Back in the Saddle: Well after 6 weeks I am back on my laptop. Such bliss! I busted the charging port and it wasn't covered under the warranty. So I just got out the soldering iron, some electrical tape, and some superglue. Good as new. I first got a few hours of podcasts updated (still have 26 more) and then opened Outlook for the first time. Man do I have a lot to sort through. I have been using my web-mail in the interim, but I still have a lot of sorting to do. As I am typing it is only up to 20NOV. Another 34 days to go.

My iPod to the Rescue!: A while back I was asked to complete a survey for something that I was involved in. It was not just a quick chore, something around 6 pages of typed text to answer a couple of dozen questions. I didn't send it in but was recently asked to do so again. The problem was that the guy needing it didn't have the original questions and I shared that I had completed it on another laptop. The I remembered something. The night that I was doing the survey that laptop crashed. It wasn't a total crash, but it was pretty obvious that the hard drive was about to go. So I ran to an office store and got a 4 GB flash drive. I copied all of my work stuff to it and was saved. But, the personal stuff I had wouldn't fit on there as well. I thought about burning some CDs but it was now too late and the store was closed. Then the obvious hit me between the eyes. I had my iPod already connected to charge and it has a huge hard drive. As my iPod is usually only about half filled I had plenty of room and backed up all my stuff. So I just connected the iPod and there was the original survey! How cool!

Renewal with an Old Friend: A couple of weeks ago I had the unfortunate experience of having my laptop break. It was a physical break, nothing that I could really do about it. The charging port is damaged so I can only run off battery. But, I realized that I have a couple of these laptops so I can run it for a few hours on battery and then swap it with the other laptop. I have all the important documents backed up on the other laptop, but there was one thing that couldn't transfer over - iTunes.

So I have been getting all my back episodes of my podcasts put back on the iPod for the past couple of days. I have a lot of travel coming up and I know that the iPod will once again be a very dear friend on those back lonely parkways of Kentucky. Last night I heard the familiar sounds of Molly and Tom (Buzz Out Loud) as they were chatting and laughing over the day's technology news. I have never met them, probably never will. But it is great to have them keep me company as I drive.


The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Frost