Seagates are Tough Little Buggers

Today I’m .advertising Seagate’s FreeAgent external hard drives. Why? Because the manufacturer isn’t kidding when they say it’s built to last!

I got up this morning, laptop and external in my arms, and scurried down the stairs only to find that my brother had neglected to unlock the door at the bottom before he left for school. It’s one of those locks that is basically like a latch. I can’t remember the exact name for them, but the purpose of them isn’t security. It’s a little metal latch that fits into a little metal ring, thus preventing the cats from opening doors they shouldn’t.

Anyway, I was in a rush because I had to start on Duke’s medication and physical therapy, so I quickly shuffled back up the stairs to find a piece of notebook paper I could use to the unlock the door. On my way back, I took the first step down and the external slipped out from under my burdened arms!

I could feel the blood leaving my face, running cold and turning me pale. The little box was bouncing on its corners, down every step, and not stopping. I could hear bits of plastic breaking as it turned the corner and my heart just about stopped. I’m sure that even non-computer geeks can understand that feeling, as it’s about the equivalent of realizing you just dropped your infant kid down the stairs.

When that horrible noise stopped, I slowly began my descent, wondering what I would find at the bottom. I found the external hard drive sitting at the very bottom of the stairs, one corner busted off and its wires exposed. The first thing I did was, naturally, pick it up and shake it, hearing a faint rattle inside, presumably a piece of the corner. The top and bottom pieces of the outer shell had popped off. The top managed to go back on easily, despite a corner missing, but I still haven’t gotten the bottom on nicely.

I thought to myself, “Well, it’s gone. How much data did I have on here? What can be replaced? What is going to send me into a prolonged grieving period?”

I unlocked the door and mournfully set the computer up, not expecting the little hard drive to even kick on. I plugged both the laptop and external hard drive in and booted it up. Sure enough, I could hear the drive making its normal sounds and the lights came on. I breathed a sigh of relief that perhaps it could be repaired, although I didn’t expect it to load any files.

It takes my laptop an interminable amount of time to boot up, probably because of all the junk I have on it, so during this time I managed to take care of Duke and come back out for a look. Seeing as how it had loaded, I went into My Computer and found the FreeAgent icon happily waiting there. I held my breath and double-clicked the icon, wanting to look away as my cursor became a little hourglass. However, within seconds I was looking at all my folders on the external, not believing that it was actually working. I went into a folder to play a video clip, figuring that if it could load that, it could load any picture or word document on there, and it played. The sound seemed to fade out a bit every now and then, but it was great.

So, I got to work on burning a DVD for my negligent brother. I wasn’t about to lend him my DVD, as that would be the equivalent of kissing it goodbye, but the whole thing burned and works!

So, buy Seagate! I don’t know how long my little external will last, but it survived the initial falling down the stairs episode. I didn’t expect it to! Now, if only I knew where to send it for repairs…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I actually left my hometown for a shopping trip, aren't you proud? Shopping trips for me usually involve clicking over to Amazon.com or Ebay, but this time I actually drove into a city. Anyway, I waltzed on into a book store hoping to find Atlast Shrugged, but my bookstore is pretty stinky, and they didn't have it. I also went on a quest to find some C++ books, not the "For Dummies" stuff, but an actual book to help replace the one my kitty shredded. No such luck there, either. For some reason, bookstores in my area completely lack anything interesting, save for a book I once picked up called "Weird Minnesota", which I will review later, and a quirky book I found on this trip, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. This is the book, same plot and all, with zombie goodness in it.

First of all, I am not a Jane Austen fan, so I didn't go into this book as a purist. I went in thinking, "Cool! Someone's actually attempting to liven this dreary book up!" So sue me, but I have better things to read about than a bunch of women speculating their prospective suitors, such as reading a novel about dragons and wizards, a book explaining how our lack of free markets and the Federal Reserve have crashed our fiat currency, or even a book about a crazy sailor whose goal is to exact his revenge upon a certain unique whale.

So, how did I like this book? It was certainly interesting. 80% of the book is Jane Austen's original text, sprinkled with touches of zombies and talk of a warrior's pride, while the rest of ultra-gruesome zombie action. How gruesome, you ask? I'll just give you a heads up before I continue, so look away now if you don't wish to know.

First of all, the decaying zombies are often times described in vivid detail. Even the most squeamish person around can probably stand this, but it also describes in vivid detail how they come upon their victims and proceed to eat them alive.

Elizabeth also has a penchant for beheading the creatures, and she also strangles a man with his own entrails and bites into a fresh heart. Not very ladylike, eh?

There's also one character who gets infected with the zombie virus (I didn't know that could happen until after you're dead, but whatever), and slowly turns into one. This is supposed to be comical, and it is, with a hint of tragedy, but it can also be pretty darned gross at times.

So, now that that's out of the way, and if you're still interested, I bet you want to know if the additional stuff actually works. I'm pleased to say that it does, for the most part.

The English countryside is occupied by zombies, or, as this book often refers to them, unmentionables. Being trained in combat is a must if you hope to survive, so the Benett sisters are sent to China to learn the ways of the Shaolin. Of course, there's the normal marriage prospects, etc., but this is all sprinkled with the fact that zombies are running around lose, and no one knows how to stop them!

It's very easy to suspend disbelief and acknowledge that by "occupation" they mean "zombie invasion" and not a military reference. However, I must admit that I had a harder time swallowing the whole ninja sideplot. In a day and age when the Western world largely looked down upon the Oriental, the idea of sending away women to learn karate and martial arts is a bit of a stretch. The whole Japanese pagoda thing was a little off-beat, too, but this book doesn't even try to take itself seriously, so just go with it and laugh.

Some of the book's highlights include a better explanation as to why Charlotte decided to marry Mr. Collins at all, a much colder, stronger Elizabeth, and lots of zombies. With any luck a movie will grace the silver screen soon, but first we have to finish with Pride and Predator, which is said novel with aliens instead of zombies.