I bought a new hard drive today, which should arrive in three or four business days. I ended up spending less and getting more than what I had originally thought I would, based upon my previously having looked into upgrading a while back. I got a 20GB drive for $147.95 which is a good price for the notebook world and considering the age of my system. So, yay. Only $162.90 all together with tax and shipping still comes well below my anticipated price of $200.00 not inclusive of tax and shipping.

And now if you will excuse me, I have a Train to catch.

Wrapping up that which has been a rather disagreeable week, I came home today (after having left work at around seven in the evening) to find my laptop hard drive has failed. At boot and throughout post, pressing my ear up against the bottom plate which holds the hard drive mounting bracket inside the chassis reveals the classic "whir, click, whir, click" of a drive gone bad.

Needless to say, I was furiously mad on my drive to dinner. The only thing that helped calm me down, besides my rather well-prepared Darden Cajun blackened mahi-mahi fish dinner with rice pilaf, was the knowledge that I had a backup copy of the files I would miss the most. Having just recently formatted my laptop, I conducted the customary LAN dump to a desktop system, but for some reason, did not delete it once I was back up and running on my laptop. And boy, am I glad for that.

I have decided I will attempt one temporary recovery solution I have learned about from several hardware focused sites and forums. The suggestion was to place the hard drive in a freezer for an hour or so, shrinking the metallic components of the drive unit and hopefully loosening-up and stickiness that may be causing the failure. I really have nothing to lose by trying. I do have some data that I would like to recover that was not in existence when my backup to the desktop was made, but nothing so significant to cause me suicide on failed revival.

So now I am left in a difficult situation that I must think about and act upon shortly. The big deal for me is replacement. Hard drives for my older system are expensive, so do I spend the $200 and get one for my computer, built in 1999, or do without a machine for a while and save up to buy a new notebook.

These questions and others will be pondered this weekend, during which I will be seeing the band Train at the House of Blues. With any luck, the place will not burn to the ground whilst I am inside.

...of why I cannot understand how any homosexual could vote for and approve fully of the job President Bush is doing.

As the [US Anglican/Episcopal Church] meeting opened, President Bush, who is a Methodist Christian, suggested that gay people should not be allowed to wed.

"I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or the other," he told reporters in Washington.

[...]

Responding to a question from journalists, Mr Bush said it was important to "respect each individual" but that did not mean he needed to "compromise on an issue like marriage."

"I think we ought to codify [marriage between a man and a woman] and we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that," he said.

The president declined to pass moral judgment on homosexuals but commented that he was "mindful that we're all sinners". Some Christian groups welcomed the president's remarks enthusiastically with the Reverend Pat Robertson calling for a constitutional amendment on the marriage issue.

from Gay showdown for US Church

Looking out the second story office window next to the desk where I have been working until I get a little more of a permanent desk and computer, I can see a most beautiful storm brewing around me. Of course, I am sure I will not be thinking it so beautiful when in thirty minutes I will probably be driving through hell, if hell was a wet, windy highway.

I will be working at our company's secondary office for the next two days to help with Transaction Coordination at that office. It will be nice to work with someone for a few days, while at the same time not really focusing on computers and such.

In other news...
   Friday was fun.
   Saturday was fun.
   Sunday was productive.

Someone I have spoken with briefly online, but have never met told me that he saw me driving out of my neighbourhood over the weekend. Turns out he lives in the same subdivision as I. Small world.