bunt sign

Thursday, May 27, 2004

It's amazing how focused I can get when it really, really counts. There was no coasting for me today, because I was sure I was losing all the work I'd done in the lat month. That's how long it's been since I've done a document backup, and suddenly this afternoon the computer wasn't behaving like itself.

My first clue was the keyboard. I would type something, but it wouldn't show up on the monitor right away. Then the mouse cursor started harassing me. I'd move the mouse, and a second or two later the cursor would respond. You can imagine how awkward it is to work that way.

After I rebooted the machine, the situation got worse. I was in panic mode. After starting a virus scan that seemed to be going nowhere, I decided that backing up my files was the most prudent course of action. The trouble was that things were still moving so slowly that at one point I got the message, "Time remaining: 12 days and 1 hour."

This was going nowhere, so I stopped it and turned the computer off for a few minutes. When I turned it back on, everything seemed suddenly normal. The first thing I did was a full document backup. Then, after talking to Jeannie (who always has good ideas), I downloaded an anti-spyware program and ran a full disk defrag. That's something else I hadn't done in way too long.

Now that I seem to have things working more or less normally again, I have to get in the habit of backing up and cleaning the hard drive more often. I have all these tools to keep bad stuff from happening. It isn't very smart not to use them. I just hope the sense of urgency I found in today's emergency carries over.




17 May 2004

Cloud parade.



Unfortunately, all of this cost me nearly a full day's work. Plus, a lot of the time I usually spend keeping up on news and reading journals was spent making sure I can do all that again in the future. I'm glad it seems to have worked out, but I won't take it for granted again. Not for a while, anyway.




previousbunt signemailnext

Stuff

Tell me if you've heard this one. The Diamondbacks walk Barry Bonds intentionally with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth inning. Two batters later, he scores the winning run. This strategy, which is no strategy at all but blind fear of being beaten by the best player in baseball, has backfired on Giants' opponents all season, and yet they keep doing it. It's bad for the game, it's unfair to the fans, and it doesn't work. Maybe they'll try something different next time, but I doubt it. Baseball managers aren't known for thinking outside the box. At least the Giants got their sixth straight win out of it tonight, 5-4.

Recent recommendations can always be found on the links page.


One year ago: Remedial
"Action Hero runs down the bad guys in his Saturn Ion 3, then calls Triple-A for a tow. No, doesn't quite work."


Subscribe to the notify list to be advised when this site is updated.