Easy hilly run ... feel ok. I got the "usual" coach pep talk today, "don't worry, go out hard but controlled and pick it up from there" -- very helpful. My favorite "coach" quote was one I heard from a friend who was running a 10K on the track in college "run fast, turn left".
I have to confess bloggers. I have to become a nice person. It was a deal I made yesterday. So ... yesterday I get to work and had brought my external hard drive from home so I could get some things I had written a while ago from it and put into a grant I am working on. This hard drive is my back-up from the last 10 years (it isn't that old just the things that are stored on it) -- it has my dissertation on it, it has papers I have written, projects I have worked on, things that I am currently working on, etc. Well, I plug it into my computer and nothing happens. Hmmmmm... I jiggle it a little, replug it in and still ... nothing. I look at it more closely and my heart stops -- no beat. I feel like I might throw up. The USB port has broken off. I start hyperventilating -- really. I jump up and *RUN* across campus to the computer tech store below the bookstore. Surely there will be some nerdy guy there that can either help me or tell me where I can go?? My office is about a mile from the bookstore and it was one of the longest miles I have ever walk-ran. All I could think about was starting all over on that paper that I have been working on for 3 years now (it is in its second revision from a journal review) -- and all the projects that I have ongoing for which I have been modifying things that I have done in the past. Oh why did I not buy that 5Terabyte hard drive from Costco (that is on sale for $100) so I could "back-up" my "back-up" disk?
Well, the bookstore was a wash, the undergrads there only work on computers, not peripherals. I was slowly, almost in tears, walking back to my office when I saw a sign "U/ITS 24/7" (University Information Technology Services -- 24 hours/day 7 days/week". I decided to stop in and see if they knew of any local data recovery service in town that could help me. I made a deal, "IF I CAN GET MY LIFES WORK OFF OF THIS HARD DRIVE I WILL BECOME A NICE PERSON, I PROMISE". Well, as I walked into the the room I saw them the beautiful nerds for which I was seeking -- I knew immediately that they were going to be my salvation. Sure enough, it took over 3 hours but my savvy techie was able to extract the hard drive from the case, read it onto another computer, and I after I ran back to the bookstore and bought another external hard drive was able to recover ALL of my data.
Now I wish I had promised to give up coffee or something, instead of change my whole being ... but noone said it would be easy ;-).
Happy Thanksgiving Bloggers!! | 