six sentences on Sunday

~*~Each Sunday, post six sentences from a writing project -- published, submitted, in progress, for your cat -- whatever.~*~

Finished:
(from Snippets of Millers Kill)

He rubs at his eyes, tears pressing out at the corners. He can't help but feel responsible for her death. But the more he thinks about it the angrier he gets. If she would have just listened to him instead of tearing off in a huff. It wasn't like he could have left Clare alone to deal with...

His thoughts break off.
 

(from So Wrong)

Daniel had given him a smug, knowing look as Janet dragged him to the infirmary for an ultrasound.

And now here he was lying in the infirmary with a sore abdomen, raging migraine and roiling stomach surrounded by brightly colored balloons and banners... all mocking him. He'd pop every single one of them if he could get out of bed.

"How are you feeling, Colonel?" Dr. Spitz—some guy from the Academy Jack had never heard of—wandered in, clipboard in hand.

"Just peachy."

(from No Time--finished but not published)

She shuttered visibly then turned to face him again; he let his hand fall back to the bed. "Sir?" she asked with obvious confusion.

"You think you could drop the 'sir'? Consider it a dying man's last wish."

That got her. She nearly choked at the words, taking great effort to swallow.

( more under the cut )

computer issues

Anyone know anything about computers?

I'm pretty good with computers but this is a little out of my league I think.

Here's the story.  We have 3 computers (desktops).  The first one is really old, bought in 2003 (I think).  It's a Sony which I really liked until we had issues with it.  Sony doesn't even make desktops anymore (I think).  Anyway.  When we had troubles with it we replaced it with a Gateway that I got out of the box at Best Buy in 2006.  I got a good deal on it at the time and it came with a gift card for like $150 because there was no box.  It served me well until the fall of 2008.  It started overheating and I couldn't figure out what was wrong for the longest time.  I finally came to the realization that the fan on the graphics card had died and it kept overheating which was causing the computer to shut down.  I was still able to use it with the side off and a fan blowing in it to keep it cool.  I was able to use photoshop elements to scrapbook and I could get online.  I couldn't play any games but I was okay with it for the time being until we could get our taxes back.

Before I figured out what was wrong I decided to just buy a new computer.  We got a customized HP off the Costco website so that I could get what I wanted on it.  It had a 1TB hard drive (RAID 0), 750mb graphics card, 6 gigs of RAM (I think).  I got it in February 2009.  I loved the thing.  It was so fast compared to the Gateway (even though that still ran pretty well with what was on it and ran everything I needed).  And then one year after buying it I got a warning that popped up saying one of the hard drives was failing.  WTF!  Just after the warranty ran out.

Now both drives are in fail mode (I get constant reminders that they need to be backed up before they fail and that they can't be fully accessed).  They are done.  Guess what happened?  The fan on the graphics card broke, it overheated and took the hard drive with it.  Son of a bitch!  When the 2nd drive started to go I backed up important data and pulled out the Gateway to use until I could get the HP fixed.  We got a new graphics card for it earlier this year and it worked much better after that but was still really slow (probably needs a good defrag and stuff).

The slowness was really getting on my nerves so today I pulled the HP out and put the new graphics card in it to see how it would run (I'll be buying another one of these cards so each CPU has one).  It's nice to not have this slow up when I'm typing or trying to switch between tabs and stuff.  I was tired of virtual memory warnings and stuff.  Problem is the hard drives are still failing and I have to replace them.

Doesn't sound too hard, right?  I'm not sure if I want to go with two 500gig drives again or just get one big TB one.  Considering how quickly the dual drives failed on me what difference will it really make?

Anyway, my problem is that when I went to make a recovery disk so that if I got a new hard drive I could install windows and stuff on it.  But the computer says you can only make one recovery disk and it's already been made.  Interesting... considering I never made one.  Which, I assume, means the people that built the thing made one and I have no idea if they gave it to me (I assume they would) and if they did I have no clue where it is.  Great.

So, if I get a new hard drive I have to buy Windows 7 to go on it.  I saw at TigerDirect they have the copies they use when building computers much cheaper but it warns you that they're not as easy to install.  I really don't want to have to take it in but it looks like I might have to take it in.  Blah.

I thought maybe I could use the back up disk that came with the Gateway (if I can find it) and install that on the new hard drive.  It only runs XP but then I could just buy the upgrade version of Windows 7 instead of the full version.  But that depends on me actually finding the disk for that, too (if I made one... I have no idea any more).

Anyway, my question for anyone that knows about computers (*clears throat* Dee) is it that easy to just install hard drives or should I give up and take it in to the repair guy?

I mean, I know I could do it if I already knew what the hell I was doing but I don't want to mess it up more.  Replacing the graphics card was a snap and I can do the memory (I plan to replace the RAM on the Gateway to help with performance because I think it only has 2gigs and can go up to 4).  I also know how to replace the fan on the motherboard if need be.  Just no so sure about the hard drives.

[edit] Crap, forgot to save my firefox profile so I lost all my bookmarks!  So frustrating especially since I can't just go plug the other computer in.  It has no graphics card in it because it's in this computer, lol.  I also forgot to save my mail so I lost all my email addresses and old mail.  Oy.

completed stories

So the other day I made a database to keep track of all the fanfic I've written.  I entered all the ones I've finished and those in progress.  At least the ones I have documented because I'm sure I have snippets of stories that never got to be more than a few paragraphs stashed somewhere.

# of stories on the list: 58
# finished: 44
# finished this year: 31
# finished this month: 22

shortest finished story: 100 words (Teardrops, Working Late)
longest finished story: 23396 words (Homecoming)
shortest unfinished story: 840 words (Doing it Wrong)
longest unfinished story: 56429 words (NaNo 2010 project)

earliest written: May 2005 (It Was Only a Matter of Time)
latest written: May 2010 (Mr. Fix-it)

longest to finish: not sure (my records are sketchy)
longest still unfinished: 5 1/2 years (Homecoming, part II)

shortest to finish: many
last one started but unfinished: 16 days (Russ/Clare angst/drama)

most stories written in one day: 10