22 September 2008

Drive to distraction

It was 13 September (and the date should have given me a clue) that I tried to reboot the computer after a split-second power cut, which always manages to shut mine down if no one else's. There was a humming sound of the starting up process, then a strange grinding noise from inside the tower and a message on the screen, the gist of which was: “Oops, sorry, can't get myself to work, there seems to be some malfunction, try again”. Well, you try again, don't you? And again and again and again, until you realise that there is something seriously wrong.

Phoned our normal computer repair guy, who had most unfairly taken himself back to the UK for a short contract. He said confusing things about getting a new hard drive and making the original a slave drive, as it was probably system folders that were at fault As that procedure involved fundamental skills that I didn't think I had (I said confusing before because, although I know how to build websites, I know very little about what goes on under the bonnet of a computer. Or a car, for that matter.), I took the machine to the (French) computer shop and left it with them, explaining the symptoms and asking them to do what had been suggested.

Yesterday I went to pick it up. They hadn't phoned to say it was ready, possibly because they weren't sure how to tell me the problem, but I was in town and went in to check. The good news is that it's now a lot faster than it was. The bad news is that it's a lot faster than it was because there's nothing on it. Because, lo and behold, they told me the original hard drive was dead. Defunct and inaccessible. Along with all the contents: the email addresses, the passwords for various sites, the raw code for all the websites I've done, the photos for same, the family photos, the documents and letters and stories and poetry I'd written over the past four or five years. Gone. Had I backed things up? No. Backing up is only something you do with a trailer when you go to the tip, isn't it?

So I came away with a new hard drive in an old tower and a seemingly useless piece of circuitry and metal, being the old drive, and since yesterday evening I have been starting all over again as if I'd just got a computer for the first time, bit by bit by bit filling up the 250GB of empty space I've got with certain types of software I thought I had on the old drive. Some of the website stuff I've managed to download again using an FTP program (ie the software one uses to send what's on one's computer into the www – the process can work in reverse as well, which is useful), the email addresses will come back slowly – I probably had too many of them in the first place.

All is possibly not lost, however (in both senses of the word); I spoke to our regular chap and as a result of his talking me through it I now know what the insides of a computer look like. I've peered under the bonnet and got my hands dirty, figuratively speaking, wiring in the old drive as a slave, or secondary, drive (and boy, is there not a lot of space to manoeuvre inside a tower). The fact that a check on that drive's properties shows me that there is nothing on there is not daunting, no, not at all. I've searched Google for the relevant error message I got when I tried to open it and even as I type the new drive is in the process of trying to reconfigure the old. Whether that will work is another thing, but it's got to be worth trying.

Lesson learnt, though: Back up, back up, back up. How you do it is a matter for you, but for the moment I've gone for an online service: http://www.sosonlinebackup.com/ - at least that will keep me less than overstressed as it's automated and I don't have to remember.

ISP'd off

There is a saying in French: “On ne change pas une équipe qui gagne.” Literally, it means you don't change a winning team, figuratively that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, or try to make it better. I heard this saying for the first time yesterday, at the hairdresser's, where an old woman decided to have again the highlights she'd had before, following which came the saying; I sussed out what it meant and thought it a useful dicton to know.

My recent encounter of the saying could explain why I didn't have it in mind when a sultry-sounding woman phoned in early August representing an ISP latterly on the scene in France. Following her seductive blandishments (it's the French accent – alright, she was French and speaking French, but you know what I mean) and the guarantee of saving at least 24€ per month, I allowed myself to be persuaded to change providers, both phone AND Internet, also being reassured that we would have seven days grace to change our minds. (I can hear you all already, saying “Fool, don't do it!”)

Following the phone call, and me beaming with the satisfaction of a job well done, it took a feminine and wiser mind (yes, UPL) to remind me that all our email addresses were currently with the previous company, which had not let us down, we would have to therefore change and broadcast new addresses in due course if we switched and that there were many about who said that this new company were perhaps not as experienced; she had the good grace not to slap me hard around the head, but there was a certain head-slapping look in her eyes, I have to admit.

I blustered, ummed, aahed and prevaricated, coming up with what seemed at the time reasonable counter-arguments, but on the day the new box arrived from upstart company, coincidentally the 7th day after I'd signed up over the phone, common sense prevailed and convinced me that UPL was right and I sent it straight back again with a recorded delivery letter saying thanks but no thanks, we'll stick with who we were with.

All well and good, in theory, but we got stuck in the interregnum; the day after I sent that letter we lost the phone, and the internet connection, as new company had hotfooted it to the exchange to gleefully put their grubby mitts all over our communication facilities to the outside world. So there we were, hotels for our long trip to Greece unbooked, and no means to find them; money to be transferred online from bank to bank to help fund our long trip to Greece, and no means to do it; a route map for our long trip to Greece to be found, and no means to find it – I was seriously in the merde. It was of some little comfort that, by dint of excessive use of mobile phone and pleading with original company to return to the fold, the phone came back two days before we left, but the internet? I got a text the day before we were coming back from holiday to say that we had it again.

And that was the end of THAT problem. Alright, we had to pay 50€ for the privilege of rejoining the biggie, but they're not the biggie for nought. As they saying goes, with a winning team, it's not worth changing.

7 August 2008

Chairman of the bored

There was an email in my inbox this morning: "7 things your site needs to rank #1". Oh,yes, but I bet it doesn't list the first thing I need: ambition. I've just read the email, and, no, it doesn't. It presumes, as it would, that I've already got that in spades. And dedication, and motivation, and all the other positive 'tion' words that can be found in any good Thesaurus. Bah, humbug.

So I thought I'd start writing a round robin type email to friends and family saying what we're up to and things that are happening. Began by saying that UPL has got her ceramics business up and running, she paints almost daily, and she has a couple of blogs she keeps up with and half a dozen friends with whom she emails back and forth on a regular basis, busy, busy, busy. As for me.....well, I go out to work occasionally, though not as often as I used to or would like to, I do a bit of web site design/building from time to time, nothing too time consuming except at the time I'm doing it, and apart from that? Not a lot. No, really, very little at all. Occasionally I get asked "Can you possibly go and do ....?", so that keeps me active for a while, or "We need to ....", often meaning that I need to, as I'm the main adult French speaker in the house, so fair enough. Apart from that, though, I spend my time either feeling guilty that I'm not doing anything constructive towards our/my future, towards keeping the house maintained/improved or towards keeping the children amused/occupied (and this is the holidays, after all, so it's harder with all three at home), or feeling bored.

And then I wondered this morning, lying in bed late and not getting up to embrace the sunshine (admittedly it was regularly being hidden by drifting clouds), that perhaps I am boring. Perhaps it's only boring people who are bored. Exciting people are exciting because they get on and do things, because they have things to DO, and are consequently not bored.

So, what to do, to change the way I am to the way I want to be? What are the 7 things my life needs to rank #1? That can be my latest project, to think about my life and what it is and decide where to go and what to do. Mind you, having clicked on the link in the email I had in my inbox this morning, I discovered that I had to pay $2.95 for a free 21-day insight into the right techniques to improve my site's ratings (followed by $27 per month if I forget to write in and say thanks but no thanks), so no doubt I will have to pay something, somehow, somewhere, for improving life's ranking, but, as they say, you have to spend to make.

Come back next week and see how I'm getting on. Or next month, perhaps - I may be so busy doing things that I don't have the time any more.

13 January 2008

Wise words from beyond the grave

Below is a letter my father wrote almost 23 years ago to my cousin, at the time 13 years old. My cousin sent it to me the other day, with the following comments: "I reckon the content in the circumstances speaks volumes for the bloke that was Uncle Peter.
For what it is worth, and especially now that I am a father and because I believe I have a bit of a better understanding of family dynamics when partners/in-laws etc get involved, it is really amazing and special that your old man put his head out like this to offer me the hand he did."

I have edited some of the content to remove names and strong language.



6 March 1985

What have I done, I hear you ask, to deserve a letter from Peter.

Well, it appears to me that at the moment you are in a bit of a problem over there, which problem you didn’t make, don’t deserve, but unfortunately are stuck with. So I thought I’d write and offer you a bit of help and support.

The problem I talk about concerns the break-up between [your mum and dad] and how this affects you. There is also the fact of [your uncle] being around and stirring [up trouble], and [your brother] being away in Japan which means that you are not able to discuss things with him.

As far as I can see, [your mum and dad] cannot be put back together again. This is sad but there is not much that you, or me, can do about it. These things happen. First point: it is nothing to do with you, and is in no way your fault, so don’t get hung up on the idea that “if only I’d done this, or that, or the other………..then it may not have happened.” There is nothing you could have done to stop it.

The next thing that usually happens is that you think to yourself, well, why did it happen? – nothing just happens, there must be a reason somewhere. Well, this is partly true, but the way it goes is like this:

Mum left Dad because he did this.

Ah yes, but Dad only did this because Mum did that.

Ah yes, but Mum only did that because Dad did that before that.

Ah yes, but Dad only did that before that because Mum did that before that before that, before that….

And so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, ……I mean it goes for ever. And the difficulty is to try and decide just who made the first mistake. People only remember what they want to, how they want to. Which is why I say that you cannot fairly put the blame on anyone and just have to accept that ‘These things happen.’

You follow me so far? Right.

However, adults are just as bad as kids in some ways – worse, because they should know better. They are not prepared to accept that things ‘just happen’ and try and put the blame on the other side. Now, I don’t know, for sure, that [your mum and dad] are doing this, but [your mum] tells me some of the [nasty] things she thinks [your dad] has done, and I am sure that if I spoke with [your dad] he would tell me of some of the [nasty] things he thinks [your mum] has done. Now, really, the things may not be [nasty] at all, but each thinks that they are.

Now, because you are there, they probably both talk to you this way. Which leaves you with the problem of trying to decide who is right. The answer is that they are both partly right, and partly wrong.

When you are with [your mum] you probably take sides with her, and when you are with [your dad] you probably take sides with him, and I am sure that sometimes you end up thinking to yourself just whose side am I on??? This can be somewhat difficult and the answer is not to take either side.

Sure, you can let them talk, it makes them feel better, but you don’t have to agree – “Yes, mum.” “Yes, dad.” Is the way to go. I know this is expecting a lot, you being the sort of person who likes to be one thing or the other, but if you do be one thing or the other, and keep changing, it will muck you up inside your head. I can’t prove this, just believe me.

And always remember that neither [your mum] or [your dad] are bad, it’s just that they are having a problem which makes them act a bit strange at times.

The word is – be cool. Don’t let other people make you take sides in a quarrel which you didn’t make.

That is about all I have to say in general about how I suggest you handle things. There are some other things.

[Your mum] tells me that every time she and [your dad] try and discuss things concerning you, or things that you have told [your mum], he blasts you for letting her know. I think he is being very unreasonable – a big [idiot] if you like. You have to talk to someone. You can tell him I said so if you like BUT I warn you that if you do he will probably go right off and take it out on you, because he can’t take it out on me because I’m not there.

It’s a pity [your brother’s] away in Japan at the moment because you and he would have been able to talk things over. However, he is, and there’s not much you can do about that either. So the only thing to do is to keep on talking to [your mum], and put up with whatever grief [your dad] throws in your general direction. You could try talking to [your dad] but I don’t think he’s got much time for anybody else’s problems at the moment, being too tied up in his own.

There is the matter of you, [your uncle] and the Nissan. I think you did exactly right (pity about running up the bank) – I don’t know what [on earth] he was up to. All I can say is that he is also pretty [messed] up at the moment, with him and [his wife], but that is still no excuse. As for [your dad] telling you to grow up and not take things so seriously, he’s completely wrong and [very] stupid. I know I’d’ve taken it seriously, if it’d happened to me – I’d probably have hit him over the head with a bit of four by two.

I wish I was closer by to give you a hand, but I’m not, so this letter will have to do.

As they say, hang in there, bad times never last forever.