Catching up and Katrina
Well, gang, I'm back.
Not that it means much.
Between dead computers, working two jobs, and other things that drive me nuts, it's been months since I posted. I woke up one morning and found that my hard drive had blown up -- my "not backed up in two months" hard drive. So, we tried first to save it, then decided to buy another one... and it took me this long to get a new one. We finally did, then tried once more to save any info off the other one -- you know, things like.... oh, my writing....
No dice. Hard drive has 90% bad sectors. rhi_silverflame tried everything she could think of -- but nothing doing. If anyone knows of any secrets to pulling stuff from a mostly dead drive, please let me know.
So, new hard drive, computer up again. I wasn't really writing while it was down, but I'm hoping to maybe start again. It'll depend on work and how I'm feeling, but I'm down to just weekends at Ikea, so I have most of my week nights free.
Speaking of Ikea, I got word today about what Ikea will be doing for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. If you want exact details, go to Ikea.com. The basics are as follows:
1) The red pillow in the shape of a heart with arms sells for $9.99. For the entire month of September, all the money from the sale of this item goes to the Red Cross to help the victims of Katrina. GO BUY ONE. Donate it to a child if you don't want it yourself.
2) All Ikea employees are encouraged to donate at their respective stores rather than directly to the Red Cross. The reason for this is that Ikea will match any and all donations, thereby doubling the amount that goes to help. Again, this will continue for the entire month of September.
3) The three Ikea stores closest to the disaster (Frisco, Houston, and Atlanta) will be sending bedding and other materials to assist in caring for the refugees. Also, the Houston store will be assisting in feeding those refugees in the Astrodome.
I'm kind of proud of my company for their response.
ETA: The IKEA site hasn't been updated with this info yet. This is what I got from the Public Relations person at my store in Burbank.
I've been watching the lj of Michael Barnet (interdictor) who is holed up in an office building in New Orleans. His company, directNIC, has a lot of servers that couldn't be moved in time, and they run a hell of a lot of internet traffic on them. In order to keep them up, he and his crew stayed in the flooded city, and now they refuse to leave. They're running on a diesel generator, and trying to assist with communications in NO, and generally giving out more info through the web cams and the street pictures than the mainstream "news" media is giving. These guys are on the spot, and they have one guy who goes out and records what he can with his digital camera. While there are things he's saying that I disagree with, I have a lot of respect for the guy -- he's in the middle of a shrinking island, and it's not going to get better for a long time. And he's staying. Quote: "As far as I'm concerned, this building is my post, and it will not be abandoned until I'm properly relieved." No one knows how long that relief will take -- like I said, I respect this guy.
Katrina has been on my mind all day... I almost got into a fight with my boss about the situation, and I'll explain that on another post -- it'll be a long one, so I'll cut it. I hope no one minds the length of this post. I didn't think it would be as long as it is.
But I thought everyone might like the bunny -- it always makes me smile when I see it.
Not that it means much.
Between dead computers, working two jobs, and other things that drive me nuts, it's been months since I posted. I woke up one morning and found that my hard drive had blown up -- my "not backed up in two months" hard drive. So, we tried first to save it, then decided to buy another one... and it took me this long to get a new one. We finally did, then tried once more to save any info off the other one -- you know, things like.... oh, my writing....
No dice. Hard drive has 90% bad sectors. rhi_silverflame tried everything she could think of -- but nothing doing. If anyone knows of any secrets to pulling stuff from a mostly dead drive, please let me know.
So, new hard drive, computer up again. I wasn't really writing while it was down, but I'm hoping to maybe start again. It'll depend on work and how I'm feeling, but I'm down to just weekends at Ikea, so I have most of my week nights free.
Speaking of Ikea, I got word today about what Ikea will be doing for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. If you want exact details, go to Ikea.com. The basics are as follows:
1) The red pillow in the shape of a heart with arms sells for $9.99. For the entire month of September, all the money from the sale of this item goes to the Red Cross to help the victims of Katrina. GO BUY ONE. Donate it to a child if you don't want it yourself.
2) All Ikea employees are encouraged to donate at their respective stores rather than directly to the Red Cross. The reason for this is that Ikea will match any and all donations, thereby doubling the amount that goes to help. Again, this will continue for the entire month of September.
3) The three Ikea stores closest to the disaster (Frisco, Houston, and Atlanta) will be sending bedding and other materials to assist in caring for the refugees. Also, the Houston store will be assisting in feeding those refugees in the Astrodome.
I'm kind of proud of my company for their response.
ETA: The IKEA site hasn't been updated with this info yet. This is what I got from the Public Relations person at my store in Burbank.
I've been watching the lj of Michael Barnet (interdictor) who is holed up in an office building in New Orleans. His company, directNIC, has a lot of servers that couldn't be moved in time, and they run a hell of a lot of internet traffic on them. In order to keep them up, he and his crew stayed in the flooded city, and now they refuse to leave. They're running on a diesel generator, and trying to assist with communications in NO, and generally giving out more info through the web cams and the street pictures than the mainstream "news" media is giving. These guys are on the spot, and they have one guy who goes out and records what he can with his digital camera. While there are things he's saying that I disagree with, I have a lot of respect for the guy -- he's in the middle of a shrinking island, and it's not going to get better for a long time. And he's staying. Quote: "As far as I'm concerned, this building is my post, and it will not be abandoned until I'm properly relieved." No one knows how long that relief will take -- like I said, I respect this guy.
Katrina has been on my mind all day... I almost got into a fight with my boss about the situation, and I'll explain that on another post -- it'll be a long one, so I'll cut it. I hope no one minds the length of this post. I didn't think it would be as long as it is.
But I thought everyone might like the bunny -- it always makes me smile when I see it.