Thursday, May 31, 2001

I got my computer back from repair. My Document folder is missing.

Tack's General Store Burns

Tack's burned to the ground.  This is such a shocking event.  Photo before the fire.  Tack's was a favorite place to stop for a piece of pie. Every spring we would even drive out Chena Hot Springs Road just to look at the lovely bedding plants.

Wednesday, May 23, 2001

CD Frustation

I am so frustrated trying to make a CD.  I made my third CD this morning and some of the files work and some don't.  The only thing that came off without a hitch was naming the CD images.

I tested my new images CD on both drives, CD Writer and the regular CD drive, as well as my old 486 Epson CD player.  The files that work, work on all drives.

I set up the folder so that you can look at the files like you are on the Net.  That doesn't work on the old computer because it only allows 8 letter file names, so the picture names don't match up if they are over 8 letters.

One of the folders, graphics, I copied from my images CD to the C harddrive, and it works fine.  Everything in the folder works as a webpage in preview and if I click on it.  The folder has 11.1 MB of HTML files and graphics.

I backed up my font folder and as far as I can see none of the files work.  Everything appears okay, but when you click on a font, I get "The requested file D:\fonts\arial.ttf was not a valid font file".  If I click on an HTML file, I get, "no page to display".  If I click on a .gif file, nothing happens.  If I click on a zip file, I get "Error [D:/fonts/font.zip]: unrecoverable Zip file read error.  Please press f1 for help."

When I press F1, I get: "Message WZ54 This error occurred during internal Zip processing.  Correct the error and retry the operation."  Duh, if I knew how, I wouldn't have an error.

If I try to copy one of the folders or files from the images CD back to the C harddrive, and it won't work, I get this error message: "Cannot copy 0: The device does not recognize the command".  So if the file is not working, it won't copy.

So I can tell the valid files, but that would mean I'd have to test every file to see which are backed up and which are not.  Sheesh!

Zip files are much easier.  I backed up my font folder on Zip disk, and it works fine.  (I think it works... trotting off to check out my Zip backup.  Yep, all is well.)  sigh  I remember my sister saying she had a lot of shiny frisbees while she was learning so I'm trying not to get too upset about this.

Another thing... since I got my computer back from the shop, it has quit three times.  It is sorta like it is clicking the circuit breaker on my surge protector.  Does this mean it's my computer or GV Electric Company sending me surges?

I have a 14-day warranty on the new power supply.  Should take it back to the tech and have her test it?

I called my sister for help this morning, but I got the machine.

Friday, May 18, 2001

What a week!

Last Wednesday, Keith went to work as usual. When he got there, he found out that Jim had committed suicide.

Another person I know died unexpectedly of natural causes.

Saturday Darlene died.

Yesterday, my computer died.

I'm speechless.

Sunday, May 06, 2001

While the days tick by waiting for my new domain to be set up, I turn my attention to spring pursuits.  Before it gets too hot, I really should do some major reorganizing in my house.

Even though we live in Alaska, the long daylight hours cause my house to become like a sauna by the end of May.  I have a small air conditioner in my bedroom, but I can't stay in there all the time.

I tend to collect things.

• tins
• baskets
• clocks
• spoons
• tea cups
• books
• maps
• dolls
• music boxes
• recordings
• news clippings for my columns and webpage diary
• old journals
• letters and greeting cards
• family memorabilia
• my children's school drawings and homework
• awards, certificates, and trophies
• tapes, CDs, and movies

Then there are the projects
• half-built bookcase
• scrapbooks
• photo albums and unfiled photos
• needlework
• sewing
• unfinished afghans and baby gifts

If I put my collections in the garage or a storage shed, I'd be afraid that moisture would ruin the fabric, paper or wood.

I would like simplicity and order in my life, but on the other hand, I don't want to give up my treasures.

Thursday, May 03, 2001

What an anti-climax!  I got very little sleep Monday night waiting for my RedRival site to poof.  Tuesday morning comes and it's still there.

Apparently the transition isn't going to be like turning off a light switch.  I have no idea what is involved in setting up a new web host.  In any event, my site is still active at RedRival until the middle of the month.

So I went back and updated my index.html page.  Still I left all the forwards on the other pages for two reasons:

1.  The FTP is not set up and I'm not going to upload those files one at a time.
2.  RedRival is still going defunct and I want people to come to pamelajoy.com.

While eating lunch the other day, Keith suggested that I get a domain name with Alaska in it.  Off the top of his head, he came up with "Alaskapam".  While waiting for pamelajoy.com to go live on RivalPro, I made the plunge and bought it.  The best plus of it is the e-mail addresses that come with it.  I didn't get a webhost because I want RivalPro to host the site.  While I'm waiting, the name will forward to the GeoCities site.

I really shouldn't be spending all this money on the Net because this is the month I need to refill my prescriptions.  Since the health insurance instituted the co-pay, I need to come up with $303.09 before the end of the month plus the money for the doctor's visit to get the prescriptions renewed.

Keith is going to need a crown on the tooth he broke.  No telling what that will cost.  This is depressing.