Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much to blogger Evil Pixie for the beautiful earrings. I love love love them! She sent me these beautiful Pixie Drop earrings. And I'd take a picture of them and post it here but my camera is 'misbehaving' so I'm re-posting the picture from Evil Pixie's blog so you can see the lovely gift I received in the mail (and after the week I had, thank you thank you thank you- it was a wonderful pick me up and they are just stunning!). Thank you again Evil Pixie for the earrings!!!!

xoxoxox,
Mags

* Image taken by Evil Pixie and used with her permission- thanks!

Update 2 of the Computer Crash

In a word:
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The saga continues. Click here to get caught up to now. Go on, I'll wait. I'll be here.

As of today... well, the head of IT called and said he did all he could and the Feb. 23 update will not work because it was corrupt. He said I have to take the 7 week loss and use the last usable update from January.

Okay, again it's better than starting over as if I had lost everything.

BUT!!!

This afternoon I tried to log into the program and it wouldn't open. I got the original error message from last week: the program is gone, doesn't exist, no paths, no drivers, no server, no info. I have no idea what the heck is going on.

I call the head of IT back and of course he doesn't answer so I leave him a detailed voice mail. I let him know I will be at my desk from 11:45 am until 3:30pm and he can call, come over, email me, text me, whatever.

And I heard NOTHING from him at all.

What and I gonna do now? I've cleaned and repaired and made copies. I've prepped several art club activities. I've covered classes for others. I think I might stay home tomorrow. Why the heck not? Because I'm out of stuff to do. This is so frustrating.

Mags

Update 1 of the Computer Crash

When I last left you the word was that I 1) I had a virus/ malware/ trojan on my actual computer than rendered me unable to even turn the dang machine on; and, 2) the kids hacked stuff they shouldn't and crashed the entire library software program, making it disappear and the IT department was trying to retrieve anything- circulation information, patron info, materials info but it looked like ALL OF THAT WAS GONE!

Over the weekend I got the call that the virus was contained and removed and I would need to create a new password when I logged on Monday. As for the library software.... well, they were still "working on it."

So, at work today, I had high hopes, like that little ol' ant. When I got to work and went to turn on my computer, the tower was gone. Well, that's a new development because I was told all I had to do was log on with a new password. I called IT and they had to get my tower to see if the library software was a problem on my computer only or network wide and they would return it "sometime this morning." Okay...

When I finally got my machine back, and the idiot tech guy spent 20 minutes trying all the different cables, I could go online and check my mail and all that seemed normal. The library software was still being worked on, I was told.

Later in the day the head of IT called and said for me to try to log in the library stuff. He said he found a back up of all my library info from January 20. I logged on and there it was. The problem was that ANYTHING i did between January 20- to now was gone. Any books I added or deleted from the collection were gone, all circulation records were gone, all new patrons added or old patrons were deleted. BUT the upside is that I don't have to start from scratch. I printed a list of materials that the computer indicated were currently checked out and I was going to start fixing the mess when the head of IT called and said he found a backup from Feb 23 and if I could wait another day, he would update the library software with that back up.

Well, HECK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can wait a day. If he can make the Feb 23 update work, then I lost only 2 days worth of information. Only 2 days as opposed to 7 weeks. (But yes I know that 7 weeks is better than starting from scratch...)

I'm patiently waiting to see what happens tomorrow. Will they or won't they be able to make it happen!?!

Mags

Not wowed by 2011 movies

Mac asked me what my favorite movies of 2011 were and I couldn't come up with one that I thought was OUTSTANDING. Which ties into me watching the Oscars. As I watched, I kept thinking that I didn't see these movies.

And those must've been the good ones. Because the best I could come up with as really good is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I saw 176 movies last year and of course some of these are old movies but seriously, I could only come up with one title that made me think "wow." Now, I did see lots of movies that entertained me and I enjoyed quite a bit, but to come up with a title of a film that really changed my life is just not possible.

Now, I did see The Help and I thought it was really good but it didn't bowl me over. The book knocked my socks off but the movie was just good to me, not HOLY CRAP WOW! Same with Moneyball- good but not astounding. I saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and it was so sad I couldn't wrap my mind around "good". I also saw Bridesmaids- and it wasn't my style of movie.

I guess I need to see more movies in the theater. Or maybe I need to see better movies when I do go to the theater. One issue I have is where I live. We don't live where we can see "artsy" movies; we don't have a theater that caters to that genre. If it's not big budget, popular, where stuff blows up or with kid appeal, it's hard to find a place to see "smart" movies, or however we classify movies that are USUALLY nominated by the Academy. And after the nominees come out, our local theaters are scrambling to get a copy of a movie out if it hasn't already been released on DVD. For example, I was just dying to see My Week with Marilyn but the closest it was to me was 2 hours away until the week before the Oscars and then it was 45 minutes and my schedule didn't let me get there.

Now the Descendants was near for 1 week only, as was The Iron Lady, both I want to see by the way. And The Artist was in my hometown but in all honesty I said when it came out I would have to wait for the DVD because I don't think I could sit through a silent movies in black and white for 2 hours. I'm sorry; right now in my life I don't think I have what it takes to do that. It was here for 2 nights only, by the way.

I really do want to see the 3 aforementioned movies as well as Albert Nobbs, Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris (another I wanted to see but wasn't near me; I love Woody Allen; I think I'm Annie Hall), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (never heard of it until Oscar nomination but looks good), and Beginners (not near me).

I didn't have a big desire to Hugo nor War Horse but I might DVD them just because.

My other issue is that in the Midwest in the Bible belt, I'm not exactly 'in the loop' of what's hot or not in Hollywood so I usually don't know what's going to be Oscar worthy until near the end of a year when the big push happens to get votes and nominations.

This is not to say that only Oscar movies are good. I don't think that at all. There are lots of good movies that I love that have never won awards (Twister, Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds to name a few). But last year there are no movies that just stuck out in my head as being AWESOME, that I want to run out and buy on DVD or watch over and over again, regardless if they won awards or not.

Maybe 2012 will be a better year at the movies for me. Maybe not. Guess I'll see you at the movies to find out!
Mags

Random Saturday calls for Random thoughts

I have no idea what happened in blogger this week. Last night when I sat down to blog, 2 of my posts that I had scheduled to post.... hadn't. I opened them and clicked publish and they did. I think maybe I shouldn't touch technology this week, all things considered.

It's snowing today. Yesterday people were wearing shorts.

Mac is taking his online class midterms. I think he's working harder during these 60 minute sessions than he has during the entire courses. He got instant scores on one of the exams (except for a bonus question) and he ended up with an A. GO HIM! Yay Mac's GPA!

I'm wearing yoga pants to lounge around the house in, again. And no I'm not doing yoga. But I still haven't gone out in public in these. Yet. I'm sure I'll forget and BAM... !

I'm in the throes of laundry. Everything I have right now is wash cold and hang dry and I'm running out of places to hang. So, I guess that means I should just stop doing laundry, right?

I watched the pilot of SMASH finally on DVR. Is anyone else watching this show? Does anyone I know like it? Opinions please!

When I have a day off I lay in bed the night before and make a huge list of things I want to accomplish but when the actual day off rolls around, I end up doing very little that's on the list. I made no cards nor quilts today. I did, however, empty the dishwasher, buy groceries, fix dinner, do 2 loads of laundry (maybe 2 more if I get my detergent on), watched some back logged DVR and finished a novel. I should focus on the "dids" rather the didn'ts.

I love Adele.

xoxoxox,
Maggie

Bad to worse

Yesterday I wrote that my entire library program was probably gone (deleted) and that my students were the one's who deleted the whole thing, either on accident or on purpose.

Would you believe that it went from bad to worse yesterday afternoon?

When I got to work on Thursday morning, the library program was still deleted. I was told that "they were working on it" but it didn't look good. They hadn't found the software yet anywhere on a server or the network. They said the entire backup file was even gone. THE BACKUP FILE WAS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, then. Well... So...

I spent the day doing paperwork. I repaired a pile of books. I cleaned the cupboards. I straightened shelves. I did filing.

I was in the middle of making a list of new books to order and I clicked on an author's website and sudden my computer went nuts. Our virus program lit up like a Christmas tree, blinking red, that I had a virus. I got a bubble that there was a virus. All my programs shut down and weird icons popped up on the screen. Then a window opened that looked like everything was being deleted. I called 4 IT guys and the forth one told me shut my computer off and to click nothing. I did.

Finally a different- the newest and most inexperienced IT guy came to the library and looked at my system and confirmed I had a virus. Well duh. And he said he would have to go back and do some checking to see if he could figure it out.

As of 5pm yesterday, the new IT dude couldn't find my computer even on the network's list. Oh gee, nice. And the computer dude with experience is at home sick. And the new guy is really rude, I just want to add, as a by the way.

So I get a call today and they manage to find my computer, and get rid of the virus; the experienced IT guy was back today. It looks like the author website was contaminated and the virus was not linked to the kids destroying the library software, which, there was no word on yet. Gee, that's great.

(when ITSam was there, he had given me unlimited rights on our network with no filters. I wonder if they figured that out since they had to fix me?)

I'm not so much a fan of technology right now.

I'm not worrying about this crap until Monday because what can I even do today, right?

Mags

Gone baby gone

Yesterday was not a good day. Oh shit are the only 2 words that come to mind.

Yesterday afternoon, the program I use to operate the entire library froze up. Weird technology stuff happens all the time, right? I try to do all these fixes and none of them work. I do the ultimate and shut my entire system and machine off and start all over again with a reboot. Only this time when the software opens and I click on the tab marked "circulation" I get an error message. As a matter of fact, I get an error message over and over and over again on each tab I click.

I call the school system's head librarian to see if she knows what's up. I tell her the error code and she flips out and tells me to call the software company's tech support. I call tech support and they tell me the error code means 1 of 2 things:
1- human interaction has screwed my system up
2- the system needs rebooted from our server or our network.
And what does the error code mean, you might be asking. Oh... well... the error code means that the library program has been removed/ deleted.

Yes, you read that right. GONE. G.O.N. E. As in no longer there. As in ALL the library data has been deleted, removed, vanished.

As in all records of books, of the patrons, of the circulation history, or patron holdings, EVERYTHING is gone. All I have are the books on the shelf. There is no record of them in any system anywhere.

Oh. My. Fucking. Shit.

This means that if our IT staff can't find the program on the server or on the network, then I have nothing. I will have to hand enter each and every book, one at a time, all over again. I will have to reconfigure all the software and the settings, enter all the patron information as well as the books.

To make matters worse, once I told my principal what happened, he told me that they caught kids messing around with the program and he thinks they might have deleted it when they got caught doing what they weren't supposed to do, and they accidentally deleted the library stuff while deleting their own stuff, trying to cover their tracks.

We called the IT department at work and they are seeing what they can do. They're trying to see if it exists on a server or network somewhere.

I can't even fathom what will happen next...

Mags