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I know. It's been a VERY long time since I've logged in here. I've been reading stories as and when I can, but my internet hasn't and still isn't particularly reliable. For about a year there I couldn't get my laptop to go on the internet at all, and my phone screen is just way too small to view this site well.

Speaking of... I can't remember if I'd mentioned that or not, but Behemoth, that's my moniker for my primary desktop whenever I have one operational, has been dead for quite a long time now. And he had all my files for both my series. I still can not afford to get the necessary device to even so much as extract that data. And I certainly can't afford to build a new Behemoth.

So both Chronicles of Atlantia and Open Your Heart are STILL on indefinite hold. I'd love to get back to them, but I'm not redoing all my previous work and hoping my memory is good enough not to get any of it wrong.

The reason I've been without decent internet is because I left my parents house again. A little recap of what's gone on between is in order I think...

In my last blog I was hyperventilating because some guy seemed like he wanted to date me. Well, that didn't work out. I let him know about my history and present circumstances and he wasn't awful about it, but made it clear he wasn't interested anymore.

After that situation ended, another guy who I'd met through local politics took me on a movie date. The date went okay, but I was getting some by then familiar vibes off of him, similar to the ones I'd gotten off the previous character.

Sometime after the first date, someone else, I still don't know who, let him know about you-know-what. His reaction was NOT nice. It took him a really long time to eventually apologize for his behavior, but he was an ass for a very long time. He even attempted to sabotage my relationship with the third guy I went out with early on. Fortunately, this guy was way more accepting and genuinely cares about me and kinda ripped into him a bit.

So now, the third guy. Our first date was a movie date, we went to see Thor 2, and spent some time in the mall. He was a perfect gentlemen, and I wasn't getting any weird vibe from him other than just both of our general tension. We soon had several more dates under us and then I moved in with him about 6 months after our first date. We've now been together almost a year and a half.

So yes. Abi really does have a long-term live-in boyfriend now.

In other events, I'm now also currently a member of the local county Green Party's Central Committee, though I may be forced to resign that position soon. I ran for and was elected to this position last November. So I've now held an elected political office. When we did our own internal election of committee officers, however, I abstained from running for anything, so I'm just a committee member, not a committee officer.

The reason I might have to resign soon is because I'm going to have to move again. When I met Randy, he was already fighting a losing battle with the banks over his house, and sometime last year they served him foreclosure notice... Just very recently we were served final notice of Sheriff's sale, which is scheduled for the 27th of next month. From my searching for an appropriate place to move, I'd narrowed our choices down to just two apartment complexes, and one of them is in Michigan. Moving intra-county wouldn't force me to resign, but leaving not just the county, but the state, and becoming a resident of another state or county would force me to resign. The other option is in the same county, but we'd HAVE to spend coinage on coin operated laundry there, whereas the one in Michigan has an included utility room, we'd just need to purchase a compatible washer and dryer for the provided hookups.

Part of why the limited choices is because we have to be close to both of our work. His isn't as important because he drives, but I have to be close enough to walk or bicycle. I could walk from the one in Michigan, though I'll probably use a bike in dry conditions, and the other I could ride a bike from, even though I'd have to do so even in inclement weather.

I'm not actually working right now, but I will be hopefully quite soon. One of my sisters is trying to open a for-dogs diner just across the border in Michigan from where I am now. It'd just be about a mile from the apartments in Michigan, two miles from the ones here. I probably wouldn't make much. Definitely not at first. But it would have a great deal of room for growth since it'll be a startup that I'll be in from the beginning. Though I do kind of doubt I'll stay with it for the long term. I still want to implement a plan of my own, this opportunity will hopefully just provide me with what I'll need to be able to afford to do more testing. And get my feet back under me before I go off and start pissing money away again after my dreams. I need to try to get some debts paid down to where I CAN try to implement a business plan. With how deeply in debt and how bad my credit is right now, no one'll give a business plan of mine a teeniest chance.

Anyways, since you all now know what I've been up to, and that both of my current titles are still stuck on indefinite hold, here's what I'm thinking about for the immediate future:

I'm thinking about starting a new story. Maybe several. Maybe it'll just be a single serial. I don't know yet for sure. One of the new semi-open universes right now has sparked my muse and I'm planning on contacting the owner of that universe to talk about my idea. I don't know yet if this is even going to go anywhere whatsoever, so don't anyone get your hopes up just yet. ;)

Comments

it was something impossible to fix

Isolating it down to a single point of failure was proving impossible, though I was able to narrow it down to either being the motherboard, or the processor. Replacing either of those is expensive enough, replacing both and necessitating an entire architecture change is waaaaaaaay out of budget.

Abigail Drew.

Hi...

erica jane's picture

Have you considered taking out Behemoth's hard drive and putting it in an external drive housing so you can access your stories?

~And so it goes...

Of course...

And this is the device I can't get either. I've been trying to ever since it happened. All of Behemoth's drives were SATAII drives, and external chassis for SATA based full-height hard drives are rare, and expensive. Even getting just one to extract specific files from each drive separately would cost a fair penny. Getting one of the three drive ones to set them all up at once is hundreds of dollars.

It's much easier to find them for half height hard drives, aka laptop hard drives, intended as a "mobile" solution for extra storage... But the Behemoth wasn't ever a laptop, and the last version of him was built before the half height solid state drives became common for desktops and laptops both. They were starting to be made but were still thousands of dollars for even a quarter terabyte. Nowadays they're more affordable and if I ever get a new Behemoth built, he'll be running on a solid state array.

Abigail Drew.

I need something that fits three drives though

And that particular item wouldn't work anyways because my laptop doesn't have usb 3, but only usb 2, powered esata and firewire. I bought my laptop at the same time as I built the previous Behemoth, which was back in like 2008.

Abigail Drew.

3 in a bed

Are all three interdependent, setup as a raidset or a stripe? Btw the blurb for that device says it works with USB 2 too.

Hugs
Cat

-
You can't choose your relatives but you can choose your family.

In my experience 90% of failures...

...in computer hardware that are not because of power supply death are due to contacts oxidation. 5% is due to death of thermal pad between CPU and heatsink. And another 5% is just overheating because of dust buildup.
You need cotton tip stick (proper english name escapes me formsome reason), a bit of clean alcohol (medical 98%, or just good vodka), good naturalmrubber pencil eraser.
So 1) just open case, disconect and reconnect every cable inside. 2) remove memory modules, clean their contacts with pencil eraser, then clean off residue with alcohol using cotton tip stick. Put memory modules back. Do the same vith video card connector if you have separate video card.
If you have leftover thermal grease from the time of computer assembly, you can also remove heatsink, clean off old grease, remove CPU, replace CPU, apply fresh coat of grease, put back heatsink.
I had successfully used this method to revive about a dozen of old computers.

Glad to hear from you!

Thanks for letting us know you're alive and kicking. I'm happy for your relationship! Best of luck with housing and job and all the rest.

You're missed, but sounds like you've got plenty to keep you busy.

Hugs,

Kaleigh Way