My desktop is out of commission right now. I hope to check in later.
UPDATE: I am now CHKDSKing, which should take some time. If you emailed me on the main edrants account in the past two days and it’s urgent, try me on the Yahoo account.
UPDATE 2: Thank you, Microsoft! It’s time for a goddam clean install. By the way, if your registry hive ever gets corrupted, this is a great resource.
Updating will be mostly nonexistent while I spend my time reinstalling Windows and all my damn programs.
UPDATE 3: I’m now writing this from the desktop, now denuded of its former glory. Thankfully, I didn’t have to slipstream to get Windows to recognize the new 500 GB SATA drive. (For those who encounter the 137 GB limitation problem on either XP or 2000, this will solve your problem.) I now have a fresh install and, after I finish formatting the logical partition, I hope to transfer the data from the old drive over. I have three podcasts almost ready to go, but alas, the hard work of reinstalling all the programs will begin once this current nonsense is done. I’m hoping to get everything tweaked over the weekend. Bear with me.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Ed – Enough of this madness! I’ll take you by the hand and walk you down to the Apple Store.