Every Last Word

A momentous thing has occurred, dear Internet! Well, perhaps not so much "momentous" as "ludicrous", or perhaps "irrational", but regardless of the exact classification of said THING, it was a precious moment in my Internet life—very precious indeed!

(Not quite as precious as when I managed to elicit a rare and treasured comment from The ListMaker, mind you, but it was still special. But on with the story, lest you never discover what "it" was, or lose all interest in even trying.)

I've long made occasional, random mention of my unorthodox "Bike-n-Blog" apparatus—a shockingly heavy Toshiba "Satellite Pro" laptop with an external, 3.5" floppy disk drive, running Windows 95 atop a Professional Engineer custom-crafted desk, under which sits an archaic 10-speed bike that no longer shifts quite right but runs nicely in one high gear, fitted into a very nice Blackburn TrakStand—at which I do pretty much all of my blog writing. Of late, I have also made rising-frequency something of the increasingly uncooperative "R" key of said Toshiba laptop.

Now, while what I've said with respect to this setup might certainly be taken for "whining"—in particular, regarding the near-constant backspacing necessitated by the rrrrrrrecalcitrant "R" key—I really do like my non-standard blogging situation. I like that I'm getting a fairly respectable workout while I write, I like that I'm doing it on hand-me-down (aka, recycled) and hand-built (aka, creative) materials, and even though I'm enough of a geek to long for the latest and greatest in high-tech gadgetry, I like that I'm not beholden to it, or hampered by lack of it.

(In short, I like the illusion of adaptability, which is what my "Bike-n-Blog" workspace provides me as a bonus to the ability to maintain some semblance of fitness while I tickle the alpha-numeric keyboard to my wee heart's content.)

But I'll also freely admit that the "R" key conniptions were making writing unusually trying, and as any writer can tell you, writing is generally difficult enough that additional "challenges" are really most unwelcome. I certainly could have endeavored to crack open the Toshiba—unencumbered by an operating manual—and attempted to repair its stickiness, and I did try the less-invasive procedure of evicting years of dust-bunny accumulation and a few chunkier particulates from the immediate vicinity of the "R" key with strategic blasts of canned air, but that changed the key's stubborn-teenager behavior not a whit.

I'm fairly decent with computers in that I am not afraid to experiment with them, trying new menu options and even the occasional registry tinkering with only a modicum or so of cringing. However, when it comes to gutting the beasts and working with their fragile, electro-delicate innards, I really would rather never go there. Ever. Like, in a bazillion years or so! Particularly when, as I realized one day when looking for an old entry on my new-ish, Internet-ready desktop computer, there was no where in the world—save the Internet itself—that the entirety of my blog was stored EXCEPT for that ancient, "R"-irritable Toshiba laptop, snuggled cozily over my bicycle, right next to my lonely weight bench.

(You can see why I refrained from attacking the underbelly of the "R" key now, can't you?)

Yes, somehow, in the transfer of files from one desktop computer to another, I managed to NOT carryover the years of text files that have translated into so much Internet light pollution, and while I understand that at least half the world goes merrily along with less than half of its files backed up, I've been the victim of two hard-drive failures and numerous minor incidents that leave me almost rabid with back-up fever. And although I do suffer from back-up constipation—you know, no regularity to speak of—it's extremely rare that I have NO BACK-UP AT ALL, and because I had been operating under the delusion that my desktop computer contained all of the same files as the trusty old Toshiba—"R" key notwithstanding—it was quite a shock to discover that I was actually 399 files short of a full blog back-up.

The process of transferring data from the Bike-n-Blog computer to my desktop is harrowing enough, involving as it does the archaic 3.5" floppy disk so rightfully mocked by Jeff at Side Salad in this here entertaining blog entry. But to transfer from there to my adorable, purse-sized Dell Mini—mine thanks to my marvelous Writing Sponsors—requires the additional step of a USB jump drive (something the old Toshiba remains quite gleefully ignorant of). And while that step went perfectly fine, I can't say that the process of extracting my near-400 missing files via 3.5" floppy did the same.

Hell, it seems, hath no fury like a 3.5" external floppy disk scorned, or even one which has been called gently upon to accept files for transfer via totally functional—not at all corrupt or even looked at sideways!—and the process resulted in multiple blue screens of death, which frightened me and probably caused me to turn a little blue myself. While I can certainly extract my files from their current Internet residence, copy-pasting them—even three times each—was preferable not only from the laziness aspect, but likewise from that exotic viewpoint of "efficiency".

(As you might imagine, it was with a copious quantity of relief—if not an alliterative allusion to the same—that I matched file totals on the crutch-supported Toshiba and the baby-fresh Mini at the end of the day and found that, YES! All files had, eventually, survived and made a successful ship-to-ship transfer.)

And, miracle of minor technological miracles, here I am, blogging with a FULL and even accessible backup again! And an "R" key that does not self-activate, leaving a trail of "R"-slime across "R"-unfriendly words! AND I can use a standard USB jump drive to hop and skip my latest—if not greatest—bloggy messes right from my Bike-n-Blog computer directly onto the Internets!

It's nothing to the world at large, I imagine, which will go merrily on regardless of my convenience or efficiency. But to me, today is momentous indeed, and if it is true that the largest triumphs are really the smallest, then this is a really big one, baby.

Either way, I'm going to enjoy every last word of it.