Archive for March, 2005

Crashes & Burns

Published by
Nif
at March 14, 2005 in Geospatial. 0 Comments

It’s the day after my birthday.  I’m not at work because I took it off–I’m getting a cold and well, it’s the day after my birthday. 

Contrary to the rest of the world who review their past year and make all of those silly resolutions on New Year’s Eve, I do it on my birthday minus the resolutions.  This year, I wasn’t sure about anything.  I guess I’m not going to go thought the litany of what I’m unsure about because, well, this is public and even though no one really reads it these ruminations are way to private to public. 

Regardless, it’s the day after my birthday and my hard drive is on the brink of crashing.  I have had computers since 1987 when we got them for undergrad engineering at Virginia Tech - an IBM with no hard drive and two floppy drives. 

Hey, my other computer now says that there are 1508721 minutes left for the file copying–isn’t that fun.

Anyway, in all that time I never had a hard drive crash.  I screwed up the registry, installed extra memory, played lots of games and compiled lots of programs on the 3 I’ve owned prior to this cute little, oh-so-lightweight Vaio and none of them have ever crashed on their own accord.  Until today.

Yesterday the Dell Inspiron 8000 purchased mid-2000 was running like a champ while I was trying to be a good girl and do my Quicken (it’s been 6 months since my last confession) and this morning when I was going to finish up the task the damn thing wouldn’t quite work.  It would boot and then when I clicked on a desktop icon it wouldn’t do anything.  Finally it dawned on me that the end was near and I’d better get a back up drive and hope for the best.

Long story a little shorter.  I’ve kept the damn thing on working at the speed of molasses and am manually copying my data files onto a Maxtor 200GB external drive.  The actual software that is supposed to do all of this monitoring and compression cannot be installed on my sick, decrepit 10 lb Dell.  I hope this works.  Unfortunately, I’m going to have to put all of that crap on my cute Little Vaio weighing it down.  All that stupid software: ArcView, Quicken, Adobe Suite, TurboTax, and the other 40 programs that were installed.  If this works I’m sending the whole damn thing back to Dell to get a new hard drive.  Maybe.

Whatever.  I guess it’s about time.  Hey learn a lesson - BACK UP YOUR COMPUTERS!!!

Burger vs. Fish & Chips

Published by
Nif
at March 12, 2005 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

What an odd evening.  David, Michelle, and I all trooped out for dinner this evening.  We all could have, of course, stayed home, but it’s Saturday night in NYC and at least we could say that we went out to dinner. 

Actually, this week has been pretty busy social-wise. 

Monday - Dinner at Tia Pol - wonderful tapas - with another ship jumper from Cheese World.  Like the poker song says, "Sometimes you gotta know when to fold ‘em"  It was time for her.  She’s young and should try other things before focusing.  We had potato and Serrano ham croquettes, octopus, fried garbanzo beans, marinated lamb skewers, lima bean puree with Beyos cheese on thickly sliced bread, and a few other things.  None of those wonderful fried peppers though.  Sangria and Cava to drink.

Tuesday - Well, actually nothing much.  Pizza - home made from frozen dough.  A little tooooo crispy.  I have to research that some more.

Wednesday - Writing class and an appointment.  Home at 8pm.  Class was OK.  I’m still not comfortable with commenting, but I like the set up–workshop like.  I would like to continue in her other writing group after the class disperses.  More time and more writing.  I really like the New School writing classes (and their food classes).  They have much better continuing ed teachers than NYU does.

Thursday - The Spotted Pig with Michelle.  My favorite, favorite restaurant right now ( and for at least the past year).  Had bass with mashed potatoes and parsley sauce.  A personal high for the evening was making green mashed potatoes.  Took me back to my childhood with the pink mashed potatoes at the babysitters house (ketchup and potatoes).  Everything was delicious as always.

Friday - Pre-birthday drinks at Fifty-seven Fifty-seven at the Four Seasons Hotel.  Not the real restaurant, but the hotel bar.  The cocktails are expensive, but they are essentially two drinks for one low price of $18+tip.  I only drink martinis, real martinis, here and only once a year at that.  I like to torture myself on my birthday and drink straight liquor for fun.  Define martini - cold liquor.  The one I’m prone to after a faulty try last year with the James Bond martini (which isn’t the real one as described in the books) and moved to something called The Cerulean.  A very pretty blue martini with a splash of lemon juice.  They got smart and started serving the citrusy martinis with dried cranberries instead of olives. 

Saturday - Spent much of today at the library.  Finally got my network cable to work.  Apparently, the Reading Room is only partially wired.  You have to go to a specific set of tables - this is mentioned on the website or on the printed material that you get telling you how to set up your network - to plug in.  I did, it worked, I was happy.  Came home and just didn’t want to eat leftover Mac & Cheese so David, Michelle and I oscillated between fish and chips at A Salt & Battery (no space and no place to wait) and The Corner Bistro.  Young yuppies and a long line, but the potential of beer while waiting.  We picked the Bistro and had a leisurely dinner once seated.

Now I’m going to go read my book.  Good Night.