The Zen Cabin

Boxes and wires

Oy, what a couple weeks it’s been! The kitchen is complete, I’m 90-something percent moved in and technology is taunting me – nay, mocking me! The new place is great but I have never, ever had so many computer problems as I’ve had this last week. Makes me wanna kill a brother!

I don’t know if this place carries a different brand of electricity, but my main computer wouldn’t even power up here. Seriously, the little power light just kept blinking some kind of Morse code “Fuck you, pally!”, even after I unplugged it. Balls! So, in preparation for the new internet service, I grabbed the backup system, fired it up, then remembered that I’d pulled the CD drive and put into the main computer. Gah! CD Drive transplants are not as exciting as you might think. I swapped the memory over while I was at it, as well.

Backup system fires up with no problem, and I’m licking my chops at the thought of the new widescreen monitor I just picked up. But… (you knew there was a “But” coming, right?) the computer won’t render the new resolution correctly. Hmmm… install the monitor CD and load the drivers and… nope! Another couple hours wasted while I try to reconfigure the display and get the video card to recognize the new drivers. I finally resolved that issue and the new monitor is working like a charm and dazzling me with its funky fresh coolness. I highly recommend a widescreen.

Now, of course, the new system is missing the dope software I use on a regular basis. Not a huge deal, because I can download most of it and there were a few apps that needed to be upgraded anyway. Still, there are a couple apps that I don’t feel like downloading again, mainly because the sources are – how shall I say it? – somewhat gray market, if you will, which makes them a little less convenient to install, what with the extra steps involved.

And, of course, the main system had all my bookmarks and e-mail addresses on it – work, friends, classmates, everybody. And if that weren’t enough, the e-mail app on the new system wouldn’t connect to the SMTP server properly, so I couldn’t send e-mail from one of my accounts. Not cool, man – not cool. I’m hoping I’ll be able to hook up the old hard drive as a slave and recover some of this stuff, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the computer gods at this point.

Kids, take a lesson from my mistakes: Back up, back up, back up! I thought I had things covered but I didn’t push the mantra deeply enough. Sure, my media files are safely on two other drives, but man… I really shot myself in the foot this time.

All in all, though, I can’t complain; I have a sweet apt. with criminally low rent in a great location. I’ll post some pictures of the new kitchen, once I’ve gathered the requisite cords and software.