The Whine thread.

[TPoptarts]

[JadziaKathryn]

I'd recommend that you pray about it, but I know you don't believe in that sort of stuff, so just cross your fingers and I'll pray for you.

I second that.

You know, I never thought I'd recommend working at McDonald's, but at least you'd probably be able to afford to live somewhere better than this...

[CX]

I'd recommend coming to North Dakota. In Minot alone, there are "Help Wanted" signs up everywhere. I guarantee you could find a decent job and a decent place to live in up here.

Another thought: look into scholarships, grants, loans, and other financial aid and go to college and get yourself a degree. You're kind of into the acting thing, right? Get an acting degree. You can draw and have good artistic talent - get a graphic art degree. Or get a degree in marketing or accounting or something that will get you a cushy 8-4:30 office job. Hell, Job Services will give you job training in being an office clerk or plenty of other areas if you want, it'll only set you back the time.

[TPoptarts]

Acting schools especially here are like WAY too expensive and in the end they don't even count for anything, like yeah they might get you some contact but the way I look it's really not gonna help me... as for school in general I just don't do well because of my dyslexia it's really hard to keep up and I just get lost, and no one ever helps me whatever I guess

[CX]

They have help for people like you in North Dakota, so someplace like California which has a much larger budget for higher education should have it. If nothing else, you could come to UND and freeze your ass off with me this winter.

[Drogna]

A small computer whine:

I have a nice laptop. It has my life on it. It's been getting slower and slower recently so I decided that it need windows reinstalling . This meant backing everything up and I was pretty thorough. Except I missed the fonts - which include all my Trek fonts that I've been collecting, and some others which I really liked. So not only have I had to reinstall all the programs but find all my fonts again. It's taking forever to gets things back the way I had them.

[CX]

Did you try de-fragmenting first?

[Asso]

A small computer whine:

I have a nice laptop. It has my life on it. It's been getting slower and slower recently so I decided that it need windows reinstalling . This meant backing everything up and I was pretty thorough. Except I missed the fonts - which include all my Trek fonts that I've been collecting, and some others which I really liked. So not only have I had to reinstall all the programs but find all my fonts again. It's taking forever to gets things back the way I had them.

That's very hard.

[blacknblue]

I recommend investing in an external hard drive. They are worth the money. Save your data files, extra fonts, etc., as compressed backups on the external drive at regular intervals. Then when you need to reinstall you can just wipe, reformat and do a clean reinstall. Much swifter and easier.

[Drogna]

Did you try de-fragmenting first?

Yup, did that, didn't make any difference.

I recommend investing in an external hard drive. They are worth the money. Save your data files, extra fonts, etc., as compressed backups on the external drive at regular intervals. Then when you need to reinstall you can just wipe, reformat and do a clean reinstall. Much swifter and easier.

Yeah, did that too - I just missed a few key things that I'd sort of forgotten about. I only have myself to blame.

I should perhaps add that Mr Drogna is an "IT professional" and did say several times "You have backed up everything you need?" And I said "yes, yes, all done." Which as I found out later turned out to be a lie on my part. His answer to the whole thing was "Use Linux", which actually is his answer to most of my computer problems and I'm beginning to wonder if he has a point. My laptop is the only machine in the house that uses Windows and at the last count we had four laptops and six desktops of various ages, all of which seem to have less issues than my laptop.

[dark_rain]

"Use Linux"

Mr Drogna's dead right. Windows just gets bunged up with spyware/adware/god only knows what and gets slower and slower.
If you're using Windows Vista, I'm surprised that you haven't switched already. Its a complete dungheap and should be avoided like the bubonic plague. Windows 7 is unlikely to be much better. A good Debian/Ubuntu will have you running well (Debian is far better, but Ubuntu a little easier to use, oh and get the KDE Desktop if you can. Migrating Windows users tend to find it far more familiar than its competitor Gnome) Drivers on lappy's can be fun though, so check that out first.

Oh and I definatly agree about having good backups. They will save you from much pain, hardship and psychotic illnesses.

[CX]

I use Vista for one reason alone - Halo 2 PC.

[blacknblue]

If you are looking for a newbie friendly, 100% debian compatible version of Linux that has excellent hardware recognition and comes with a lot of software, I can vouch for Mepis. http://www.mepis.org.

Since the release of version 7, activity on the site seems to have ground to a stand still. I don't know if the guy has gone on vacation, died, or quit. But since Mepis is 100% debian compatible it doesn't matter. You can do a dist-upgrade and convert to a pure debian flavor whenever you get used to using linux. Meanwhile, mepis will elt you get your feet wet without any pain. It defaults to KDE, with some extra helper apps to ease you along. There is a fair amount of user documentation available online in the forums too. MY two cents for what it is worth. It got me up to speed on Debian Linux, and I had been with MS from DOS 2 through WinXP.

You can always set up a dual boot system and have both on your computer if you want. That way you can try Linux for a while until you get used to it, and still be able to fall back on Windows if you have issues. Your husband can show you how to do that, i am sure.

[TPoptarts]

Whine: so I started watching Bicentennial Man when I was in my room. My quiet room at the moment since the cagemates are sleeping. But then of course it was 10pm and I had to go outside. Where another frelling cagemate is sitting and talking to some stupid annoying guy who likes to talk a lot. And not only are they in my frelling corner they're also SO FRELLING LOUD and I can't watch the frelling movie because I can't hear anything!!! GO AWAY!!!! GAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

[Distracted]

You need earphones, boo.