i'm kind of laughing to myself. i've been getting upwards of 50 plays a day for a few weeks running now, and almost nobody ever makes it to the end of a track. i'm obviously not attracting the right kind of listener; these are things one needs to listen in *album length* chunks to get a full grasp of. i need to attract the kind of listener that makes it through to track 5 before they even begin to form an opinion. yet, such an audience may belong to more sophisticated times. that doesn't mean i can't have fun with the metrics.
it's almost like getting through one of these records or eps is like running a marathon, and all these weaklings that are getting to the page can't even get through a single track. which just makes me seem unfair, really. why create such a grueling track, you fucking masochistic lunatic!?!1! how am i supposed to make it through this? huh?
it's more of a disinterested creator than a masochistic one. reactions are largely meaningless to me. except maybe to laugh at how torturous an experience some of this must be when taken out of context by somebody looking for something conventional. i can imagine the horrified reaction, followed by the "skip button", which seems to dominate the play ratios. that's comedy gold to me.
it'd be nice if i could attract the right listener, though. i don't even mean in terms of enjoyment (an "audience"), but even just as having the approach of habitually listening to a few tracks sequentially when browsing. as a consumer, there's a lot of things i would have missed out on had i judged so quickly.
over the last month, ~45% of listeners have skipped the track before 0:30, indicating that they had no intention of listening to a new piece of music in the first place. ~52% have made it longer than that, but weren't able to complete the song. so, more than half tried, at least. yet, only 3.5% of listeners have been able to actually scale one of these epic peaks.
that's ok, i like the inaccessibility of it. but if i could get less of those people that will give up after 0:30...
i just don't get it...
Sunday, January 12, 2014
publishing ignorance is bliss (inri038)
the third of what will be four eps of material cycling around the deny everything lp, this is definitely a pretty heavy listen. as i tend to do, i've mixed some weird styles together here. electro-goth-grunge? noise-hop? industrial blues? ambient post-punk? i dunno. it's not easily describable, and i aim for that. as a piece of electronic music, it's pretty neat. let's leave it at that. three times in a row with subtle variations is going to require an interest in the topic. but, i demand some grit from my listeners; i expect that, in turn, from the musicians i admire.
so, have some fun tripping out into this. or don't. whatever.
--
this is a collection of versions of a track that was important to me around the turn of the century: three electronic versions and an electric folk version that i often played as a sort of a drunken party trick. the three electronic versions are arranged in decreasing complexity, and the electric folk version is at the end.
it's sort of about me, and sort of about my dad, and sort of about caricatures. we never had a dog drown, and i simply have no knowledge of the dynamics of my parents' sexual relationship. that's just an old country song. yet, there were a lot of stressful problems in both his work and family life, and that was being pointed to as a cause of his heart problems.
in hindsight, i'd tend to lean more towards genetics than stress. of course, that's something i have an interest in understanding further as i age. at the time, though, the focus was all about reducing the amount of stress he was dealing with.
i really just sort of didn't get it. i still don't *really* get it. stressed? well, chill out then. spark one up. put on a tune. it's maybe not as easy as snapping a finger, but it has to be about a general philosophy of life. see, i guess i place a lot less faith in the idea of free will than most people do - and my father, being a rush fan, and don't get me started on that travesty, put far more faith in it. when one is absolutely convinced that their entire life is determined by the choices they make, including the ones they don't make, it produces a lot of pressure to make or not make the right choices. meaning? he did it to himself - his atlas never shrugged.
ultimately, universe gonna hate. your so-called free will is doomed to be crushed in a wave of stochastics. the universe is a random, chaotic place defined by poorly understood probabilities. so, why bother concerning yourself so deeply with the consequences of your actions in this pointless existence, to the point that it might cut that existence short? it was the idea of him driving himself to cardiac arrest that pissed me off. you could be hit by an asteroid in your sleep. you could spontaneously combust. you could even wake up one day to find that aliens have landed and are taking over the world using robot gunships. once you get *that*, trying to fight for control seems pointless. embrace the random, and spiral out....
or, so, the debate went. i wasn't really comfortable writing a song *about* my old man, so i took a fictional first-person perspective and went to town with it a bit.
the vocals have come in and out of the track, but in the end they became attached solely to the electric folk version, leaving the electronic version solely as a piece of music.
the cover art bitmap is one of the files i put through coagula to produce sound out of light. inristart was a working title for the piece.
written and recorded, 1999-2001. track 2 was reconstructed out of existing sound in june, 2004. sequenced as is in jan, 2014. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, sequencing, drum programming, vocals, vocoders, sound design, sampling, digital wave editing, production
released july 11, 2000
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ignorance-is-bliss
1) this was the meta mix: recorded from may to july, 2000 and included on the original deny everything demo. it's also the most produced mix, in the sense that it utilizes a number of electronic and guitar based sound effects that were dropped from the final mix. note also that the bass part is different and arguably better, if slightly out of sync.
i should point out, in the context of streaming it from this site, that it starts about 15 seconds in. this was a conscious thing that was designed to startle the listener. you're supposed to listen to the first fifteen seconds, adjust your volume, scratch your head, etc - and then jump a foot in the air when it actually comes on and scares the fuck out of you. even if you know it's coming, the suddenness is still jarring.
2) i've held to this version since june, 2004 but i'm going to update it for inclusion in deny everything, yet again. the fun part of being an unknown composer is that you can modify your works at a whim. well, known composers have done that, too. fuck the rock era. fuck rock stars.
it contains more of the track than the "original" inristart may, 2000 version but less of the track than the abandoned vocal mix (july, 2000).
the sections that were abandoned for this mix were largely overflows of the vocal version. for example, a short guitar solo was ignored because it seemed pointlessly indulgent and empty without it being an introduction to the vocals. there's also a sequenced "ukulele" part that ran through the vocal version that was discarded; it was a vocal accompaniment (in a way that may bring to mind lady in satin, or perhaps vespertine) that seemed to just appear out of nowhere. a thunder crack only made sense relative to the lyrics. a noise-funk guitar part was meant to work with the bass part and no longer did.
i was also in a more minimalist frame of mind back in '04 when i put it together. today, though, i want to bring in more of the vocal version. this version just feels half done.
this differs from the inristart version only in the addition of a lead guitar part that bridges the first and middle sections and a subtle feedback swell around twelve minutes in. these, however, are substantial differences that i feel are worth maintaining in their own mix.
the 2004 date seems anachronistic, but all the parts were recorded in the spring and early summer of 2000.
3) this is the oldest version i have and formed the basis of the final version.
4) this was never meant to be recorded like this, only played live, usually drunk, but a friend of mine talked me into recording it for inclusion in a radio rock project we were hatching up. well, he was hatching up. i didn't really have much of an artistic investment in it, i just agreed to play bass, because my friend needed a bassist more than any other reason. he wanted this to be a "hidden song". i obliged.
however, he was a little taken aback by the result. he wanted it to be twangy and country, which indicated a misunderstanding of the content. it's comical on a surreal level, but it's not a cheap comedy skit. his ideas would have devalued it and that sort of pissed me off; my refusal to redo it pissed him off. this was part of the reason that the project never went anywhere, except to spark rabit is wolf:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/rabit-iz-wolf
this recording did not happen until mid 2001, but i was playing it at parties months before that. it's only very slightly anachronistic to attach it to here; the conceptual unity overpowers.
so, have some fun tripping out into this. or don't. whatever.
--
this is a collection of versions of a track that was important to me around the turn of the century: three electronic versions and an electric folk version that i often played as a sort of a drunken party trick. the three electronic versions are arranged in decreasing complexity, and the electric folk version is at the end.
it's sort of about me, and sort of about my dad, and sort of about caricatures. we never had a dog drown, and i simply have no knowledge of the dynamics of my parents' sexual relationship. that's just an old country song. yet, there were a lot of stressful problems in both his work and family life, and that was being pointed to as a cause of his heart problems.
in hindsight, i'd tend to lean more towards genetics than stress. of course, that's something i have an interest in understanding further as i age. at the time, though, the focus was all about reducing the amount of stress he was dealing with.
i really just sort of didn't get it. i still don't *really* get it. stressed? well, chill out then. spark one up. put on a tune. it's maybe not as easy as snapping a finger, but it has to be about a general philosophy of life. see, i guess i place a lot less faith in the idea of free will than most people do - and my father, being a rush fan, and don't get me started on that travesty, put far more faith in it. when one is absolutely convinced that their entire life is determined by the choices they make, including the ones they don't make, it produces a lot of pressure to make or not make the right choices. meaning? he did it to himself - his atlas never shrugged.
ultimately, universe gonna hate. your so-called free will is doomed to be crushed in a wave of stochastics. the universe is a random, chaotic place defined by poorly understood probabilities. so, why bother concerning yourself so deeply with the consequences of your actions in this pointless existence, to the point that it might cut that existence short? it was the idea of him driving himself to cardiac arrest that pissed me off. you could be hit by an asteroid in your sleep. you could spontaneously combust. you could even wake up one day to find that aliens have landed and are taking over the world using robot gunships. once you get *that*, trying to fight for control seems pointless. embrace the random, and spiral out....
or, so, the debate went. i wasn't really comfortable writing a song *about* my old man, so i took a fictional first-person perspective and went to town with it a bit.
the vocals have come in and out of the track, but in the end they became attached solely to the electric folk version, leaving the electronic version solely as a piece of music.
the cover art bitmap is one of the files i put through coagula to produce sound out of light. inristart was a working title for the piece.
written and recorded, 1999-2001. track 2 was reconstructed out of existing sound in june, 2004. sequenced as is in jan, 2014. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, sequencing, drum programming, vocals, vocoders, sound design, sampling, digital wave editing, production
released july 11, 2000
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ignorance-is-bliss
1) this was the meta mix: recorded from may to july, 2000 and included on the original deny everything demo. it's also the most produced mix, in the sense that it utilizes a number of electronic and guitar based sound effects that were dropped from the final mix. note also that the bass part is different and arguably better, if slightly out of sync.
i should point out, in the context of streaming it from this site, that it starts about 15 seconds in. this was a conscious thing that was designed to startle the listener. you're supposed to listen to the first fifteen seconds, adjust your volume, scratch your head, etc - and then jump a foot in the air when it actually comes on and scares the fuck out of you. even if you know it's coming, the suddenness is still jarring.
2) i've held to this version since june, 2004 but i'm going to update it for inclusion in deny everything, yet again. the fun part of being an unknown composer is that you can modify your works at a whim. well, known composers have done that, too. fuck the rock era. fuck rock stars.
it contains more of the track than the "original" inristart may, 2000 version but less of the track than the abandoned vocal mix (july, 2000).
the sections that were abandoned for this mix were largely overflows of the vocal version. for example, a short guitar solo was ignored because it seemed pointlessly indulgent and empty without it being an introduction to the vocals. there's also a sequenced "ukulele" part that ran through the vocal version that was discarded; it was a vocal accompaniment (in a way that may bring to mind lady in satin, or perhaps vespertine) that seemed to just appear out of nowhere. a thunder crack only made sense relative to the lyrics. a noise-funk guitar part was meant to work with the bass part and no longer did.
i was also in a more minimalist frame of mind back in '04 when i put it together. today, though, i want to bring in more of the vocal version. this version just feels half done.
this differs from the inristart version only in the addition of a lead guitar part that bridges the first and middle sections and a subtle feedback swell around twelve minutes in. these, however, are substantial differences that i feel are worth maintaining in their own mix.
the 2004 date seems anachronistic, but all the parts were recorded in the spring and early summer of 2000.
3) this is the oldest version i have and formed the basis of the final version.
4) this was never meant to be recorded like this, only played live, usually drunk, but a friend of mine talked me into recording it for inclusion in a radio rock project we were hatching up. well, he was hatching up. i didn't really have much of an artistic investment in it, i just agreed to play bass, because my friend needed a bassist more than any other reason. he wanted this to be a "hidden song". i obliged.
however, he was a little taken aback by the result. he wanted it to be twangy and country, which indicated a misunderstanding of the content. it's comical on a surreal level, but it's not a cheap comedy skit. his ideas would have devalued it and that sort of pissed me off; my refusal to redo it pissed him off. this was part of the reason that the project never went anywhere, except to spark rabit is wolf:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/rabit-iz-wolf
this recording did not happen until mid 2001, but i was playing it at parties months before that. it's only very slightly anachronistic to attach it to here; the conceptual unity overpowers.
Jessica Amber Murray
ok, i responded
mom
K...I'm off the phone with her now. How are you?
Jessica Amber Murray
i'm ok. was fighting with my hard drive, but it seems to have resolved itself for now at least. i don't know what happened, really. it's not doing the things that hard drives do when they die, leading me to believe it's not really dead, just had a hiccup.
mom
Mine is working good for awhile and then makes very loud noises as well....I took it into apple and they said it was an old dinosaur and they could not service it...told me to just back my stuff up and continue to use it...They tested my fan activity and said my fans were running right....Not sure what it is all about...I am just using it and hoping for the best.
Jessica Amber Murray
yeah, i still think it sounds like your drive. i think i may have actually accidentally zapped mine with a jolt of static electricity, because the plates aren't misbehaving. which means it could be fine or could be waiting to implode. but the guy is right - back your data up. it's a shame they won't just put a new drive in it. that's kind of jerky.
mom
Well, there is another place...The Mac Group, where I bought it from in the first place that I could bring it into and I think they would actually service it. I only have pics on it...I did put them onto a couple of usb sticks.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, if your drive is dying, you're either going to need a new drive or a new laptop. the electronics industry is so wasteful. people just buy new computers when a part breaks, it's craziness, really.
mom
It seems such a waste...I have so much space on mine...I have hardly used any at all...Do you think it just needs a good cleaning?
I did pull out some dust and crap with some extra long tweezers that I have and it did seem to work better after that.
The stuff that I could see.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, did the guys at the store say it was the drive? if it's the drive, you can't clean it. drives whir like that because they're off balance. your hard drive is sort of like a record player. it spins around and around. now, imagine a record player that wobbles. that's the clicking sound. ....if it's your drive. ultimately, it's a mechanical device, and it will break, eventually. like i said before: i've never actually seen a fan break like that. i can see how it's theoretically possible, but if that's what's going on it's the first time i've ever actually heard of it. more likely is that if your fan is misbehaving then it's getting jolted by a misbehaving power supply (power surges, basically).
mom
The guy just didn't know...He said the fans had the right whatever they are(I forget what they are?)...Could there be dust and dirt collected on them at all?
I pulled out a whole wad of crap...dusty piles of fibers or something from some of my fuzzy blankets or something...there was even some dried old tobacco that was attached as well.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, sure, they could collect crap, but i couldn't see it creating that kind of clicking. but, i mean, it seems possible in the abstract. 98% of the time, though, when a laptop clicks and whirs, it's the drive.
mom
Well... I guess eventually I will be looking at buying a new one then...Unless, I bring it into the mac group and see what they may do.
ok, i responded
mom
K...I'm off the phone with her now. How are you?
Jessica Amber Murray
i'm ok. was fighting with my hard drive, but it seems to have resolved itself for now at least. i don't know what happened, really. it's not doing the things that hard drives do when they die, leading me to believe it's not really dead, just had a hiccup.
mom
Mine is working good for awhile and then makes very loud noises as well....I took it into apple and they said it was an old dinosaur and they could not service it...told me to just back my stuff up and continue to use it...They tested my fan activity and said my fans were running right....Not sure what it is all about...I am just using it and hoping for the best.
Jessica Amber Murray
yeah, i still think it sounds like your drive. i think i may have actually accidentally zapped mine with a jolt of static electricity, because the plates aren't misbehaving. which means it could be fine or could be waiting to implode. but the guy is right - back your data up. it's a shame they won't just put a new drive in it. that's kind of jerky.
mom
Well, there is another place...The Mac Group, where I bought it from in the first place that I could bring it into and I think they would actually service it. I only have pics on it...I did put them onto a couple of usb sticks.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, if your drive is dying, you're either going to need a new drive or a new laptop. the electronics industry is so wasteful. people just buy new computers when a part breaks, it's craziness, really.
mom
It seems such a waste...I have so much space on mine...I have hardly used any at all...Do you think it just needs a good cleaning?
I did pull out some dust and crap with some extra long tweezers that I have and it did seem to work better after that.
The stuff that I could see.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, did the guys at the store say it was the drive? if it's the drive, you can't clean it. drives whir like that because they're off balance. your hard drive is sort of like a record player. it spins around and around. now, imagine a record player that wobbles. that's the clicking sound. ....if it's your drive. ultimately, it's a mechanical device, and it will break, eventually. like i said before: i've never actually seen a fan break like that. i can see how it's theoretically possible, but if that's what's going on it's the first time i've ever actually heard of it. more likely is that if your fan is misbehaving then it's getting jolted by a misbehaving power supply (power surges, basically).
mom
The guy just didn't know...He said the fans had the right whatever they are(I forget what they are?)...Could there be dust and dirt collected on them at all?
I pulled out a whole wad of crap...dusty piles of fibers or something from some of my fuzzy blankets or something...there was even some dried old tobacco that was attached as well.
Jessica Amber Murray
well, sure, they could collect crap, but i couldn't see it creating that kind of clicking. but, i mean, it seems possible in the abstract. 98% of the time, though, when a laptop clicks and whirs, it's the drive.
mom
Well... I guess eventually I will be looking at buying a new one then...Unless, I bring it into the mac group and see what they may do.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
re:
from: Jessica Murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
To: grandmother's email address
yeah, it's not bad here, really. well, compared to what i'm used to. those minus thirty lows last week were record setting, here. that was really only a few days, though, and it's back to being pleasant. but, the locals aren't used to even -10 weather. so, for me it's actually a fairly mild winter....highs are around -5 on average...and the big snow storm we got a few days ago will likely be gone in a few days.
there's no plows on the streets, though. four days after the storm, cars were still getting stuck on the main roads. that's how not used to winter this place is.
i'm definitely working on the music. what i'm doing right now is slowly working through my old material, going back to the late 90s. it's taking a little longer than i wanted, but it's something i've been wanting to do for a while. and i'm just about through it. it's up over here if you want to take a listen to some of it:
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com
i shouldn't have a problem cashing a check. i'm allowed to claim a certain amount as gifts. that's probably constructed mostly to allow christmas and birthday presents. it would be rather cruel to deny odsp people (many of whom are far more disabled than i, and far more attached to gift-giving than i) of the ability to receive gifts. i don't even think harper would be that cruel. it's income that they track.
...but don't feel obligated. i don't often celebrate holidays. i'd certainly appreciate anything you'd send, but don't feel like you need to.
besides that, things are actually fairly comfortable here. i'm actually pretty content. life is about reading and composing, like i feel it should be.
glad to hear leo's ok. and i hope willy is doing well, too.
j
To: grandmother's email address
yeah, it's not bad here, really. well, compared to what i'm used to. those minus thirty lows last week were record setting, here. that was really only a few days, though, and it's back to being pleasant. but, the locals aren't used to even -10 weather. so, for me it's actually a fairly mild winter....highs are around -5 on average...and the big snow storm we got a few days ago will likely be gone in a few days.
there's no plows on the streets, though. four days after the storm, cars were still getting stuck on the main roads. that's how not used to winter this place is.
i'm definitely working on the music. what i'm doing right now is slowly working through my old material, going back to the late 90s. it's taking a little longer than i wanted, but it's something i've been wanting to do for a while. and i'm just about through it. it's up over here if you want to take a listen to some of it:
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com
i shouldn't have a problem cashing a check. i'm allowed to claim a certain amount as gifts. that's probably constructed mostly to allow christmas and birthday presents. it would be rather cruel to deny odsp people (many of whom are far more disabled than i, and far more attached to gift-giving than i) of the ability to receive gifts. i don't even think harper would be that cruel. it's income that they track.
...but don't feel obligated. i don't often celebrate holidays. i'd certainly appreciate anything you'd send, but don't feel like you need to.
besides that, things are actually fairly comfortable here. i'm actually pretty content. life is about reading and composing, like i feel it should be.
glad to hear leo's ok. and i hope willy is doing well, too.
j
mom
Hi J...Did you receive an email from Nanny? She wants to know if you got it around 7pm tonight? She is fretting about computer issues again....lol.
Jessica Amber Murray
i haven't checked my email in a few days. i don't know how i can help her from here. i'll check, though...
ok, no, it's not a computer help email. i got it though, responding...
mom
OK...Good...That's all she wanted to know. I am on the phone with her right now...
Jessica Amber Murray
she put the entire email in the subject line. i'm laughing my ass off.
mom
LOL....
LOL....I am explaining to her what she did...lol....Not sure she understands though...lol...She was wondering why it seemed to disappear....lol....She is laughing now too...she wants you to answer her back right now.
Jessica Amber Murray
yeah, well, it's going to take a few minutes to type it.
mom
K
Hi J...Did you receive an email from Nanny? She wants to know if you got it around 7pm tonight? She is fretting about computer issues again....lol.
Jessica Amber Murray
i haven't checked my email in a few days. i don't know how i can help her from here. i'll check, though...
ok, no, it's not a computer help email. i got it though, responding...
mom
OK...Good...That's all she wanted to know. I am on the phone with her right now...
Jessica Amber Murray
she put the entire email in the subject line. i'm laughing my ass off.
mom
LOL....
LOL....I am explaining to her what she did...lol....Not sure she understands though...lol...She was wondering why it seemed to disappear....lol....She is laughing now too...she wants you to answer her back right now.
Jessica Amber Murray
yeah, well, it's going to take a few minutes to type it.
mom
K
the oldest aunt's wife
just to let you have know your aunt had a heart attack thursday or early friday they put 3 stents in today all went well she is resting comfortable in ottawa heart inst.
Jessica Amber Murray
i'm sorry to hear that. i have to ask, though: i've been under the impression for quite some time that her heart's health is tenuous. i think she has multiple pacemakers? are the doctors letting on anything about her more general condition after this recent heart attack?
the oldest aunt's wife
the multiple pacemaker was not for that problem all 3 stents are in seen artery have not seen dr he came in just for her or she would have had to wait untill monday
pressure and heart rate was high and worried about more damage
Jessica Amber Murray
ok. well, i wish her luck and send her best wishes! let me know if you hear more info, please.
the oldest aunt's wife
sure well
just to let you have know your aunt had a heart attack thursday or early friday they put 3 stents in today all went well she is resting comfortable in ottawa heart inst.
Jessica Amber Murray
i'm sorry to hear that. i have to ask, though: i've been under the impression for quite some time that her heart's health is tenuous. i think she has multiple pacemakers? are the doctors letting on anything about her more general condition after this recent heart attack?
the oldest aunt's wife
the multiple pacemaker was not for that problem all 3 stents are in seen artery have not seen dr he came in just for her or she would have had to wait untill monday
pressure and heart rate was high and worried about more damage
Jessica Amber Murray
ok. well, i wish her luck and send her best wishes! let me know if you hear more info, please.
the oldest aunt's wife
sure well
hi j; I haven't heard from you for ages! how are you doing?We are having the worst weather I can remember, I guess you are too.All is well here Leo is back to normal working 12 hour days again,but that is what he likes to do.Are you doing your music as you had hoped when you moved there?I think of you often & miss you even though we had our differences sometimes.Will you have trouble cashing a cheque as I would like to send you one for your birthday on the 13th, take care & let me know.luv nanny. .ahve
From: grandmother's email address
To: jessica murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
To: jessica murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
i'm going to put finishing up the old stuff here as a first priority, but then i'm going to take as much as a week off to catch up on some reading. in truth, the downtime has just cemented my greater interest in completing this little project over, say, reading about people getting blown up in syria.
yeah. back on the modern laptop....
i may be on borrowed time. the bios hard drive test is still faulting. but the windows tools disagree. i dunno. i'm hesitant to take the bios tests completely seriously. i mean, here i am. i want to believe it was just the mbr that got corrupted and i fucked up the recovery through impatience. so, the bios is finding a few bad sectors. meh. i'm surprised it's not redirecting me to the company's website, because that's what it's probably about.
regardless, what i really wanted was to get some data off and it's on the way off. now, whatever happens happens.
...but why is windows so stupid? i should have just downloaded imgburn. instead, i'm stuck waiting for it to copy 200,000 files to a temporary directory or something. why does it need to copy to a temporary directory to burn a fucking dvd?
...and, while i'm at it, why won't it let me copy jpgs to my mp3 player? because it's an mp3 player? fucking derp. it's not even an ipod, it's a sansa. i was trying specifically to avoid stupid fucking apple bullshit.
xp forever, baby. if i ever actually buy another laptop, it's coming with xp on it. this windows-trying-to-be-osx shit is revolting to me. alas, the bios on this thing will not allow xp on it. *sigh*.
i didn't lose anything important in this process. i lost my hundreds of open tabs. reading i'd put aside. bands to check out. that's an annoyance and not a catastrophe. i don't like it, but i'll survive.
i have a lot of catching up to do, though. just an excuse to listen to some music...
it's just still not whirring or clicking or anything. it just doesn't add up.
i may be on borrowed time. the bios hard drive test is still faulting. but the windows tools disagree. i dunno. i'm hesitant to take the bios tests completely seriously. i mean, here i am. i want to believe it was just the mbr that got corrupted and i fucked up the recovery through impatience. so, the bios is finding a few bad sectors. meh. i'm surprised it's not redirecting me to the company's website, because that's what it's probably about.
regardless, what i really wanted was to get some data off and it's on the way off. now, whatever happens happens.
...but why is windows so stupid? i should have just downloaded imgburn. instead, i'm stuck waiting for it to copy 200,000 files to a temporary directory or something. why does it need to copy to a temporary directory to burn a fucking dvd?
...and, while i'm at it, why won't it let me copy jpgs to my mp3 player? because it's an mp3 player? fucking derp. it's not even an ipod, it's a sansa. i was trying specifically to avoid stupid fucking apple bullshit.
xp forever, baby. if i ever actually buy another laptop, it's coming with xp on it. this windows-trying-to-be-osx shit is revolting to me. alas, the bios on this thing will not allow xp on it. *sigh*.
i didn't lose anything important in this process. i lost my hundreds of open tabs. reading i'd put aside. bands to check out. that's an annoyance and not a catastrophe. i don't like it, but i'll survive.
i have a lot of catching up to do, though. just an excuse to listen to some music...
it's just still not whirring or clicking or anything. it just doesn't add up.
yeah. no, it's cooked. i guess it got wiped with the file table. grargh. oh well..
it's back up, though. installing drivers, should be back online soon. oddly, though, i'm going to need to keep using this old laptop to upload files to bandcamp until i can get another usb key....which shouldn't be too long...early february....
it's back up, though. installing drivers, should be back online soon. oddly, though, i'm going to need to keep using this old laptop to upload files to bandcamp until i can get another usb key....which shouldn't be too long...early february....
well, the data drive is now mounting after a
chkdsk. thankfully. the data is there and completely safe. i'm going to
need to back a few things up more carefully. i should have done that
some time ago, really. but windows 7 doesn't like my external hds
(there's no reason for this, btw, it seems like a corporate side deal -
the drive works perfectly fine in xp and even vista). so i'll have to
wait until it gets back up.
the os drive got wiped in the attempted reinstall. i should have known that was going to happen. i did vista support. they taught us that. but note that xp wouldn't have wiped the drive like that, and i'm still in an xp world. i still have xp running on all my pcs and would honestly install it on the laptops if the bios would allow it (that's some fucking proprietary bullshit, but you take what you get with free laptops). there are reasons they switched to an image-based install, and some of them make good sense, but they should have retained the functionality of a straight-over reinstall. this is why windows users fucking hate macs. give me back my user control! let me install what i want! how i want! and, ultimately, the start-up utility failed, guys. you'll point to that as a reason to move to image-based installs without losing the benefit of a copy over reinstall, but it didn't work. i would have been nice to not lose the entire partition.
but i'll blame myself. i was being impatient, and impulsive. i should have known that was going to happen...
regardless, it wiped the partition table, so i had no option but to reformat it. and the chkdsk is running quickly through the "empty" drive. meaning my initial intuition of a fucked file system (rather than a fucked drive) seems to have been correct.
if i'm lucky, i might be able to salvage the open tabs by running restoration programs. formats don't delete data. it might still be accessible. and that's actually all i've lost. it's substantial, though: hundreds of tabs. articles. records. more than that, just flat out ordered tasks. everything else is on the data drive. now, how to get a fresh install of firefox to load that information is another question, and is going to be an experiment. i don't know the answer to this. i know the information is stored somewhere on the drive rather than solely in ram, but how to salvage it i don't know. let's hope i can get it at all to start off with....
overall, though, it's more of an annoyance than a catastrophe. lucky. i still don't know how it happened. i'm starting to suspect a power surge, though. i didn't think anything of it at the time, but i had just popped an sd card into the machine when it fizzed out on me. could the static have shorted it?
the os drive got wiped in the attempted reinstall. i should have known that was going to happen. i did vista support. they taught us that. but note that xp wouldn't have wiped the drive like that, and i'm still in an xp world. i still have xp running on all my pcs and would honestly install it on the laptops if the bios would allow it (that's some fucking proprietary bullshit, but you take what you get with free laptops). there are reasons they switched to an image-based install, and some of them make good sense, but they should have retained the functionality of a straight-over reinstall. this is why windows users fucking hate macs. give me back my user control! let me install what i want! how i want! and, ultimately, the start-up utility failed, guys. you'll point to that as a reason to move to image-based installs without losing the benefit of a copy over reinstall, but it didn't work. i would have been nice to not lose the entire partition.
but i'll blame myself. i was being impatient, and impulsive. i should have known that was going to happen...
regardless, it wiped the partition table, so i had no option but to reformat it. and the chkdsk is running quickly through the "empty" drive. meaning my initial intuition of a fucked file system (rather than a fucked drive) seems to have been correct.
if i'm lucky, i might be able to salvage the open tabs by running restoration programs. formats don't delete data. it might still be accessible. and that's actually all i've lost. it's substantial, though: hundreds of tabs. articles. records. more than that, just flat out ordered tasks. everything else is on the data drive. now, how to get a fresh install of firefox to load that information is another question, and is going to be an experiment. i don't know the answer to this. i know the information is stored somewhere on the drive rather than solely in ram, but how to salvage it i don't know. let's hope i can get it at all to start off with....
overall, though, it's more of an annoyance than a catastrophe. lucky. i still don't know how it happened. i'm starting to suspect a power surge, though. i didn't think anything of it at the time, but i had just popped an sd card into the machine when it fizzed out on me. could the static have shorted it?
i
was starting to suspect funny wiring in this room and may be right -
when i switched outlets, the chkdsk completed very quickly on my data
drive and it seems like it's actually ok. why it won't mount is another
question, but i'm starting to think it might be a windows "security"
thing. have to see if i can load it with a linux live disc....
this is the only outlet in the apartment that's not on a surge protector. i'm not giving up yet, though...
i'm getting the impression i may be able to do a sort of blind copy. i mean, i can't read the partition, but i can read that there's data on the partition. if i can read that there's data, there has to be a way to read the data.
this is the only outlet in the apartment that's not on a surge protector. i'm not giving up yet, though...
i'm getting the impression i may be able to do a sort of blind copy. i mean, i can't read the partition, but i can read that there's data on the partition. if i can read that there's data, there has to be a way to read the data.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)