Something on my main computer is failing. The operating system, the hard drive, or possibly both. Ironic that this would happen less than twenty-four hours after I posted an excerpt (see the post below) dealing with a similar issue.

First my hard drive started making ominous clicking noises, then my system rebooted on me spontaneously … until it decided it couldn’t load WinXP anymore. I’ve run WinXP’s repair procedure, which (while somewhat harrowing) seems to have worked. The fact that the hard drive is no longer clicking would lead me to (hopefully) believe that this is (hopefully) a software issue.

I’ve backed up crucial files and plan on spending most of the morning looking for anything I may have misplaced but would want to save—mostly any “hidden” pictures of my cat, Fritz, who died in April (I still miss him so intensely that the thought of losing even one blurry, stupid picture of him is just about unbearable). That I haven’t learned better habits in backing up important files is embarrassing. I’m grateful for the reminder (thanks, universe). I’ll be sketching out sane backup procedures all morning, too (and taking suggestions). It’s a little amazing how complex my personal data storage has gotten. All this music, all these books …

Though my system seems solid at the moment, I’m not sure how reliable it’s going to be over the next few days. It might be wise to CC all email to kriskane (at) gmail (dot) com for the next week or so. I owe a few of you email, and planned to call everyone I have numbers for (I’m trying to get better about that). If you really need to get in touch, feel free to email me for IM screen names, my cell number, whatever, at that gmail address (I will have access to a working computer pretty much all the time).

Sam, if you’re reading this: Happy Veterans’ Day, and thanks.