Gladly enough, at the end of the road we found our beds. Our return to the abode is hearkened by the chimes of "safe" and "sound". I am thankful and, at the same time, exhausted; ready for the pavement to cease its impetuous humming against the thinning, spinning tires. A couple of photos and some editing later and I'm ready for some real sleep. Goodnight world.

Its time for another fruitless ROADTRIP!

Gonna help my sis move, she really needs it, so I'm gonna have to drive halfway across the States to help and then halfway back. Woo. </ endrant>

     I have some so-so news and some bad news. It appears, this time, that nobody wins, as with war; or, alternatively, the ancient medicinal act of blood-letting. Onward to the so-so news! Those of you who are faint of techie heart, avert thine eyes.

     _{My external hard drives fried.}

They have gone to meet the great ball of computer parts in the sky (which is a long side-tale of its own, but I shan't digress further into it for the time being).

Upon further inspection of their corporeal husks it is revealed that a dense stench of crispy circuitry pervades the inside of the hard drive enclosures. A pop and a whirr and there lies the remains of 260GB of data between the two (an estimated 180GB of which was mostly like in use).

The bad news is that it was completely my own fault. Let you all learn from my mistake. -Apparently- AC adapter cords for different kinds of external hard disks are NOT interchangeable. Upon using (for a split second) a friend's external power cord one hard disk after the other fell with smoky abandon. What appears obvious to me now is that, while the size and shape of the connector was exactly the same, the configuration of the prongs for power delivery were different.

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Please skip stars to avoid gratuitous electrical engineering lesson
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     Computer parts and the like are very different from the lightbulbs and ceiling fans of our households. They require a constant flow of electricity in the same direction. This is why computers require power supplies, printers require special clunky cords and external hard disks require AC converter cords.
     AC (the type of electricity that powers our lights, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.), or -A-lternating -C-urrent is actually not a continuous flow of electricity. In actuality, AC flows one direction, stops for an undetectable space in time and then flows in the opposite direction. Thus, the name Alternating Current. This switch in polarity would cause your finer electrical components like boomboxes and such to go completely haywire, simply not work OR turn those precious processors into a charred mess resembling the casserole your mom forgot to take out of the oven.
     What we have to fix this nasty problem is the AC adapter which, so lovingly, converts the hectic and high-powered Alternating Current into DC which our computers love to munch on. Basically, the adapter smooths out the momentary stop in AC flow by employing capacitors that charge and trap extra electrical energy so that it can be released so as not to interrupt the DC current. It also employs "diodes" which are the electrical equivalent of a check valve, allowing electrical energy to flow one direction, but not the other. This, coupled with other odds and ends, makes up the basis of your AC adapter and allows all those computers in the world to function.

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     What computers DON'T like is when you force that power to go through the wrong way. It would be comparable to forcing a person's blood flow to go through the body the opposite way. The heart would most likely burst or just give up.
     Now I am trying to regain all of the software backups, patches and updates I had before as well as drivers and administrative tools. I'm fairly happy with where I am at right now, but alas, the real loss is all of the artwork I had saved and all of the ongoing works I've lost. I can always start over, but it is never the same. Oh well. At least I have learned a valuable lesson. One I shall not soon forget.

New journal entry! Now everyone doesn't have to stare at the same boring, irrelevant junk. Hooray. Going to Los Angeles to visit my friend ~plugz and travel with him on a film shooting tour. Its gonna be a blast. I'm so excited. You all are excited too, aren't you. Yes you are! Don't hide it.

I think I am on the right way on the wrong foot. Sometimes I feel like what I am trying to accomplish is getting a firm lashing from the world. I'm happy with my life at the moment but everything is soooo boring. I'm movin'. Where to, you ask? I dunno! Give me some suggestions! What do you think about (insert random place to move here)? I'ma gonna do something different for a while and try to get some more stuff done while I'm at it.

On a side note, I am now taking embroidery requests. If anyone needs anything embroidered on a hat or a t-shirt or sweatshirt, let me know! I'll get back with you and we can discuss design elements and time frame as well as the all important price. Usually most embroiderers charge a digitizing fee for creating the design in an embroidery format, but I don't because I value the artistic elements involved. So just let me know!

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