explaining my life to strangers
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Eine doch kürzere Folge als ich erwartet hatte.
Erwähnt wurde:
der Textilmarkt in Benediktbeuern und WWSIP-Day in Hamburg
meine Projekte (Ravelry-Link): Ebony Turtleneck, Maplewings, Michael, Devon, Lotus Leaf Mittens, Struan
Tara Jon Manning über Stash – Destash (englischer Artikel in Knitty).
Die versprochenen Bilder von meinem Wollvorrat reiche ich auf meinem Blog nach. (Bitte hier entlang: Stash-Fotos.)
Last weekend I had a case of Computer! Emergency! Panic! It came to me after a week of regular “first week of school”-panic, and on top of “first live performance in five years”-panic. Really, it was lovely.
So, Saturday morning (more than a week ago) after breakfast I went over to my studio to “just check my e-mail” which usually is code for “plop down in front of the computer and lose myself in the depth of the webs for an hour or two”, and when I tried to turn on my laptop all I got was the grey screen of doom. The second attempt got me as far as the “grey screen with blinking question mark”. Bad sign, not good at all.
That was the beginning of 2 1/2 days of me sitting in front of the machine, trying things, doing research on my husband’s computer, rushing off to get spare parts, and dismantling and re-assmebling my computer. I didn’t sleep properly in days and found that there is indeed one thing in the world that makes me lose my appetite, and that’s a computer emergency.
Now, I am a bit embarrassed that my computer is that important to me, and I have indeed contemplated going analogue again, I’m not sure – for example – if my electronic calendar is really worth the hassle; but it was my husband who got me to ponder this question even further.
Let’s face it, we might think that computer emergencies are the exception, and fortunately they are, but I find that there are enough of them to warrant a plan on how to deal with them. This past hiccup caused me to spend about a week thinking about not much else, and I had to spend quite a bit of money as well.
Granted, not everybody has three hard disk failures in four years (and I won’t get another re-furbished machine, that’s for sure) but I had them. And there are quite a few more of the smaller crises like software updates going wonky, or user error, or mysterious ailments that cause half your calendar to disappear.
So I’m making some rules for computer emergencies for myself. And I’ll print them out and put them somewhere I’ll find them again. Before I write about those, though, there is something really important to remind you (and me) of – you’ve probably heard it before – BACK UP. OFTEN. When my first hard disk crashed I lost about half a year’s worth of family photos, digital music, and some other stuff. This time I was fortunate: the computer broke the morning after my regular Friday backup. I’ve been using ibackup, and that has been the only reason that computer failure didn’t turn me into a small ball of whimper. My new computer comes with time machine, and I really hope that works. So, the rules…
… when I get to my computer and something is wrong the main rule is: remember real life first
The other thing I did was that this time when I bought a new computer I got an extended warranty. So for the next three years whenever anything goes wrong with my computer I’ll go to the nice computer shop, bat my eyelashes and say, “There is something wrong with my computer, please fix it.” And I actually bought locally because of this for once.
I could have fixed the computer in the end but I would have needed a new hard drive (which I already bought), and on top of that a new keyboard/trackpad/top case-part because I managed to break that while installing the new hard drive. And yes, one should be able to install a new hard disk in a Macbook without opening the whole computer but you can only do that when the guys who installed the last hard disk (after the first one broke) put back everything including the white tab that you use to pull the broken drive out. So I would have ended up spending another 130 € on a four year old laptop with a broken optical drive.
So in the end I got a new shiny computer which I really love and have wanted for quite some time now. But it took me almost a week to restore everything, and there are still about three programs that won’t work. Of course, I bought those years ago, and now with the shiny new computer, of course, comes a shiny new version of the operating system.
Next thing I’ll have to get my audio interface work with the computer. Wish me luck.
I got tagged by Winterkatze for a book meme that has been going around for a while. There are rules, of course, and they go like this:
1. Nimm das nächste Buch in deiner Nähe mit mindestens 123 Seiten. Take the book that’s next to you that has at least 123 pages.
2. Schlage Seite 123 auf. Open page 123.
3. Suche den fünften Satz auf der Seite. Look for the fifth sentence on that page.
4. Poste die nächsten drei Sätze. Post the next three sentences.
5. Wirf das Stöckchen an fünf Blogger weiter. Tag five more bloggers.
I had a little problem at first picking the next book to me. I’m sitting at my computer desk, and for once it’s almost tidy with no books. I turned around and there was the “Who killed Amanda Palmer” sheet music book, not right. Next to it a book about dying with natural dyes, still no help, it’s only one recipe after the other. Then a book on Bauhaus. Opened page 123 to see a print, no sentence.
I walked over to my other desk, and looked at the big shelf with “books to read” in desperation but then I spied it! “The Red Tree” by Caitlín R. Kiernan. It lay on my desk because I had just received it in the mail.
So, page 123, fifth sentence, and now I’m posting the next three. Seems we have landed right in some dialogue:
“And it’s not that ghosts don’t exist, it’s just that most people are mistaken about what they are or aren’t.”
I think I blinked, and let the metal folding chair rock back on two legs. “Okay, now you’ve lost me,” I admitted, and she laughed again.
And now I’m all eager to read the book but first I have to finish two others. Sigh.
Anybody out there who hasn’t done this already? I’m tagging Lia, De, Frau Schlamuser, Deike (who has to answer this in the comments for she has no blog), and Beck who surely will have one or two books next to her.
As you might remember I made a list of projects I wanted to do during summer break. Well, summer break is over now so it’s time to look at it again, don’t you think?
Out of these 19 projects I did – eight.
I might have to re-think my lists and goals approach one of these days. I still have the feeling that making lists is a good thing but then looking at them to see that most things didn’t happen – not so nice. I might have to check them off more often. Or something. The summer does feel like a good one. Despite the rain that fell most days.
A thing that wasn’t on my list but that happened is that we as a family did a lot of nice things together. We had barbecues, and bike rides, and we went camping and all. That was great. And we all had quite a bit of time puttering around the house as well. That was great too.
I promise. Every day I think about my daily picture in the morning, at breakfast or so, and then I keep forgetting about it or pushing it back until I have to take yet another weirdly yellow picture. I have tried taking them with flash but that will make them look even worse. Also doing this has given me the sudden urge to get myself a nice digital SLR camera. I own one that’s analog, and as much as I like it I never use it anymore. I used to really like my camera but it can only do so much… Or maybe it’s me after all, who knows.
I usually opt for accurate memory of the day over artsiness so that may be a factor as well. Here are the last few days:
On Wednesday I did a ton of stuff and went to IKEA all by myself. By car. I played “guess the right exit” being hindered by having a road map that’s about 15 years old and doesn’t show all those fancy new autobahns they have built since then. In the end I got there and back with a ton o new shelves and things, like you do. This is something for my “new” stereo (it’s one of many in our garage that have belonged to my late father-in-law). Ii all started with an offhand remark of mine that my speakers really are crap, after which a neighbor and friend of ours came over with huge, enormous speakers. I had to get rid of one of the smaller shelves in my studio for them. Then we found that the new speakers sounded awful with the amp I had, and my husband lugged another one over from the garage. The new amp (and pre-amp) didn’t fit into the old stereo’s home, so I got myself a new one. Came back home, had dinner, and put the thing together. Mind you, I had had my camera in my bag the whole day.
More shelves. Thursday was the day I had a dental operation to have a titanium screw put into my lower jaw. It was actually less painful than I had imagined it to be but I spent most of the day sitting in my comfy chair watching old Fred Astaire movies (as far as I know there aren’t any new Fred Astaire movies, it’s just that I went on a “musical from the thirties”-binge while icing my cheek). Meanwhile my son pestered my husband hard enough to make him put together his new shelf.
A miracle happened. The day before my husband had gotten my son to help him tidy his room and clean up! For the first time in months (if not years) not only can you see the floor, it has been vacuumed as well. Instead of de-cluttering I opted for buying a new shelf and bins…
On Friday my son and I went to the local library, and here you can see why he truly is my son. He even likes the same books I liked as a child. This pictures was taken while he started reading his first ever Dr. Dolittle-book. (He had read it all through by the next day, ahem.) Here’s my bonus shot, library shelves (yes, I know I have a thing with shelves this week):
As you can see in the picture I took today, new stereo finally in place:
It sounds magnificent, now I only have to get back into the habit of listening to music through speakers. These days I put everything on my ipod and listen to it while I’m walking but that doesn’t really work for all kinds of music, and I think I stopped listening to music because the sound was so awful before.
On a totally unrelated note, I don’t quite know what to do with the fact that a lot of you don’t understand a word of both my new knitting podcast and the accompanying show notes. Maypole alerted me to the fact that all she could (almost) understand of my last post was “click here” (well guessed by the way). If I start the show notes with some explanation in English the podcast looks a bit weird on itunes, like a German podcast with English show notes. Translating the show notes on the other hand is a bit peculiar as well since everything is out of context.
Anyway, the things I mentioned on the podcast – apart from what I’m knitting on right now – is modern sword fighting, something I took a class on some years back, that tries to merge medieval sword fighting techniques with martial arts training; NaNoWriMo, which I’ve written extensively about, a couple of knitting patterns, and the “World Wide Spin in Public-Day” website. Come to think of it, the only thing I linked to that’s in German is the sword fighting thing.
I hope mixing things up here on my blog doesn’t bother you all too much. Of course I could go and put my “pictures a day” somewhere else, and the knitting podcast still somewhere else but I’m not posting much as it is.
So please don’t get angry at me for posting in a weird language from time to time. See, there is dire need of a German knitting podcast. There are tons of them in English, and pretty amazing ones at that, but looking for a knitting podcast in German right now is like looking for water on the moon.
(And now I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to listen to a podcast in a language I don’t understand at all. I might have to try that out some time.)
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