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Something odd happened last night. Before I went to bed, I plugged in my iPod, which plugs into my gaming computer. In the morning I realized that I'd still been logged into City of Heroes when I did this. I virtually never try to have iTunes and City of Heroes loaded at the same time; iTunes has something over 28,000 songs on file now, and it causes my computer to slow to a crawl. Secondly, I noticed that iTunes had not actually opened, and that I had a message that my iPod was damaged and needed to be wiped and reinstalled.
My usual experience is that this is not actually the case, so I said no, and closed City of Heroes, and then tried to open iTunes. it wouldn't open.
Next I tried to reboot the computer. Several minutes later I checked on it and it had not booted. It was stuck at one of the boot-up text phases.
I rebooted again. It appeared to get stuck again.
I left it to take a shower, worried that my computer may have died and wondering what data I might have lost. Most of it is backed up but it occurred to me that some of the videos I've downloaded from iTunes may not be backed up yet. It was very vexing, though. Computer problems usually are.
I'd also noted that my iPod had not even charged, so I reminded myself to take my plug-in charger with me to work. If my computer was dead, I wouldn't be syncing the iPod for a few days.
When I returned after my shower, I was surprised to note that my computer had *almost* booted up. It was at the desktop, with the exception that there were no icons or nav bar. So... that was better than not booting up at all, I supposed. But still something was wrong.
I gathered my clothes for the day and returned and there was my full desktop with icons and nav bar. Oh! It booted after all, only really, really, R E A L L Y slowly.
I backed up some files but I was late for work, so I grabbed the iPod and took off.
At work I realized that my iPod was locked. I performed the ritual to unlock it, and discovered that it *had* recharged overnight after all. That made sense. Of course, it hadn't been docked, so all of the podcasts I'd already listened to Monday were still there.
At this point I'm not sure there's actually anything wrong with my computer itself. I'm not sure if the locked iPod somehow caused my computer to act weird, or if my wonky computer is about to die and caused my iPod to lock up. But I'm backing up files just in case.
(And survey says... iPod docks with iTunes tonight just fine. Hmmm.)
My renewal notice came today. I was desperately hoping that they wouldn't raise my rent, since other places are doing the same. If they did raise it I was probably going to think of moving. However, they haven't raised it at all. That's great! Who wants to move, anyway?
I picked up the audio book "Carry On, Jeeves" by Wodehouse over a year ago I think. It's a collection of short stories, and was the last thing I bought from Audible.com before letting my account expire. Given that I haven't listened to it in the last year, that was probably the right decision. I often find that I don't have time to listen to everything that I want to.
However, one of the reasons I'd picked it up was to help me with one of my stories involving Banga Zuvela and Roger Saark. I wanted to get a better feel for the kind of interplay that Jeeves and Wooster engage in. I've been listening to them for the last week or so, and enjoying them a great deal. I have a much better idea of what I want to do with my story.
Today I finished the last story in the book. Now I'm wondering if I want to reactivate my Audible account so I can get another one.
A week or so ago I ran across three different stories/reccommendations on books on writing. At writer's night Gene reccommended Building Fiction: How to Develop Plot & Structure by Jessee Lee Kercheval. There was a story on NPR from a newly published author reccommending three books that helped her get published. Those books were Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell, On Writing by Stephen King, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. Lastly, there was another NPR story about the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, mentioning that a new 50th anniversary hardbound edition had just been published.
Of course I own a copy of Strunk & White. It's the same one I bought when I was in college, a slim tan volume that cost me about $3.00 as I recall. The idea of owning a very nice hardbound edition appealed to me a great deal. As for the other books -- I haven't actually bought any books on writing in years. I decided that maybe now was the time.
I ordered two of them from Amazon last Sunday. I ordered the two books on Plot & Structure, since that is usually one of my biggest problems when writing. I decided not to order more at the time because I didn't want to put a great deal of money on my credit card, but I figured I could drive up to Southcenter and find the hardbound Strunk & White book in a few days.
Today was payday. After depositing my check, I recalled that I wanted that book, so I drove over to Barnes & Noble. They had it, as well as the books by Stephen King and Donald Maass books. The King book seems to be part advice, part story about his life as a writer and how he learned to write. I'm sure it will be more entertaining to read than a dry how-to book. The Maass book has one of those titles -- "Writing the Breakout Novel" that not only sounds like a how-to book but probably a bad one that has little to teach me. But the NPR article had specifically said that this book taught how to inject conflict into your story, which is something that the NPR author (and I) have trouble with. So I decided to try that one out as well.
And then... I got into a bit of trouble. As I said, I haven't bought any writing books in a long time, but there I was in the words & writing section of the bookstore. How could I not look at other books?
I picked up a thick volume called The Pirate Primer. This turns out to be a reference book on how pirates and rogues talk. Each entry references the story it comes from originally, and the book is stuffed with information. For example:
I mean, who can resist a book like that?
I also picked up a smaller book called Unfortunate English by Bill Brohaugh, which contains stories about the origin of certain gloomy or dark words. It explains things like how "poppycock" is a corruption of the Dutch word Pappekak, meaning "soft dung". Not, as people might surmise these days, a polite way to say "nonsense". Or how the expression "well-heeled" probably (not absolutely documented but not seriously disputed) stems from the American West where to be well-heeled or just heeled meant you carried a gun... and this likely stems from cockfighting in the 1800's, where a cock with long spurs made a good fighter.
In fact, after due consideration I put the Stephen King book back on the shelf. Maybe I'll pick it up later, maybe not.
The person at the counter asked me if I'd ever read "The Professor and the Madman". When she started to describe it, I remembered what it's about. I still haven't read it, but I think I'll pick it up soon.
Back on the computer front: My other computer (the non-gaming computer) was freezing up in recent weeks. Usually it did this after it went to sleep, so that the next time I tried to wake it up, nothing would happen. Once in a great while it froze while I was using it, and once froze with the windows logo showing, the one that comes up when your computer is idle but hasn't gone asleep yet.
It was happening nearly once a day, and I strongly suspected I had a video driver problem. But I had the latest drivers. I tried to close all programs before leaving my computer, but that had nothing to do with it.
And then, last week, there was a new update from Windows, and guess what? It hasn't frozen up since.
My usual experience is that this is not actually the case, so I said no, and closed City of Heroes, and then tried to open iTunes. it wouldn't open.
Next I tried to reboot the computer. Several minutes later I checked on it and it had not booted. It was stuck at one of the boot-up text phases.
I rebooted again. It appeared to get stuck again.
I left it to take a shower, worried that my computer may have died and wondering what data I might have lost. Most of it is backed up but it occurred to me that some of the videos I've downloaded from iTunes may not be backed up yet. It was very vexing, though. Computer problems usually are.
I'd also noted that my iPod had not even charged, so I reminded myself to take my plug-in charger with me to work. If my computer was dead, I wouldn't be syncing the iPod for a few days.
When I returned after my shower, I was surprised to note that my computer had *almost* booted up. It was at the desktop, with the exception that there were no icons or nav bar. So... that was better than not booting up at all, I supposed. But still something was wrong.
I gathered my clothes for the day and returned and there was my full desktop with icons and nav bar. Oh! It booted after all, only really, really, R E A L L Y slowly.
I backed up some files but I was late for work, so I grabbed the iPod and took off.
At work I realized that my iPod was locked. I performed the ritual to unlock it, and discovered that it *had* recharged overnight after all. That made sense. Of course, it hadn't been docked, so all of the podcasts I'd already listened to Monday were still there.
At this point I'm not sure there's actually anything wrong with my computer itself. I'm not sure if the locked iPod somehow caused my computer to act weird, or if my wonky computer is about to die and caused my iPod to lock up. But I'm backing up files just in case.
(And survey says... iPod docks with iTunes tonight just fine. Hmmm.)
My renewal notice came today. I was desperately hoping that they wouldn't raise my rent, since other places are doing the same. If they did raise it I was probably going to think of moving. However, they haven't raised it at all. That's great! Who wants to move, anyway?
I picked up the audio book "Carry On, Jeeves" by Wodehouse over a year ago I think. It's a collection of short stories, and was the last thing I bought from Audible.com before letting my account expire. Given that I haven't listened to it in the last year, that was probably the right decision. I often find that I don't have time to listen to everything that I want to.
However, one of the reasons I'd picked it up was to help me with one of my stories involving Banga Zuvela and Roger Saark. I wanted to get a better feel for the kind of interplay that Jeeves and Wooster engage in. I've been listening to them for the last week or so, and enjoying them a great deal. I have a much better idea of what I want to do with my story.
Today I finished the last story in the book. Now I'm wondering if I want to reactivate my Audible account so I can get another one.
A week or so ago I ran across three different stories/reccommendations on books on writing. At writer's night Gene reccommended Building Fiction: How to Develop Plot & Structure by Jessee Lee Kercheval. There was a story on NPR from a newly published author reccommending three books that helped her get published. Those books were Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell, On Writing by Stephen King, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. Lastly, there was another NPR story about the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, mentioning that a new 50th anniversary hardbound edition had just been published.
Of course I own a copy of Strunk & White. It's the same one I bought when I was in college, a slim tan volume that cost me about $3.00 as I recall. The idea of owning a very nice hardbound edition appealed to me a great deal. As for the other books -- I haven't actually bought any books on writing in years. I decided that maybe now was the time.
I ordered two of them from Amazon last Sunday. I ordered the two books on Plot & Structure, since that is usually one of my biggest problems when writing. I decided not to order more at the time because I didn't want to put a great deal of money on my credit card, but I figured I could drive up to Southcenter and find the hardbound Strunk & White book in a few days.
Today was payday. After depositing my check, I recalled that I wanted that book, so I drove over to Barnes & Noble. They had it, as well as the books by Stephen King and Donald Maass books. The King book seems to be part advice, part story about his life as a writer and how he learned to write. I'm sure it will be more entertaining to read than a dry how-to book. The Maass book has one of those titles -- "Writing the Breakout Novel" that not only sounds like a how-to book but probably a bad one that has little to teach me. But the NPR article had specifically said that this book taught how to inject conflict into your story, which is something that the NPR author (and I) have trouble with. So I decided to try that one out as well.
And then... I got into a bit of trouble. As I said, I haven't bought any writing books in a long time, but there I was in the words & writing section of the bookstore. How could I not look at other books?
I picked up a thick volume called The Pirate Primer. This turns out to be a reference book on how pirates and rogues talk. Each entry references the story it comes from originally, and the book is stuffed with information. For example:
scupperlout [scarr/skooh-er-owoot] disgusting fool
The term is a combination of "scupper" (a drain leading water from a low point on a vessel's deck over its side and into the sea, which -- when plugged or stopped -- can contain stagnat, foul-smelling liquid and pieces of scummy trash) and "lout" (a doltis, oafish idiot). The epithet wraps into one efficent term the two most popualr bases for calling someone a bad name -- offensiveness and stupidity.
"I'm gonna disappear myself, that's what I'm gonna do -- mister sanctimonious scupperlout." (Blackbeard, "Blackbeard's Ghost" 1:14:18)
I mean, who can resist a book like that?
I also picked up a smaller book called Unfortunate English by Bill Brohaugh, which contains stories about the origin of certain gloomy or dark words. It explains things like how "poppycock" is a corruption of the Dutch word Pappekak, meaning "soft dung". Not, as people might surmise these days, a polite way to say "nonsense". Or how the expression "well-heeled" probably (not absolutely documented but not seriously disputed) stems from the American West where to be well-heeled or just heeled meant you carried a gun... and this likely stems from cockfighting in the 1800's, where a cock with long spurs made a good fighter.
In fact, after due consideration I put the Stephen King book back on the shelf. Maybe I'll pick it up later, maybe not.
The person at the counter asked me if I'd ever read "The Professor and the Madman". When she started to describe it, I remembered what it's about. I still haven't read it, but I think I'll pick it up soon.
Back on the computer front: My other computer (the non-gaming computer) was freezing up in recent weeks. Usually it did this after it went to sleep, so that the next time I tried to wake it up, nothing would happen. Once in a great while it froze while I was using it, and once froze with the windows logo showing, the one that comes up when your computer is idle but hasn't gone asleep yet.
It was happening nearly once a day, and I strongly suspected I had a video driver problem. But I had the latest drivers. I tried to close all programs before leaving my computer, but that had nothing to do with it.
And then, last week, there was a new update from Windows, and guess what? It hasn't frozen up since.