Crash and Burn

For at least a week our main desktop computer has had serious problems. I haven’t tried seriously to find the cause until tonight. Also, for months now, I have wanted to get a special external portable hard drive to back up all my digital photos. I can’t afford to loose those. Digital cameras bring up a whole new set of problems. I finally bought the backup hard drive last night. I paid too much, but that’s another story. I was getting ready to use it on the disabled computer when I realized that the computer worked so bad I would have to fix it before I did anything else. I looked at this and that and made very slow progress because the system would hang up severely and I would have to wait a long time to regain control. The normal ctrl alt del did nothing. Nothing was sucking memory, using the processor, and the HD had plenty of space. I tried to run check disk, but it said it could not run. I tried a bad sector scan with the same results. What a useless error message. I tried to look at the system logs several times, but every time I tried the system was so slow I would get distracted and forget what I was doing. I mean seriously slow. I would bowl almost a full game on the Wii while waiting. I finally accessed the system logs and there were errors galore. The hard drive is failing. It has bad sectors everywhere.

Never put off backing up important stuff. Especially pictures. One HD crash can destroy all your memories just like a fire. I have portions backed up here and there. I think I have everything except the very latest on our old Dell computer and most of the latest is on my laptop. As I type my laptop is pulling files off the junk HD. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. The computer is useless to access with the keyboard and mouse, but I seem to be having pretty good luck over my network. If I manage to get all the stuff off the computer I think is important I just need to get what the kids need before I scuttle the drive. I’m not trying to rejuvenate it. It’s not worth the risk.

I have only had two HD’s fail in the past 20 years and both were in the past year. That’s very strange. On top of that I purchased a 2Gig SD card yesterday and it was defective from the start. I got another today and it seems to be okay. The last HD I had that failed was a Western Digital. I’m not sure what this one is. The backup drive I bought yesterday is a Western Digital as well. I think they have a pretty good reputation. I am hoping these events are just a fluke.

I better sign off and let my computer complete its file copying.

Goodbye to Playstation

I've made up my mind. I'm done with Sony permanently. I am adding this post so that anyone I know can let me know if they want any of my old games or hardware. If they don't I am selling it to get money for Wii games. A list of what I have is below.




I also have several controllers, memory cards and a few other things. I have the eye toy for the eye toy game. If anyone that has given me any games wants them back let me know.

Big Surprise

We have had a big issue for weeks now. Our PS2 has completely konked out. The laser doesn't even come on. I didn't want to buy another Sony product. I'm fed up with them. Everything I have bought from them has broke including an expensive stereo and TV so I'm not about to buy a $600 PS3. The Xbox has some cool stuff but it is microcrud .... nuf said.

It was the start of spring break, Tandi was out of town, and I was home alone with the kids. What could I do that the kids would think was an absolute blast that wouldn't kill me. Then it struck me, A Wii.

I was concerned about their new style of controls, but I have never seen anything more reliable than Nintendo and they have always been great for kids. Tandi will even play Nintendo games sometimes.

We got it last Friday. The Wii is an absolute freakin' blast. After playing for a couple days I was so sore I could barely move. I'm sold on the new style controllers for sure. The game play is extremely realistic.

I took a few videos to show you guys:

Wii Fun

We kept it a secret from Tandi while she was in Florida. She was really surprised. I will have to write a whole blog entry explaining everything this awesome machine can do. Tandi starts her new job tomorrow night so I'll try to work on that tomorrow.

Partay Time

Tandi is in Florida visiting her parents and the boys and I are living the bachelor life. We are having an absolute blast. Of course we do miss Tandi, but I am keeping them very busy. I had a very special surprise for them that Tandi doesn't even know about and she or any of you won't find out what it is until she returns on Tuesday. In addition to that though we are still having loads of fun. Yesterday we went to the dollar store and stocked up on a lot of cheap junk to play with. Today we went to Williams Gateway airport in Mesa, AZ. They had an open house. The kids enjoyed seeing the military aircraft. It was really hot though. I'm afraid we are getting an early summer. I have actually been running the AC this weekend. Pictures from the airport are below:

Williams Gateway Open House

When we left the airport we tried to eat at Chick Fil A but everyone else had the same idea. It, and everything around it, were a madhouse. I don't know what the deal was, but we headed home to chill until our next adventure.

Around 5:30 we left the house to head to Organ Stop Pizza. I have been wanting to go to this place since we moved here. The whole place is a musical instrument. It was packed with people. Mostly our winter visitors (cue tips). Everyone enjoyed it, except I don't think it was exciting enough for Garrett. I got a few pics, but the digital camera didn't do it justice.

Organ Stop Pizza

Oh, BTW, I had to use my phone for all these pictures because Tandi took the camera with her to Florida. I was really wishing I had the camera today. She better bring home a lot of good pictures.

I'm exhausted. If anything here doesn't make sense that is why. I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow, but I'm sure we will think of something. Maybe the movies.

Evening at the Park

They are building several large neighborhoods all around ours. One of them has fantastic parks and the kids have been dying to play there. This evening I finally took Garrett and Alex. They had a blast. See some pictures below. Note the beautiful mountains in the background. We actually visited two of the new parks.

Park Pictures

I also took a few movies with the still camera. In one I tried to give a kids view of the maze in one of the parks.

Park Movies

This has all created a new problem. I am out of web album space. I will have to pay to upgrade now. I'm not quite sure what to do or how to host future pictures.