01-05-05 @ 1:48 am EST

I'm re-burning my photo files to CD. The CD burner which we got for this computer (this tired iron from 2000) went psycho and started RUINING my perfectly good CDs for no reason, just whenever it felt like it--no rhyme or reason. I would be happily burning or even just ACCESSING files and it would say crap like, "This CD is write-protected or corrupt. Do you wish to run a ScanDisk?" I tried that in the past--no thank you!! I know that message means one thing only: For whatever insane reason, the burner has decided to trash my CD, making it unreadable AND unwritable (sic?--sorry) in the burner, and read-only in the CD-ROM. If it had trashed it entirely, I would have smashed it to pieces weeks ago when it FIRST started ruining all my hard work. I finally got Ma to believe me (she insisted I was DOING SOMETHING WRONG) when it messed up two of HER new CDs--new ones! FRESH from the pack!

So I groused about a new burner, which would cost like $150. -_- No deal. Perhaps an external drive like a ZIP drive? Because the floppy drive on this computer is hinky, and the new computer does not HAVE a floppy drive! (Gah.) But they do not SELL external drives around here. -_- So how was I to transfer all my stuff from old to new computer?? I insisted we would not move the two and connect the new one to the Net until there was a way to transfer my files. I mean--I post my WRITING online from the computer!! Without my writing to work on every day I would be COMPLETELY LOST! (Truly--I get REALLY cranky when I can't get any writing done. Christmas morning?--cranky.)

Well, Ma ended up buying a "JumpDrive"--it's like a mini hard drive which is so small you can wear it around your neck like a...necklace. Um. Or keychain. o_o $30 for a 128mb one. (They had a bigger one but it cost more. On Crossing Jordan they talked about a 4gb one--probably fictional--but as I said to Ma: "If I had that, I wouldn't ever have to delete ANY of my files!" It would be so awesome to wear all my files around my neck! :D ) I have never even heard of these things before. If she'd told me about them sooner maybe I wouldn't have thrown such a fit. But at first it WOULDN'T WORK!! The computer wouldn't recognize it as new hardware! But she did something (she doesn't know what), and now it shows up. Cripes. I do not understand computers whatsoever.

(Something is wrong with this computer. My cookies don't seem to want to stick anymore. What is wrong with this dumb thing??)

So, I've been sticking my OLD CDs in the CD-ROM, plugging in the JumpDrive, dragging folders from one to the other, modifying them as I need to on the JD, or else saving ones from the hard drive to the JD and then deleting them...then taking the JD, plugging it into the other computer (which is unwisely plugged in in the utility room without a battery backup--we unplug it whenever done), and saving the files from THERE to a NEW CD in THAT computer's CD burner/DVD-ROM. It SEEMS to be working but *cross your fingers.*

I do not think I will ever, EVER, delete my Mackinac Island photos from the computer for good.

So I've got two new CDs in the works at the moment, MyPics01 and WebPics01, and soon I will have ones like Desktops01 and Mackinac or something...still unsure what to do about my writing, because unlike pictures, text and HTML files always change, and you cannot rewrite to these CDs. Maybe once I'm all organized I will work out a system whereby I save ALL my writin (*ugh*) to a CD every month or so--a new CD every month, so it's always updated by a month. Seems kind of wasteful, but we don't have a DVD burner, and besides, I do not know one bit about rewritable DVDs. I don't even know if I'm spelling "writable" right or not. :/

So far MyPics01 has the lovely folders of

Black River
Citybeach
Hackmatack
Huron Ruins
Mullett Lake
Museum
Petoskey
Railbridge
Misc001 (I reorganized my Miscs!--too many photos per folder!)
Misc002
Misc003
Pets001 (ditto!)
Pets002
Citybeach2
Hackmatack2
Railsspring
Tahquamenon (many of these photos to be found at my Yahoo! Photos account...)

...and I was still doodling around with Misc004 and Misc005 and a Pets folder when I had to quit and come online. Maybe later. I just need to retitle and ORGANIZE so much of this stuff...my Ocqueoc and Forty Mile Point photos aren't even numbered! *cries*

WinXP is very weird and difficult to figure out. But then again, so was Win...um...what is this, 98? Whatever we have now...compared to Windows 3.1. (Yes, we moved from Windows 3.1 to Win98...YAGH! Talk about different!)

And maybe once I really figure out what's going on I'll organize into better CDs. What I want?--at least TWO copies of every CD...just in case...but don't tell Ma that. She finds it weird that I'm redoing the CDs the burner RUINED! What is so weird about that??

You can never be too careful with your personal files! I hate that I have no good way to save my writing yet! >_<

I wish we had lots and lots of ink for cheap. I want to print out all my Mackinac photos and put them in my photobox. I could look at them whenever I'm sad...which is a lot, lately...and maybe try to feel better. That place is one of the very few things that brings me happiness. And I can see it only once a year...when it's warm and green again. The rest of the time it's locked up on the computer. -_-