I have enlisted the help of the Geek Squad at Best Buy to recover my data. I would be more upset about this than I am if I didn’t have all of the recent rewrites of my novel chapters sitting in a paper pile on my living room floor. I don’t really want to have to type them all up again, but perhaps it will be good-another rewrite as I go. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

What I don’t want to lose are my $80,000 worth of music that I’ve downloaded from i-Tunes. Okay, maybe not $80,000, but it’s close. Don’t tell my husband that. Nor do I really want to lose the research I have done on Narcissistic Personality Disorder, so that I can write an essay about my narcissistic, homicidal, selfish, insane former friend C, which is all stored on One Note. I’ll be really bummed about that. Plus all of the pre-writing I’ve done for the essay. That will be missed, because now I’ll probably never go back to it. And, I have a ton of hilarious journal entries stored on One Note as well, and those will also be missed, as I was trying to see how my writing process changed when journaling on the computer versus in my handy-dandy, always-with-me notebook.

I hope I’ve learned my lesson about backing up. Have you backed up your computer lately? Maybe you should stop fucking around reading blogs and go do that now, if you haven’t. If you have, then you’re a better man than me. Well, I’m not a man, but you get the idea.

The thing is, I’ve gotten a whole lot more done around the house and on my writing and schoolwork, since my routine of sitting at the dining room table from 6:45 a.m. til god knows when, blogclicking and reading and commenting, and posting, and just fucking around in general has been interrupted. Hopefully, I’ve learned a lesson from that as well.

Do I have anything amusing to say? No, not really. Sorry. The Geek Squad will let me know today if they’re able to recover any of my data. Then, they have to pack the thing off to who knows where to have the power issue resolved. Since I got the thing at Christmas, I’ve had to hold the power cord in place until I felt a mysterious force get involved, at which time I would let go of the power cord and have to tip toe around my laptop until it charged, at which time the battery would immediately begin to discharge itself, even with the cord plugged in and the little AC light on, which it would accomplish in about two hours, at which time I would have to start the whole entire process over again. It was a little frustrating, but I didn’t want to bring it in to be fixed, because I hadn’t done a back-up! You see this vicious cirle of hell I have put myself in? What is wrong with me? Now, my lovely laptop will be gone for 7-14 days. 7-14 days? It would have made a lot of sense for me to drop the damn thing off before I went on vacation last month, now wouldn’t it?

In your mind’s eye, picture me banging my head on my desk, muttering, “Idiot, idiot,” over and over again, because that’s what I’m doing.

Argh.

Posts will be infrequent until my laptop, which has completely died on me, is fixed. Posting from my other computer is a pain in the ass, as my family stands behind my chair and says things like, “Whatcha writing, mommy? Are you writing on your Blog, mommy? What’s a blog, mommy? Can I have a blog, mommy? Why do you write in a blog, mommy? Can I have a popsicle?”

It’s really annoying and counter productive, and I end up screaming and running out of the room and going to do laundry or something.

Bleck. Hopefully, though laptop will be all better today or tomorrow. Then I will unleash the posts that have building inside me.

Somehow, I was able to convince not only my husband, but my children, that attending Lollapalooza, on my daughter’s 10th birthday no less, was a fantabulous idea. And, to double my fun (I don’t know about theirs), we are going to stay downtown in a hotel directly across from Grant Park. I think I’m not growing up, but growing younger by the minute. Goody for me. I just looked up the lineup, which was announced this morning, and we shall be privileged to see The Pixies, Liz Phair, Widespread Panic, fucking BILLY IDOL, and the list goes on. This is going to be like a trip through my musical past. If anyone is planning to go, please leave me a comment!

I love Wilco. I am listening to A Ghost is Born right now. Hell is Chrome contains one of the most soul-entering guitar riffs I have ever heard in my life-it squeezes my heart every time I hear it. Go listen to it right now.

I posted yesterday about an initiative called Individual-i. If you haven’t checked it out yet, here’s a bit from their website:

I am now showing ads for the NewJane directory of blogs by women. You’ll see the ads over yonder in the sidebar.

I must stress that these ads come from NewJane, and do not necessarily reflect my own opinion. That said, I have found that most of them do have something interesting to say, even when I don’t agree with them. In fact, I have found in my blog reading experience so many different opinions that some of my own have been newly shaped or changed altogether.

Any other women bloggers out there, check out Blogs by Women. You’ll find a link to the New Jane Network there.

Individual-i

I found this site via Boing Boing this morning-very interesting concept. The Individual-i.

From their site (you should go there yourself, too!): “Today, the rights of individuals are being eroded: by government, by corporations, by society itself. This icon-the Individual-i-represents the rights of the individual.
It represents the right to privacy and anonymity in the information age. It represents the rights to an open government, due process, and equal protection under the law. It represents the right to live surveillance free, and not to be marked as ‘suspicious’ for wanting these other rights.”

You can download the icon from the site, and I’m going to figure out how to put it in my sidebar (I’m really an idiot, so this might take a while), even though I’m afraid that it literally WILL mark me as ‘suspicious’ for wanting these rights.

Check it out, it’s an interesting concept, and I’d love to hear what you all think of it.

Plus, I’d love it if some html wiz figured out how to, or could tell me how to, put this icon on my blog here. I’ve tried a couple different things, but they don’t work quite the way I want them too. I’m thinking something along the lines of the Creative Commons license and the various buttons. The image would have to be hosted somewhere, no? Flickr or Picasa? I’m really not that bright when it comes to this kind of thing. Help!

I just want to take a quick second to thank everyone who has left comments on my various posts. If I don’t respond to you directly, it isn’t because I don’t love you-just too busy!

This is such a great way to have a meaningful conversation, to present different viewpoints (although I love to be agreed with!), and most importantly, to meet new people from all over the world. I’m going to have to get busy adding people to my links list!

Thanks again, and have a great day.

Okay, people. Anybody want some gmail love? Howsabout a little Yahoo 360? I’ve got about a hundred invites for each. If anyone wants one, even just to check out the Yahoo 360 thing, leave me a comment or e-mail me (vikibabbles@gmail.com) and I’ll invite you. The fun thing about the yahoo 360 is, when you invite someone, they become your friend. It’s mandatory. Okay, maybe not MANDATORY, but you’d sure look like an ass if I went and invited you and you refused to be my friend. That would be wholly out of the yahoo 360 spirit.

I haven’t quite figured out what purpose Yahoo 360 will serve for me, but if you want to check out what I’ve done so far, or what it looks like, go to: ScarletB’s Yahoo 360 Blog. I think it would be a good way to keep in touch with family and far-flung friends, but as far as a blog presence, it is limited, especially since there is no way to customize how the page looks, aside from content. Photos are easy to post, and probably will be more so once the Flickr integration I expect will happen happens. It’s easy to omigod I just watched a minivan, belonging to the new people kitty-corner from me completely blow through the stop sign, turn the corner, and turn into their driveway! Should I go out there and say, hey asshole! Aren’t you glad your fucking kid wasn’t standing on the corner when you did that? It’s called a STOP SIGN you fucktard! Anyway, It’s easy to share things like your favorite music and books, and there’s a feature where you can display what you listen to on Yahoo Launch Radio, if you listen to Launch Radio, which I don’t because Firefox isn’t supported by Launch Radio, stupid Launch Radio fucktards don’t know from shit. Guess I’d better click on that Beta Feedback link, huh?

Anyhoo, short story long, if you want a gmail or a yahoo 360 invite, let me know, and it’s yours for the asking. And then, you can be my friend.