Sunday, August 22, 2010

UGH II

Things not good at this time. Personal shit that I don't intend to get into here, but suffice it to say some big changes may be in the wind.

Wish I could say the same for this weather. Freaking heat wave just goes on and on with no end in sight. Not only that, most of the storms that have blown up lately in the afternoon heat bypass us. No relief, not even a brief respite from this humid shit.

I suppose I'll forget this misery when winter is upon the land and it's colder than a well-digger's ass in Montana, but maybe not this year. At least in the winter, you can put on enough clothing to stay at least semi-warm. Can't take off enough in the summer to do the same.

Weird problem yesterday on this old desktop. I installed Microsoft's batch of usual bullshit updates as always and then restarted to put some of them into action. Got a blue screen checking files and folders, which seemed to freeze up at one point about 4 percent into one of the actions. Had to kill the machine with the off/on button and try again.

Went through that process about 10 times with same results. Tried to start in safe mode but it ran the directories and then froze. Finally, went back to the blue screen and just let it run without doing anything. After many long minutes, the 4-percent finally went up to 5 and then on to a conclusion. Several other processes then took place over a matter of several minutes and the fugger finally rebooted to the login screen. Put in the password and it's worked fine since. Apparently, according to text on the screen at one point, I had a corrupted folder in the boot sector, which was repaired. Don't know what the hell caused that.

Anyway, I normally back things up but have been a bit negligent lately. That will be corrected today, because I got a taste of losing some stuff I intend to keep and the regret that came with that possibility. Not funny.


Friday, August 13, 2010

UGH

Freaking heat just goes on and on with no break or rain. Indices in the 110-115 range the past few days and that's expected to continue through the weekend. Possibility of a cool down next week, but nothing drastic, just back to the lower 90s. Screw summer, I'm ready for fall. Haven't been fishing one time this summer simply because it's way too hot.

Got the camera but haven't been able to really give it a workout. Seems to take decent pictures, judging by the few I've taken here in the house. Has lots of modes, from fully automatic to manual settings, so I'll have to play around with it some when I'm able to get outside and find something to photograph.

I wish it shot video in AVI instead of that MOV shit, but then I think I can convert it in Sony Vegas--a power-robbing, clunky ass POS if ever there was one. I might install it on the new laptop, which has enough power to deal with its demands, although I'm not sure it will work properly with Windows 7. Find 0ut, I guess.

For that matter, Windows 7 has no native mode to transfer video to the computer. There is no Movie Maker as comes with XP and ME (though the ME version is real shitty). I've checked around and some folks have apparently taken the old Movie Maker and converted it to where it's supposed to work on 7, so maybe I'll download one of those and give it a try. But hell, I've got several video editing programs on disc and surely some of them will install and work, at least enough to siphon content into the computer. (I just recalled that the laptop has a card reader, so I can probably get it in that way, though that wouldn't allow for editing options. Editing is available in the camera, but that would be very limited.)

Well along with the project to publish a collection of short stories -- my thanks to Carter Monroe for his close reading and spot-on editorial suggestions. Christ, I've got tons of stories bound up in rough copy that I've never transcribed to the computer. Others piled and stacked in old footlockers, suitcases and boxes. Probably never will transcribe most of them, and many are likely not good enough to bother with anyway. And that doesn't count three huge garbage bags of manuscripts I tossed when I left St. Louis in 1985. I've regretted that a time or two, but it's a done deal.

So is this batch of BS.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

What can I say

This fucking heat wave continues from last week. It was a heat index of 120 today after 117 yesterday. No real end in sight, though it's suppose to drop down a bit Saturday for one day.

I hate this shit. Bring on winter. I have warm clothes. 50 below, I don't give a rat's ass. At least I can breathe cold air. I can't breathe this hot shit. Or not very well, that is.