The Misadventures of a Native New Yorker

So, lj, in its infinite "wisdom" has decided to make it easier to connect your LJ with facebook. Meaning, that you can link comments - ANYONE'S comments - to facebook.

Apparently, no one took 5 seconds to suss out why this might be a terrible idea.

So, let me state for the record that if I catch anyone around here reposting anything of mine on facebook? Furious will not even begin to cover it. And you will find yourself banned. Perhaps permanently, depending on a few factors. I don't care how amazing, or clever, or funny or whatever it is. You can repost it without directly linking back to my LJ, or using my LJ name. Okay? Also nice? ASKING PERMISSION.

I work really hard to keep LJ and Facebook separate. REALLY. FUCKING. HARD. Some of you may have even noticed how tweaked I get if someone who knows my real last name uses it in any LJ context. There are reasons. Good reasons. I know the whole concept of "privacy" on the internet is stupid at best, but I try not to be too obvious about some things.

So, in short, if you want to stay friends? Keep my LJ out of your facebook or twitter or whathaveyou.

(starting to wonder about that dreamwidth migration about now...)

I am typing this from my laptop. But in a way? It's not really my laptop.

Everything that made it my laptop needs to be put back together. As I said on Twitter a little while ago, I feel like I'm dealing with the PC version of a Dollhouse active.

"Hello, Laptop!"
"Did I fall asleep?"
"For a little while..."

Still, everytime I've had one of these moments of fail (and in my computing history, there have been many, many moments of hard drive and motherboard fail), I've learned something new:

1995: BACK UP EVERYTHING. ALWAYS.

1999: That includes your MP3 collection.

2000: Be sure you have access to important documents (like term papers) when your motherboard decides to explode. Because even if the HD is okay when you re-install, there's no guarantee that it will be, or that HP will fix it for you anytime soon.

2003: Make sure you have multiple means of removing data from a dying drive. Also, backup more often.

2005: Bookmarking sites such as delicious.com are great. You can access your favorites from anywhere, particularly when you're waiting for your hard drive to be replaced.

2007: Remember how I said to back up more often? Great to do that, but make sure that you've actually backed up more than the shortcut. But huzzah for Google docs, and that ipod cracker program blergeatkitty told you about. Also, having relatives who not only know how to fix computers but who are willing to do it for you out of the kindness of their hearts is ace.

2009: Don't count on your warranty to do everything. External hard drives are allegedly made of win. I'll put this to the test when I am braver tomorrow night. But thanks again to Puck for once again being my technological savior.

(and before any of you Macalopes out there climb up on your "This Wouldn't Happen If" high horse, I suggest you talk to quodlibetic about the crazy time she's been having with her macbook's hard drive. She's having the same luck I am lately, it seems.)

So I have firefox, tweetdeck, semagic, and something called Pigdin which has apparently replaced GAIM (and I am the last to know). My aquarium screensaver is here. I'm going to see what survived the reboot. Not sure if I want the same background. This isn't really Thalia anymore, after all. I may need a new name.

Work has been busy, but my health has been eh and it's kind of kicking my ass. J continues to be the awesome boyfriend of awesome. And since I was exhausted all day, I think going to sleep now is a grand idea, y/y? Thought so.

So today was okay.  I got the pills the doc gave me for my stomach and I even feel well enough to eat like a semi-human being again!   Work was busy but productive, and I decided (with the help from my mom) to stop worrying about shoehorning into a dress that really doesn't even fit my personality anymore, and instead to focus on getting a new, pretty dress.  I then began THAT search along with my lovely, wonderful, patient boyfriend, J.  

All the while, I was playing with my new blackberry, and falling a little bit more in love.  katiebea and quodlibetic and antheia all helped me start to build it up to full crackberry strength.

All in all, an awesome day.

AND THEN I CAME HOME, TURNED ON MY LAPTOP, AND GOT THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. D:

After acute cardiac arrest, an extremely long call to Dell (huzzah for still being under warranty) and some strange tests, it was determined that my hard drive was dead.  D-E-D dead, as my dad would say.   ::facepalm:: 

They're sending me a new one.  And then I get to call and have them walk me through installing it myself.  0.o   (Translation, I will beg someone for help who actually knows how to do these things).  See, if a computer was a car, I'd know how to put in windshield washer fluid and change the oil, an occasional tire, how to pump gas and other basic skills.  But if it started making funny noises or the "check engine" light goes on or it just plumb won't start? I call a mechanic.   I can't believe this dude I spoke to at Dell ACTUALLY BELIEVES that I am capable of replacing the engine.  Jeezy Creezy.  

On the upside, this happens the day AFTER I buy my new smart phone, so I can still get email and twitter.  And J said I can use his computer for whatever I need until mine is up and running again.   But that's about it.   I am the OPPOSITE of pleased about this, as you might imagine.  

Happy Friday, everybody!  :P

After two extremely frustrating failed attempts, I finally got Music Rescue to work last night. The result is a nicely stuffed Itunes. It worked just fine after a little finagling (and having to hit they "yes, I know this is a free trial" button ever couple hundred songs or so. But it woooorked. Thanks again to blergeatkitty for the rec.

And I upgraded to Itunes 8, which I really like. I'm going to play with the Genius a bit tonight, just out of curiosity. But so far, this is a good program.

The extremely crazy thing is that I only seem to have about 30 gigs of music loaded. Which does make sense, since my 60GB ipod is about three-quarters full, and I had 10 gigs of video. Much of it probably not traveling on with me, though I will be taking Blackpool (which I still have to finish watching), 4 episodes of Burn Notice (ditto), and some episodes of ST:DS9. Pretty much the entire video folder, now that I think about it, just not most of the TV shows. But I'm going to look all of this over and have myself a little party where I upload a whole bunch of things that I just never did before. My entire Ipod is now almost the size of my entire hard drive, so I think I'm going to need to figure out that external hard drive situation soon. Still, so many choices. So. many.

Otherwise, work is work, didn't get enough sleep again, and I wish it were lunchtime.

Ooh, and I get to have dinner with dotfic tonight! Too bad I wasted so much time watching Heroes last night that I didn't have time to re-watch SPN, the way I wanted to before I saw her. (And I do mean wasted. What a steaming pile of crap that was. Seriously.) HIMYM set up the new season nicely, I can't wait to see where they go with this.

( Cut for HIMYM spoilers )

And now, for some more productivity. Lunchtime I get to wrangle with the Apple Store to exchange a case. Yay.

Recently, as I've been making my computer ready to receive the glory that is my new ipod, I've been thinking a lot about backups and external hard drives. redesigner has recommended some to me (specifically this one) but I wanted to open it up to the rest of the class, so I can make an informed decision about my search.

[Poll #1260799]

Let me once again expound on my love of the internets. Really and truly.

All week long, wendywoowho has been talking up her love of 1776, which I'd seen once in the 7th grade and remembered enjoying, but really hadn't seen since. I knew how awesome it was (I mean, if you involve William Daniels in anything, the awesome is sure to follow), but I didn't own a copy, and I didn't have time to change my netflix choice. I was extremely in the mood to see it again, especially after reading this all week. But I was thwarted. Video store was closed, and Turner Classic Movies isn't showing it until ELEVEN O'CLOCK tonight. What?

Previously, I had been unable to get the "watch instantly" feature on Netflix.com to work, but that's different now. Now? It WORKS. I finally got the damn thing to work!! And I'm watching, via the internet, 1776, which I'd been dying to see. It also means that I'm going to easily be able to catch up with Season 1 of Doctor Who. Hopefully some nice person will be willing to let me borrow 2 and 3 after that, especially if I wind up liking season 1.

Anyway, before I get back to the movie, I just wanted to wish all of my fellow Americans a very happy Independence Day. May you celebrate it with roast beast and explosives.

Dear LJ Genie:
I need a reliable, reputable, competent source for data recovery from a hard drive. Said HD is spinning and does not seem to be corrupted beyond the fact that the circuit boards that allow it to communicate with the motherboard to not be functioning. More than anything, I'd prefer a place that's not going to charge as much or more as my laptop cost. Can you help?

Love and Hope,
Sharon

In happier news, I called Time Warner and I am now set up for wireless in my apartment on my laptop. I don't understand, nor do I remember, how I used to function when it was desk or nothing. And it's been less than a week!!! It's still funny - it feels off somehow, like this isn't a "real" computer (even though it is, obviously).

Mmm. Tired. Bed now.

MY NEW COMPUTER WENT OUT FOR DELIVERY AT 6:30 AM STOP JUST TALKED TO MY DAD STOP IT'S COMING I SHOULD GET IT TOMORROW STOP OMG OMG OMG I BETTER STOP.

Excited much? I wasn't expecting it until after Christmas! This is a wonderful development. Merry Christmas to me! :-D