#31 Users manual

This week, I've mostly been writing my users manual. For me. That's right, it's a users manual all about how I work. I think it's a good idea. We used to write short documentation schrifts in college for the odd programmes we made. None of my code ever worked really, but I made up the marks on the documentation sections. Overall, I tended to break even.

The manual is going well so far. It appears I am woefully lacking in social skills. Not sure how to address this. I've been writing a lot. No change there though. I crank out 1500 words on video games easily enough. Used to be the way. I sure hope www.gamerseurope.com comes back soon.

There's a problem though. I lost faith in computers after my hard drives failed. I knew they were going, but the real issue is security. I just can't cope with the darn things breaking all the time. I can't imagine how much time and grief... It's pretty awful. I'm still stuck for something else to do. Best alternative so far is music. Mostly, writing has filled the time. I'll keep working on the few stories and the users manual. Sticktoitiveness would be nice if I could get it.

Big issue now is how to achieve success without leaving the couch. Do I have to get up? I sure hope not. Still battling with common despair of course. I've always had Christmas to look forward to. I think perhaps a fine vintage of writing will be uncorked on that day.

The sum total of my existance now appears to be one where I do nothing but fill in forms and wait for things to happen. Heaven forbid I should take action. I haven't even really been outside nor can I gauge the last time I went out. A long time ago no doubt. Net total nights out is abysmally low.

In sooth, I have yet to live.

#14 What an awful prang

And so, a standard reinstall ended up with a virused machine. Not a great week.

I'll get'er done eventually. Stats though, they've changed.

Confidence took a hit because I screwed up majorly
Memory, a perceived stat, took a hit too. I'd already downloaded the software in work where it wreaked havoc. For some reason, I thought the same software wouldn't cause the same problem.

Lemme paint the bigger picture here: Sibelius 2 needed a reinstall. I uninstalled it. Silly man, don't click custom!! Oh Noes!! Now the folder with all Dads work in it has been uninstalled too!!

Oie...

Ok, so try and reinstall? Okie, where's the serial number?

Oh Noes!!!! No serial number! Uninstall again? Yes. Oh dear, where are all the work scores? Oh noes... They've been wiped! Quick, get the Helix disc! FTK or FileRecovery! Save me!!

Oh NOES! They didn't help at all! Hmmm, what to do... Other recovery software? Worth a try... Even though FTK says the folder is all zeros now.

Ok, what's the best one? Recover my files? K, let's try this... later.

Oh, the guys at work wiped a flash card. I have recover my files. Let's try it.

Eeep. That installer was virused. Now the work computer needs to be fixed.

Hm, shame about what happened at work. Let's try the same file at home.

Oh noes. Oh NOES!! Now my home PC has a virus! Damn you smit.fraud!

Oie, this isn't pretty.

But at least now I have all the tools I need to fix both infections :(
smit.fraud isn't malicious (if kaspersky is to be believed) but it's a right pain to remove.

So as you can see from the above story, I did a series of very stupid things. Worse still, I kept rushing into doing stupider things.
Both infected systems have dual boot (two operating systems - 1 good, 1 bad), so fixing them won't be completely impossible. I just need to work out a pathology to success. Everyone has problems, but very few have solutions. I should count myself lucky.

My wish for a superpower is to know the exact solution to any problem I encounter. I mean I could say scientific problem or engineering, but why limit what I might need to know? The internet already has this power. It wouldn't be beyond my powers of learning either. In the story above, I've had to learn from necessity.

Another harsh lesson.