Die Hard.
Greetings from Chicago, home of the three hour layover. Good times. It’s 16 degrees outside and I braved it for a much needed smoke. I think my lips actually froze.
New york awaits in three hours.
After this morning’s drama (yawn), I woke from my slumber with a start. “Home Depot!” I said as if I were the dying Charles Foster Kane whispering the secret name Rosebud. Home Depot is exactly the sort of place that would carry tools! I got dressed and made my way to the good ol’ Depot and found the right tool I needed and left on my merry way.
When I got home, I started finishing the disassembly of the powerbook. I could get every screw out except one little tricky bastard in the battery bay. I struggled and fought it until I stripped the head. Removal was now impossible. I decided to shift gears into what I like to call “Plan B”. I jammed a screwdriver in and started prying and twisting and cursing until I broke the bracket holding the screw in place. I’d worry about the damage later.
I replaced the drive, booted up with the startup disc, and did my OS X install. Now comes the game my high school Spanish teacher Mrs. Schupp liked to call “Good News/Bad News” Good news: The computer is working just as fast now as it did out of the box AND it has more drive space. The bad news? Well, I don’t really back up stuff. I mean to but it usually slips my mind. I keep copies of bookmarks on a jump drive and my work computer but I hadn’t done an update on that in quite a while it turns out. Funny sidenote: Alison, Kristin, and I had just discussed this fact on Tuesday at trivia. I have all my music on my ipod which I can easily transfer back. The last time I backed up my photos was July but the good ones are on flickr anyhow. However, all my programs are gone. Yep. I pirate software and delete or lose the discs of programs afterwards. I found a few after tearing up our spare bedroom but for the most part they are kaput. What can you do though? Easy come, easy go.
Kids out there, let this be a lesson to you. BACK YOUR SHIT UP! Seriously. It’s no rock and roll fun to have to do all this over again. Ok, it’s a little rock and roll fun. Like maybe A Flock of Seagulls-type rock and roll fun.
Tonight I was playing a game of emulated Baseball Stars on my mac when it decided to freeze up on me. Then it started making horrible noises. Terrible, horrible, gut wrenching grinding noises. I attempted to hard reset it but when it started booting up I got this symbol:
"That is usually not a good thing to see," I thought to myself. I did a quick search from my work computer for remedies. I tried zapping the PRAM but that didn’t work. It looks like the only course of action I have left is a reinstall (if that’s even possible). I have absolutely nothing backed up save my music and bookmarks from about a month ago. None of my pictures (besides those uploaded to flickr), most of my apps, and a bunch of other things may possibly be lost forever. I guess that will teach me not to back things up.
I really hope I can boot from the start-up disc and possibly salvage some of the stuff I have. Blah.
update: It’s the hard drive. I bought a replacement (after going to four stores) and started trying to install it but the tool kit I have doesn’t have the right star driver thing (a T-6 Torx driver to be exact). I again went to about a million stores but they only have them in big ass fucking 420824028342 piece sets. Oh and no one I know has one of those either. So my next trick is to buy said 420824028342 piece set, use the fucking T-6 motherfucker, and return said 420824028342 piece set to the store for a refund. Why can’t I just buy a fucking T-6 Torx driver? Why? WHY? (that’s my attempt at being dramatic for a friend of mine who will remain nameless *coughjanacough*
Wednesday marked the passing of my 31st birthday (and ironically Repeal Day, the day Prohibition was repealed). I’m a believer in the "birthday weekend extravaganza." Instead of writing about it, here’s a picture show.
