Been an interesting couple of days. And by interesting, I mean gut-wrenching. There's a long story behind this, but basically my desktop computer -- the one I use to edit books and make covers and live my life on -- begin to die. And die hard.
I reloaded drivers and the operating system and took expansion cards out and talked to four different technicians and paid over $235 to do so. But nothing worked. My seven-year-old system was "outdated," my operating system (XP) was "outdated," the computer's motherboard and BIOS couldn't be updated because it was "outdated." All the techs acted amazed that my system was still limping on.
So ... yesterday I went to Staples and a bought a computer. It's pretty basic, but it will run Photoshop Elements and my other graphic programs, and it does have Word and Publisher. I'm back online.
My old system is still sitting on the kitchen table. I'm going to raid it for as many components that function as I can. Then I'm going to try to convert it to a Linux system. I always wanted to try to do that, and I hate losing the old system completely. And it did last long enough for me to move the majority of my data to USB drives and to cloud storage. I'm very attached to that old system -- yes, I know it's a machine, but it served long and well -- so I'm going to try to give it an afterlife.
Anyway, I can finish my book project for Many Rivers Harbor, so that's good. I met with the author Saturday, and she gave me her first set of corrections. I intended to enter them into the proof this weekend. Didn't get that done yet, but will. She was very pleased with the book and with my prelim cover for her book. Going to give her the second proof this week. After that, a book proof. Then the book itself, and I get paid the other half. Woohoo! Seriously.
This coming week, I'm going to:
- Finish the second proof copy of her book and deliver it to her.
- Make another cover. My contract specifies I will design two for her to choose from.
- Have friends over on the Fourth for a little cook out and swim.
- Blog every day on Harbor Street. I've been inspired by Jean, who has one of my heroes practically from the first time we talked.
- Continue to move material onto the new computer.
- Walk three times.
- Continue low carb diet. It's really made a difference in my weight and blood sugar levels.
- Write 250 words a day on Murder by the Mile.
- Continue to do a few things with On Target, but I'm mostly waiting for him now. It's taking him weeks to proof the book. I don't know why. I hope he's not rewriting it. I'd like to get it finished and off my desk by September.
And that's my plan. Hope you have a great week and are having a great Sunday.
2 comments:
I know you really needed a new computer, but I'm still amazed at how quickly people are willing to toss your older technology aside as if it's worthless. In my mind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Windows XP. It's a fine operating system, and when Microsoft got rid of it, I got rid of Microsoft. Except hubby refuses to leave, so I still have to hear obscenities hurled in whatever the next version of Windows was called direction. Yes, seven years is a bit old, but it's certainly generally functional. The monitor I'm viewing this on is celebrating it's tenth year this month, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The key, of course, is you were able to save your data. All hail data saviors!
Good luck with Linux. I must have tried about six versions of it, and every single one of them kicked my butt.
Hubby says he's willing to spend $500 on his laptop to get the keyboard and the AC input connector fixed. I reminded him he can buy a brand new one with the same capabilities for $1000 (this one cost about $3000 about four years ago), but then he says he'd still have to fix the old one so he could give it to someone. I know he likes the beast, but.... I think he can probably get the repair done for $2-300. At least, I hope he can.
I should still be blogging plenty this month. I scaled it back to almost one third or more of what I had planned, but I feel better about it. I'll be looking forward to hearing what you have to say, too. I'll be checking out the books you and Wendy recommended. Thanks to both of you.
The techs were so amazed that I was trying to fix a seven-year-old computer that I wanted to tell them, "Hey, it's not steam powered."
Sorry to hear Linux didn't work for you. I know people who use it, and they seem to like it a lot. But it may be more techy than I want to mess with these days.
I'm still using my monitor, keyboard, and track ball. That's helped with this transition.
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