TechnoWhining and BOOKS

The techno gods hate me. I am in floppy-disk hell. With all the blank CDs that my friend gave me, I should have had the frigging hard drive all backed up on disk three days ago. But NOOOOO, my external-drive CD-burner appears to only love music; every CD I burned with data instead of music, has not turned out. (Tip of the Day: Bad CDs make neat little "scarecrows" in the garden, simply hang them from a string and watch the wind twist them and the sun reflect... back in the "olden days of yore" the tip was to use broken cassette tapes, string the tape in pieces and the fluttering would scare off the birds and squirrels. So now you all have a use for the tapes and VHS tapes that you just can't seem to get rid of! LOL)

Back to the computer: I have pretty much weeded out the superfluous files, and zipped the rest (which I need to re-zip into smaller files in a few cases). And am now having all SORTS of fun putting everything on floppy disks, AFTER scan-disking each three or four times to get all of the blankety-blanking errors fixed. So far I am up to 29 floppies, with a banana-load of files (mostly JPGs) still to download. Even went through the ones I already did and made a list of what is on each diskette, which I am glad I did because I would have had about six files duplicated if I hadn't gone through and typed up everything. The one good thing about Windows 3.1 was that I could compile a list of files on a disk or drive with one function, instead of having to type it all out. Seems that a handy feature like that would have been maintained in the subsequent versions of Windows! Almost makes me want to delete 98 and install 3.1... yeah, right. Now that I finally got a cd for 2000 upgrade (just in time for Elvis to airplane) I am NOT going to go backwards, TYVM. (*Thank You Very Much)

So, now here I sit at the library, blogging, emailing, and surfing for the lyrics to the CD that Dusty sent me (Anne Hill's Circle Round & Sing) that I am listening to on the headphones right now. I love this CD!!!!! Oh, if the Fundie librarians only knew what I am doing! Contaminating their precious space with PAGAN MUSIC. Shame on me. **NOT!!!* Not like it is possible to get any pagan/Wiccan books from here, Herculean task just to get plain SF/Fantasy... But romance and Christian literature overflows. No prejudice here! (Yet, at the main branch I found a pagan book in the used book sale... and they even have books on witchcraft in the nonfiction AND the reference sections.) Some day, I will be a rich Mofo and will open my own library: the Beulah McRae Memorial Library, in honor of my grandma that originated my love of words. And she was fey, as well... My other fantasy is to own my own used-book store, with my apartment above the shop. Yes, I read Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop and Parnassus on Wheels many years ago! Am trying to replace the copies that were lost over many a move. I found the e-books online and downloaded them, but it isn't the same as the old, musty books themselves....

Oooh, am surfing on some of Dusty's links and like what I see... wish I had the Net at home so I could bookmark pages, but here at the library everything gets deleted at the end of the day. Not that I usually get the same computer every time anyway! OK, I am going to finish up this post with two accomplishments: I did four loads of laundry this weekend, including two unfinished- and needing repair- quilt tops, since I currently use Grandma's Wash Tub to wash all laundry by hand, this is one hell of an accomplishment (thank goddess for Pain Medication, even if it did knock me out for a day afterward!). Secondly, I am past chapter 33 in From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz. And don't forget that I am cleaning my computer (but not the desk) and got one ball of yarn rolled up from a very stubborn tangled skein. And did the dishes! And set up DH's meds for the week, except for his phenobarbital that the quack-- I mean, doctor-- needs to call in a refill for. Geez, all this and PMS, no wonder I am tired!

Going to end now, and check to see if Ruthi is done scanning my photos yet. (The advantage of sharing photos: fifteen or more years later, when you can't find your copies, there is some friend in the world with your pictures that you can borrow and recopy!) (Hey Dusty, still got that photo of me and Dave in front of the Xmas tree? Scan it if you do, I want a copy! I was SKINNY then!) LOL *** Love ya, Sis!!!