So, this morning, literally almost less than 24 hours after I sent it off, my computer was back, and in working order again. That's the good news -- the bad news is, I was unable to recover any of the data that had been stored on the other hard drive. :-( That was a hard lesson to learn - I think I lost about 150 pages of typed notes... which I was none to happy about... as well as having lost months of journals entries. For those of you who have never had a hard-drive crash without a back up, I hope it never happens to you, but rest assured you'll want to back things up just in case!
My losses are, thus far:
150 pages of notes from class, plus essays...
A couple thousand photos... only a few of which I was able to put online, as some sort of back up.
Journal entries since April of 2007.
Financial records and spread-sheet calculators
Dozens of other items of sentimental and intellectual value to me.
In short, life goes on - you can't let silly stuff like this drag you down - the best you can do is keep moving forward, so - Hakuna Matata... I'm not going to let it bug me!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
New Semester, with a bitter twist?
On the 7th of January, the winter semester started here in Provo, and the first thing I notice when I woke up is that the music I had playing on my computer the night before, has somehow been muted. I went over to my laptop to see what was the matter, and found that it had frozen. Worse than that, it wouldn't respond to any command that I gave it... so I just turned it off. I turned it back on to let it re-boot, and left to take a shower. When I got out of the shower 10 minutes later, it was still a blank white screen... and the fan was blowing like crazy... and what sounded like the hard-drive was making a soft rhythmic syncopated clicking noise. I was mildly alarmed... I didn't ever remember teaching it that trick! Trying to coax it into good behavior produced no result... even trying to boot it off of the OS DVD that came with the computer. I just left it at home for the day, figuring I'd just deal with it later. So, the VERY first day of class, I was without my computer, with which I usually take notes. It was an odd feeling!
Now, almost two weeks later, I'm finally sending it off to the manufacturer (after having a few friends try to tinker with it, having the logic-board replaced, and now the computer won't even turn ON!) to have them replace what needs replacing under the warranty, which is still good.
Now, the guessing came comes in... is it something to do with the memory, the logic board, or the hard drive? I'm praying it's not the hard drive, because I had unwisely NOT backed the majority of that information up. Luckily, HAD backed up my music from iTunes on a DVD, but my class notes, my journal, and several pictures that mean a lot to me are on there... and if those are gone, I'm afraid that I'll be very, very sad.
Moral of the Story: Back up your data, however you can, and do it OFTEN!
Hopefully, within a couple of days, I'll have my computer back, and be able to write, at the very least, a bitter-sweet ending to this story.
Now, almost two weeks later, I'm finally sending it off to the manufacturer (after having a few friends try to tinker with it, having the logic-board replaced, and now the computer won't even turn ON!) to have them replace what needs replacing under the warranty, which is still good.
Now, the guessing came comes in... is it something to do with the memory, the logic board, or the hard drive? I'm praying it's not the hard drive, because I had unwisely NOT backed the majority of that information up. Luckily, HAD backed up my music from iTunes on a DVD, but my class notes, my journal, and several pictures that mean a lot to me are on there... and if those are gone, I'm afraid that I'll be very, very sad.
Moral of the Story: Back up your data, however you can, and do it OFTEN!
Hopefully, within a couple of days, I'll have my computer back, and be able to write, at the very least, a bitter-sweet ending to this story.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Politics and "The Mormons"
With the Iowa Caucus finished, I have been reflecting a great deal on the importance of the decisions that are soon to be upon us in the coming elections. Choosing a candidate may be easy for some people, but the more I learn, the more difficult the decision becomes. I guess some people wait until after all the caucuses are done, and the Republican and Democratic National conventions have chosen their candidates, and then make their choice about which candidate they will support. I can see where that approach would make sense, waiting to see which candidate actually "makes it to the playoffs", but at the same time, it bothers that people treat elections like a spectator sport until the very last minute.
I have a lot of different friends with a lot of different political leanings, and I've tried very hard not to let politics get in the way of our friendship. Personally, I lean towards Mitt Romney as a candidate. Before you assume that I choose to support him for the simple fact that our religious convictions align, I want to point out that the reasons I have for not supporting the other Republican candidates (whose platform I agree with more, in general) have nothing to do with religion.
Several people I know in the local area have a thing for Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas - but after examining his stance on several issues, I find that some of his proposed actions are idealistic, but not very practical. He suggests that we eliminate the IRS (effectively wiping out the income tax nation-wide), and possibly the Federal Reserve - and not replacing either of them with anything. His solution to the SIGNIFICANT drop in revenue? Decrease government spending. Where? He doesn't say, but that could mean dropping government-sponsored student loan programs, decreasing spending on Social Security, decreasing defense spending... things are generally considered to be "good" and a wise investment.
Rudy Giuliani just doesn't do it for me -- his solution for immigration doesn't sound practical to me... issuing an ID card for every foreigner who crosses the border just doesn't seem to do much, and would really only increase the incentive to dodge immigration, and enter illegally. Think about it, why would most people have a strong desire to comply with that sort of legislation? As long as our borders are as porous as they currently are, then it's not going to work out in practice as envisioned in theory.
Mike Huckabee lost a lot of my respect when he started running a negative campaign... and he started doing negative campaigning long before he was open about it. Ordained minister or not, I don't think he has any business bringing up religion to discredit any candidates, doesn't matter which party, or what office is in question. When he attacked (he later apologized for this) the Mormon faith, he lost a lot of points with me. The same thing would have happened had he criticized Senator McCain, or Senator Obama for their religious beliefs. I wouldn't feel confident if such a man were to lead our country, and represent our nation to the world. Though I'm sure his own religious beliefs might make him a moral man, and his willingness to defend the Second Amendment make him a Republican in good standing , I wouldn't vote to give him the Executive Office.
As for the other Republican Candidates, I don't consider most of them viable. Barack Obama seems to be a principled man, and someone who I believe could be trusted with the execution of the duties of the Presidential Office, I'm not entirely confident of his intentions with regard to taxes, how he intends to influence monetary and fiscal policy, what he intends for medical care in this nation, and how he will approach the matter of second amendments. I would vote for Obama for the same reason that I would vote for Romney - simply because I believe him to be trustworthy, and most able to fulfill promises that he makes.
On a side note - this campaign has brought to light a number of critics of the Mormon faith - and I find the amount of disinformation available to be incredible. One of the chief critics is Ed Decker, who I wouldn't trust with a squirt gun. Please read about his past before you believe everything he says. Yes, he was once a Mormon, but he was excommunicated for adultery - I don't think his moral compass "points North." It seems reasonable to me, that if you want to get good information about a faith, ask someone who is a member in good standing of that faith. For example, if you want to find out what a Catholic really believes, would you first turn to a Southern Baptist? If you want to find out what a Muslim believes, would you ask a Jew, a Hindu, or a Sihk? Similarly, if you want to find out if Ford makes a good truck, would you ask the guys at the Toyota dealership? If you want to find out what Mormons really believe, find one and ask, or visit the website set up by the Church to answer common questions -- Mormon.org.
I have a lot of different friends with a lot of different political leanings, and I've tried very hard not to let politics get in the way of our friendship. Personally, I lean towards Mitt Romney as a candidate. Before you assume that I choose to support him for the simple fact that our religious convictions align, I want to point out that the reasons I have for not supporting the other Republican candidates (whose platform I agree with more, in general) have nothing to do with religion.
Several people I know in the local area have a thing for Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas - but after examining his stance on several issues, I find that some of his proposed actions are idealistic, but not very practical. He suggests that we eliminate the IRS (effectively wiping out the income tax nation-wide), and possibly the Federal Reserve - and not replacing either of them with anything. His solution to the SIGNIFICANT drop in revenue? Decrease government spending. Where? He doesn't say, but that could mean dropping government-sponsored student loan programs, decreasing spending on Social Security, decreasing defense spending... things are generally considered to be "good" and a wise investment.
Rudy Giuliani just doesn't do it for me -- his solution for immigration doesn't sound practical to me... issuing an ID card for every foreigner who crosses the border just doesn't seem to do much, and would really only increase the incentive to dodge immigration, and enter illegally. Think about it, why would most people have a strong desire to comply with that sort of legislation? As long as our borders are as porous as they currently are, then it's not going to work out in practice as envisioned in theory.
Mike Huckabee lost a lot of my respect when he started running a negative campaign... and he started doing negative campaigning long before he was open about it. Ordained minister or not, I don't think he has any business bringing up religion to discredit any candidates, doesn't matter which party, or what office is in question. When he attacked (he later apologized for this) the Mormon faith, he lost a lot of points with me. The same thing would have happened had he criticized Senator McCain, or Senator Obama for their religious beliefs. I wouldn't feel confident if such a man were to lead our country, and represent our nation to the world. Though I'm sure his own religious beliefs might make him a moral man, and his willingness to defend the Second Amendment make him a Republican in good standing , I wouldn't vote to give him the Executive Office.
As for the other Republican Candidates, I don't consider most of them viable. Barack Obama seems to be a principled man, and someone who I believe could be trusted with the execution of the duties of the Presidential Office, I'm not entirely confident of his intentions with regard to taxes, how he intends to influence monetary and fiscal policy, what he intends for medical care in this nation, and how he will approach the matter of second amendments. I would vote for Obama for the same reason that I would vote for Romney - simply because I believe him to be trustworthy, and most able to fulfill promises that he makes.
On a side note - this campaign has brought to light a number of critics of the Mormon faith - and I find the amount of disinformation available to be incredible. One of the chief critics is Ed Decker, who I wouldn't trust with a squirt gun. Please read about his past before you believe everything he says. Yes, he was once a Mormon, but he was excommunicated for adultery - I don't think his moral compass "points North." It seems reasonable to me, that if you want to get good information about a faith, ask someone who is a member in good standing of that faith. For example, if you want to find out what a Catholic really believes, would you first turn to a Southern Baptist? If you want to find out what a Muslim believes, would you ask a Jew, a Hindu, or a Sihk? Similarly, if you want to find out if Ford makes a good truck, would you ask the guys at the Toyota dealership? If you want to find out what Mormons really believe, find one and ask, or visit the website set up by the Church to answer common questions -- Mormon.org.
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