Looking up...

Poof!

Always lots of pretty sunrises and sunsets this time of the year.

It took a couple weeks, but the computer situation is pretty golden at the moment.

Got a new much-needed mouse and pair of headphones.

Got Windows happily running and updated. And I embraced the opportunity to dump a lot of old files and re-organize/clean up my filing system. All drivers working. All programs installed nicely. Cleaned out old archives in the external hard drive and backed up the currently awesome state of the computer. Still going to take a while to get all my fonts, workspace, and tool presets loaded in for Photoshop and that sort of thing. But that happens organically anyway. Again, taking the opportunity to get everything refreshed.

And NOW I can get back to work. YUSSSS.

Bootstrap 4 is out in beta, so I'll slowly be re-coding Kpoppy with some of that new stuff. Cool.

Also helping out the This Week in Kpop guys with their MV posting site, which is very similar to what I do on the blog attached to Kpoppy. Always enjoy helping Kpop-related community efforts. Get to learn stuff and have a routine.

Its been crazy hot again, so I've had to delay painting, but I want to start hammering some things out this coming week. I'm determined to not be pressured on the P4A work this time around.

And FINALLY I'll get to transitioning to the replacement tablet now that the computer crashing trauma is less vivid. Yay.

Both Jaejoong and Yoochun are now serving in the military. A slew of guys entering soon. 4/5 DBSK guys will be serving within a couple months with Changmin going early. Hyukjae too. Mind-eff. Trying to detach myself now that I've become aware how much anxiety it's giving me. Gotta let some of that go... and keep my eyes on my own paper. I don't want to be so emotionally invested in folks across the world that I'm sickened by the thought of what they're dealing with. Not healthy for me. Overactive empathy... hurting myself with it. Not cool. Awareness is one thing. Panic attacks at every bit of news is another.

And LITERALLY keep my eyes on my own paper for some drawings. Much more driven to doodle now with the computer madness out of the way.

During the file re-organizing I came across some old art stuff I did for various projects. Like these apples from a quick html class assignment.

Kinda cute!

99 updates available...

Taunting me.

After a remarkably pleasant phone conversation with Dell tech support I received a Windows 7 installation disc in two days. Thank you, Dell support gentleman with a distinctly South Asian name and distinctly South Asian accent. You are my hero.

The last couple of days have been the slow addition of all my drivers and software and various programs. Sloooooow. Trying to not do more than a few installations in between restarts. Not even going to think about loading in all my backed-up files until things are settled.

About those updates...

There were many in the first couple days. Large lists of available Windows updates. And I diligently made my way through them.
Last night, after two days of stable Windows 7 and adding programs and successfully getting through the 150+ updates, there was one update still to go.

Just one.

One that would only kick in along with a shutdown.

But this one update made me paranoid because it looked frighteningly like another single update with which I had recent experience. When I had rolled back from Windows 10 and was scrambling to deal with the incessant freezes and finally got enough up-time to fully backup everything, there was one Windows update.

Just one.

And I had two choices:

(1) Attempt a system restore back to a time before I upgraded to Windows 10
(2) Get this one Windows update so it isn't in the queue and THEN system restore

I made the wrong decision. I should have just done the restore while I could. But I was exhausted and my brain was fried from a week of computer failure madness. So I took the update + shutdown option, ready to do the restore when I turned the computer back on.

And that's when the computer stopped being capable of loading Windows at all. It would get to the Windows animation screen and freeze. Twice. Five times. A dozen.

Hence the necessity to have the conversation with the South Asian gentleman to get the installation disc.

Fast forward to last night. That one update. Could it be the same? Will this Windows update permanently crash Windows again?

Yes. The answer is yes.

I did the update + shutdown.
When I turned on the computer today, it froze at the Windows startup animation.
And did the same when I tried again.

To say I saw red would be a massive understatement.

But luckily the recent use of the installation disc gave me the option to do a system restore. The most recent boot failed. Same freeze. So I went back one more boot.

SUCCESS!

Everything is happy again. I've added a few more little things. Restarted successfully a couple times. All happy.

Except for those 99 updates available mocking me from the control panel 'cause I'm UNDERSTANDABLY PARANOID that the Windows crashing Windows update is in there and it will shove the knife in a little harder... and twist.

Just going to plan to get a few happy boots in before I take on those updates. And be prepared to system restore again... now that I am a well-experienced master of the system restore.

Cue mirthless half-crazed laughter.

Shaka, when the walls fell...

Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.

I fucked up.

Yeah, upgrading to Windows 10 was risky, but I understood the risks. I've dealt with computer meltdowns before. And 10 had been tested for quite a long period before rolling out. So I backed up all my files and forged ahead, making the leap from 7 to 10.

For a few days it was wonderful. Fast. Smooth. All positive. Worked on a few prints. But then there was an update among other things, like being prompted to update a few drivers. Cool. The next time I turned on the computer it froze a few minutes after startup. Not your average freeze. A deep freeze. Solidly unmoving and unresponsive and silent. Okaaaaay...

This became a pattern after a few days. Hard freezes intermittently. Sudden restarts out of nowhere. The tower starting to shower beeps at me, unable to start again. More and more hard shutdowns, like pulling the plug on a loved one. Worse and worse.

Scrambling to use the brief uptime to figure out the problem. Rolling back recoveries. Killing problematic programs. Dumping drivers. Scanning all the things. To no avail. Days passed. Worse and worse.

Last night I threw in the towel. Time to restore Windows 7 and pray. Restored it today. Froze at one point, but continued on restart. Windows 7 happily returned. FreeCell in all it's ad-free glory. Got an hour out of it. Doing all kinds of scanning and updates to get everything rolled back.

Freeze.

Oh no.

And again the beeps and struggling restarts. And a fucking cascade of awfulness. And it will no longer turn on. Tried to get it going one more time to backup those few files and do a system restore. But no. It won't turn on.

So, here I sit, pecking out this post via my tablet. Funny about that. It's always worked beautifully, but there was the recall due to battery overheating. I received my replacement tablet a few days ago. It's waiting, mostly untouched. Couldn't stand the thought of activating it and there being some problem. Then I would be computer-less and tablet-less once the kill-switch was triggered on this one. Not about to deal with that potential technology failure after the last week of Windows hell.

Just feels like it's all hanging in the balance right now. I would feel relatively fine reformatting if I could save those few files. But I may never get the thing running again.

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Been playing Fallout Shelter a lot while the computer has been shitting itself. So addicting. It's like the early Sims games before they got enormous and complex. Totally my jam.

Also had another horrible panic/anxiety relapse last week. Felt like a crazed reanimated corpse for a few days, but getting through it was probably good for me.

Kailash, when it rises. Sokath, his eyes opened.

The 100 degree temperatures and smoke haze have cooled and cleared.

Geez. It was a rough week. Lol.
 Don't know why Darmok came to mind, but... ya know, there's always more room for Darmok.

Actually, I bet watching Star Trek would vastly improve my mood right now. Netflix it is!

And tomorrow... tomorrow I duel with Windows...
 The Beast of Tenagra.

Blue moon...

Appropriate to make a 'once in a Blue Moon' post with a Blue Moon. Nothing like arbitrary and flawed human systems to make something special out of something entirely un-special. ^^

Got an e-mail this morning that almost all Nvidia Shield Tablets sold over the last year are being recalled for potential to overheat dangerously and start fires. Mine included. Figures. Rofl.
According the process I went through to register for the recall, I won't be required to send my existing tablet in. They're just shipping out new devices to everyone and as soon as we turn it on, our old tablets will become bricks. Killswitch engage! The fact they can do that is a bit alarming in itself.

Nice that it's so straightforward though. My current tablet has worked quite well. Love the thing. It gets super hot when I run certain games for a while, but I've just been gentle with it and let it cool when that happens. My main concern now is that the replacement tablet, with it's new battery, will have some other problem that my current tablet does not... and I'll be stuck with that or have to get that one replaced too.

Anyway, 2-4 weeks or so to see what I get. *fingers crossed*
Never had a smart device before and never been involved in a recall. Lots of firsts happening. Also the first time I've had my own computer for a big windows upgrade. I did the Windows 10 upgrade first day. Which I'm aware is generally considered to be a bad idea. Smart people wait a year or so for all the bugs to get worked out. 10 was thoroughly tested by the public before launch though and I read up on it a ton, so I just took the leap. Still getting adjusted to things, but I rather like it so far.

Finally some cooler temperatures after quite the brutal heatwave last week.
Going outside to water the tomatoes for 10 minutes maximum and I feel like my skin is frying on the spot. Ick. And the California drought isn't helping matters. Dead lawns are much hotter than living ones. And I don't think I mentioned that our neighbor's fig tree nose-dived into our backyard a while back. It's a sad sight and we lost a ton of shade (and an enormous amount of un-ripened figs). I'll make a post with pictures some time.

Poor figgy. ;__;