use your virus scan religiously

I've kind of learned my lesson about backing up files all the time--as I said, kind of. On that note, I'm a day late and quite a few words short, but I can safely say I got to keep about 3500 words last week. That's not my goal, and would not have been my total, except that very early Friday morning, when I had some paying work due by noon, I turned on my computer that was finally, finally all loaded back up again from the crash a couple of weeks ago, and...all I got was a blank screen. The computer was on. The little lights were glowing. But the screen stayed black.

I turned it off and then back on again, hopeful that this was just some "I'm cold and I don't want to get up yet" glitch. Nope. Finally, the computer whispered something to the screen and it grudgingly revealed in dotted text that my config/system file was missing or corrupted. I tried to do a file recovery, but that didn't work, so while I started penning what I needed to send to my editor onto paper, I had my computer reformat itself again--for the second time in February.

Then I went and had coffee with a friend and let her console me. Yes, I got my assignment turned in--typed like a madwoman on my kid's computer after I got back home. And I've been emailing my JaNo file to myself every few days now that I don't know why my DVD backups will burn but not show up again as good files when my computer tries to read them, I do have the first part of the week's JaNo work. I haven't put it on the computer yet, just finished getting all the stuff I have to have to run it, plus all the updates from Microsoft, Adobe, et al. But despite the fresh pain, at least I have progress to report this time; unlike the last crash.

Which reminds me. I think I know when I picked up the first viruses that caused the first problem. I don't know if this latest was due to virus interference or the fact that my computer is just getting as tired of all of this as I am, however...

Since my first crash I've been reading up, and there was a vicious worm released Dec. 8th that I believe was part of my initial crash. Because I usually only web surf the same boring sites each month, I didn't catch the problem until I had to do a web-intensive travel article around the first of this month. Apparently financial sites are also prone to the risk.

That said, please use your virus scanner regularly, and back up your files. Just from reloading my computer since Friday morning, before starting to add any of my files I ran a virus scan after all the updates were loaded and 12 viruses were detected and quarantined.

I'm not trying to scare anyone, but having to bring everything back up several times in as many weeks is just not fun.

mid-week confessions

Okay, I'm not going to belabor why I'm behind, and why I had to catch up all last week, but I am going to confess. Sunday night I thought life was truly grand again. I had finished all of my overdo redoes of nonfiction assignments and managed to get everything else done last week on time, and my computer has been humming right along trying to keep up and be forgiven (knock wood--or in the laptop's case, knock plastic). Monday was sunny and wonderful here, I brainstormed all morning to get back into the frame of mind I needed to revisit what I had written nearly a month ago, pounded out a re-roughed scene, then happily followed my daughter to Tulsa to do some shopping after she got out of college classes. I even wrote in the car while I was waiting. I was really being good.

Then yesterday happened.

I only had to meet someone at 11:00--yes, it was an interview of sorts, but not one I really had to work at, just a meet-and-greet kind of thng. But I woke up tired, telling myself all the reasons I wasn't ready to meet this new person who I might be working with a lot in the future on something I hope will bring in new revenue (I lost a huge chunk of yearly revenue when due to the economic conditions Toyota didn't renew a project I've been working on for 12 years). But the more I tried to force myself, the less I could find the stamina to go. So, about 9:30, I rescheduled the app't for Thursday and went to WalMart. Yes, I am depressed when I voluntarily go to WalMart when I really, really don't have to. But I got ice cream, so that was a good thing (maybe).

Back home I ate my ice cream and caught up on email I hadn't read because I was re-doing everything. And read email. And read email. Finally about 4:00 I turned off the computer and had written exactly 497 words. Not even quite a full page single spaced.

So, my confession. I know I needed yesterday. I know it came because I worked too non-stop the previous week. But today I will write. Today, I will write at least 3000 words.

I will!

Good, I feel better now that I know I've said it out loud to everyone.

Thanks group!