I never figured it would be such a challenge to regain my footing after a few years of focused studying. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that I started tackling those little, niggly things on my list of Things To Do that have been hanging over my head for some time… Like recovering my computer. As regular readers may recall, my hard drive took a nose-dive about a month ago, cycling through endless reboots after a Blue Screen of Death. I had the replacement HD and new OS on hand to fix it… I just know how these tech troubles explode into massive time-sucks when you try to address them properly. A four-day weekend should have been enough to settle all my problems. For the most part, I did, too. The hard drive “cooperated” by only requiring that several of the cables on the motherboard be unplugged to allow it to slide into position. The upgrade DVD “cooperated” by not being able to fix whatever ailed the old HD, but permitted me to take a back door into a custom install on the new drive. Somehow the new drive is blazing fast and a massive improvement, and Microsoft has made its 8.1 OS have the magical capacity to see stuff I’d never seen on the legacy drives that still sit in my box… so I’ve managed to copy back-up files to the new drive that I hadn’t seen in … well, years. I’m still learning the new OS, though.
As of tonight, I seem to have recovered all the stuff I’d worried I’d lost. And I’m BLESSING Amazon’s digital download manager for my ability to not have to dig through boxes and files to find the stuff I need to install MS Office. I still need to find my InDesign disk to put that in place on the new OS, but had the woo-woo moment of discovering my old Quark installation on one of the other hard drives… and being able to RUN IT. This will save me time as I build up the necessary collateral for hubs’ practice, and can copy out of documents that had been locked to me for a few years. Since the NCCAOM has given official word that his certification is again current, I’ll be working quickly to get everything updated for our new location.
Aside from hunkering down to avoid the holiday craziness and finding time to take a few old tasks off my to-do list this week, we also caught another old movie on our watch list: “Now You See Me“. We decided we like anything Roberto Orci has a hand in. In this case, the movie keeps poking at illusions (on point, since it’s all about magic and magicians), and ends up twisting into an unexpectedly logical outcome that had us thinking and talking for quite a while after it was over. And reiterated for me that there IS magic in the world, if we but look closely for it. Of course, there’s also horror in the world. A new acquaintance forwarded an amazing visualization of how many were killed in WWII, as compared to all other recent conflicts. It’s worth a look for an unusual perspective on hope. Hubs forwarded another list of 30 Einstein quotes for a different perspective on hope: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” That could be seen as opposing my view on magic… but somehow brings me around to Arthur C. Clarke’s view that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
😉
Also this week, our youngest pup has grown into her hormones enough that she’s decided destroying rugs is her teenaged rebellion, so we’re working on reinforcing rules and boundaries… and back to not very good sleep. The weather hasn’t cooperated to let us work it out of her with the long walks she’s grown accustomed to, so only managed 11.2 miles over five days.
Which brings me around to setting my goals for the newest Round of Words in 80 Days:
- Revise Dust to Blood and re-release it.
- Finish Blood to Fire and release it.
- Walk at least five times per week, for at least 10 miles total.
- Blog at least once a week, and post at least three new reviews.
- Continue the 1 night stay-at-home date night tradition.
These look a lot like my goals from the last round, but maybe third (?) time’s the charm to finally complete my Red Slaves trilogy. At least now I won’t have any other distractions or requirements hanging over my head, and we’re settled in enough (I actually installed my speakers while I was fiddling with my computer!) that we seem to be developing a rhythm to our weeks. We’ll see. I’ll keep checking in to keep you posted, regardless.
It’s weird, but it sounds like this was a good(?) thing–please don’t throw anything at me. But seeing stuff you haven’t seen in years and it’s so much faster both sound like pluses. Goals sound good, how much revising does Dust to Blood need?
You’re right–since I have backups of backups, too. 😀
As for revising… Eh. I wrote a prologue that needs redoing, but otherwise, I’ll just be adding some foreshadowing to the body of the book, which has already been through the whole editing cycle. So… in THEORY… I should be able to knock this out pdq. Where theory meets reality, though… We’ll see. 😀
These sound like good, solid, attainable goals. I am extremely slow with revisions – I think it’s because I’ve got so much mpre practice with writing. I’m gradually learning, gaining experience, finding methods and adaptations that work for me – but if I could currently revise as quickly as I draft, I’d be in really good shape.
May we both find success.
OMG, that sounds like a nightmare with your computer. 🙁 I had the screen on my 2-year-old laptop die on me recently, and that sucked. Luckily, I backup everything several times so no data was lost. It was just a pain. Hugs.
Good luck with your goals this round!
Yup. All my key documents are in DropBox or Google Docs (or both!) as well as my local box… but… getting all the software back the way it’s supposed to be… 😛
PITA!
😀