McCarran Airport in Las Vegas

After a successful flight from LAX to Las Vegas, I arrived in Las Vegas at 8:12 AM. I found out that my 8:56 AM flight to Chicago was canceled. After calling the 800 number (the United computers at the airport were down!) and talking to the ticket agents personally (once the computers started working again), it was determined that the next flight to Madison is 7:02 AM (next morning) from Chicago so..... I have been waiting for the past few hours for a flight to Chicago that will leave at 11:25 PM. WTF is that? Like 15 hours of stupid sitting around at the airport.

They're giving me a stupid $125 voucher to save on my next flight with United... uh, do I really want to fly with United again? Grr and I also had to buy unhealthy and overpriced airport food too. This Wisconsin trip did not start off well. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cleaning my laptop

So for the past few days I have been digitally cleaning my laptop, backing files up and deleting files I've backed up, but no longer really use on my laptop.

Now, I am ready to open my laptop and clean out all the dust and gunk that has collected over the past 4 years. Okay, I know... I'm so bad! But I never did it because I'm afraid of actually opening my laptop and breaking it because I don't really know what I'm doing. So I'm taking it to a friend's house. She's a computer person and she will help me clean. I'm always thankful for friends who specialize in areas I suck at. :)

Organizing Digital stuff

Man, I'm still organizing my digital stuff. I hate how I end up uploading or saving more pictures onto my laptop after I just backed up. :(

Some friends just sent me some recent pics of us at a restaurant so that added a few more extra pictures. Luckily, I'm using Picasa to help me organizing my pictures. I'm also using it to find random pictures that were hidden in various parts of my laptop. That helped me clear up some space on my laptop because there are some videos and pictures that I have already backed up on my external hard drive and saved on CDs that I no longer need on my laptop anymore; it's not like I look or watch them all that often. So... I delete stuff I don't need anymore, but I always save it before deleting it permanently from my laptop.

Yes, so you have it: my boring, boring posts about digital stuff.

Digital Spring Cleaning, Part Duex

I continued my digital spring cleaning today, finishing up what I didn't do yesterday because I think I might have worked my laptop too hard and it is getting a bit old. :( Backing up files is a daunting task, but I hope it pays off in the end because I have saved everything that is important to me, everything that is not that important to me (but I saved it anyway), and etc.

Yesterday, I already transferred and copied pictures that I took in the months since my last backup run onto the external hard drive twice (once in backup files, once in just transferring over onto the hard drive). Today, I backed up the same pictures onto a blank disc.

Today, I also copied and transferred all my music, audio, and videos that I have not backed up yet. I don't believe I ever began copying music before so I had to copy and transfer all the music and videos that I had. This was a bit tricky since I had music hiding in various parts of my laptop. I used to use Kazaa 4 years ago, so the music I downloaded from Kazaa was in a Kazaa folder. I no longer download music from a music sharing site anymore. I deleted Kazaa probably 3 and a half years ago. I had a fear of getting viruses and for getting caught downloading. The only way to acquire new music for me was through networking sharing, seeing other people on the school's network with my desired song(s) or asking very kind friends to download a song for me. :) In that sense, I used Mytunes redux to copy music people put on their Itunes so I had some music in my Mytunes folder. I also had music in my Itunes folder. I also had old music in my "My Music" folder and various folders named "Shared Music." It was a bit confusing, and a bit disorganized, but I think I pretty much found all there is to find. I'm glad for the "Search" feature! Even if I missed a song, I probably won't miss it because that means I don't listen to it often.

This type of work is exhausting (and I'm trying really hard not to relate it to ABz so I try not to use that word anymore). I'm tired and I think my graying laptop is tired. Poor laptopy. I don't give names to objects like some people who name their cars and musical instruments, but I will give it a term of endearment: laptopy! Haha, I always give people a weird look when they're like "What's your car's name?" or "What's your flute's name?" or "What's your computer's name?" and I'm like, "Um, it never occurred to me to give those type of objects names... even though I give stuffed animals name, maybe because they resemble animate objects. Who knows! Anyway...

Dear Laptopy,

Please stay alive and function for one more year or two. I love you so much and I'm going to go get you cleaned from a professional. I think the reason you shut off randomly is because you are overheating and have dust and dirty stuck inside you. I was told to open you up and clean you from the inside and to use one of those air dusters. Well, I'm afraid of breaking you so I'm going to try to find a professional computer person do that for me. That's the reason I've been backing up your files. If the computer person messes up, I'll still have my work. I think once you're cleaned, you'll be good as new.

Stay in there, I'm counting on you to make it through for a few more years. Even if I buy a new laptop, I'll still keep you around and use you if you still work!

Digital Spring Cleaning

So yeah, I've been backing up the files on my laptop and deleting stuff I don't need/use anymore. I like to unclutter my laptop once in awhile. It's hard because it's not that fun going through most of my files.

I also cleaned out my email boxes, deleting emails I don't care for anymore. I sometimes email myself information (websites to help with a class or some useful website) or things to remember to do. Of course, I don't need these things anymore so I delete them. Deleting emails is a chore as well... especially now that Yahoo! Mail is unlimited and Gmail is approaching 3 Gigs of space. And I have so many email accounts... I don't know why I do. I guess I have a lot of random/fun ones, with funny names. I also have ones that I use to sign up for sites I don't care for so I don't care if it gets spammed. So yeah, I went through 4 Yahoo! email accounts and 2 Gmail accounts (I recently registered 3 more Gmail accounts, but those are both empty because nobody knows about them yet). Luckily, I only use 2 Yahoo! and both Gmail accounts frequently so going through those email accounts was tiring. A lot of clicking, deleting, opening emails again to see what the heck it was about, etc. The other 2 Yahoo! accounts were mostly junk emails from sites that I signed up for so I pretty much just checked all the emails and deleted them... it was a breeze.

Ugh, I'm dreading having to do this again in a few months. Maybe I should just try to unclutter my email inboxes everyday or every few days. I know it gets hard when I'm busy/lazy so I just leave emails in my inboxes when I shouldn't. I know that I shouldn't worry with the huge storage capacities, but I would like to keep things organized. I don't want to just keep every silly random email I get just because I can. What am I talking about? I must be tired and going crazy.

The joy and chore of backing up files

So I've spent the past few hours backing up files on my laptop. My laptop is 4 years old (my dad bought it for me in early June 2003, maybe a week or two before I was about to graduate from high school). Lately, my laptop has been acting up and turning off unexpectedly. This upsets me because I try my hardest to keep my laptop clutter-free. I try not to download too many programs. I check for viruses and spyware often. But I guess I'm not taking good care of my laptop enough because it sometimes slows down and it shuts off suddenly. Okay, it doesn't shut down that often... just once in awhile and it frightens me because I love my laptop so much. I want to use my laptop for one or two more years before getting a new one. :( I wish I were a computer nerd so I could take better care of my laptop.

So I backup my files every so often. The last time I did it was back in January 2007. I have a 160 GB external hard drive that I take out to backup my files (I don't connect it to my laptop all the time). Along with making backup files on the hard drive using it's back up program (which turns the files into one weird file that can be restored by the hard drive's program at a later date), I also make a copy of new documents, pictures, etc. and put them on the hard drive as well. I also backup the same files onto blank CDs. I guess I get paranoid of losing important documents and pictures. I like to keep old things, like old schoolwork, and the thought of losing an essay I wrote for a class troubles me! I also have a hard copy of almost all of my schoolwork (possibly with comments and grades from my professors), but I also want the digital copy.

I still have some more backups to do, but there was some sort of error when trying to copy my school documents onto the disc. So I decided to try again later... probably right now after I put up this post.

Spending time with friends

I've been spending a lot of time with friends lately, but that also means spending a lot of money on gas, food, shopping, etc.

Eeek, and now I plan on visiting another friend down in San Diego for a few days.

Ahhh, I should be saving money for Wisconsin. I'm kind of nervous. I should make a list of things I should take there and a list of things to buy while I'm there.

P.S. I have not received a call from the lady from United. I thought maybe she would feel guilty or care about me when I left her a note and cell phone number. I mean, if it were me, I would call the person back immediately and apologize. But I guess everyone's different. What-ever!
Well, I complained to John Wayne Airport and the guy on the phone was very patient and listened to my story. He told me to hold on for a minute because he wanted to get a form they use to write down comments (positive, negative, suggestions). He wrote key points of my story and took note of my complaint and suggestion. He said they take these things seriously; they don't just throw these away or anything. He said they will research into it and give me a call or write me a letter. I hope he wasn't just saying that to make me feel better. I got kind of scared when he said that because I don't want to get people in trouble or anything. Whatever. I don't care anymore.