Am finally back

Sorry for the delay:  I'm finally back.


I was in Seattle for nearly all of December, visiting family.  Apologies to my friends over there:  due to our tight schedule, I made the decision that I'd be visiting only family, not friends.  I'll be back in Seattle in a few months for a fairly large family get-together, so I'll catch up with friends at that point.

Over the next few weeks I'll post some blog entries remedially.


Once I got to Seattle (in very early December), I discovered that I couldn't remember my gmail password -- so I couldn't access my e-mail account -- or my blog!  Thus, the big gap in blog entries.  The lesson learned is to not change my password the day before flying out on vacation -- or, if I do, to write it down and carry it with me.  And Google didn't believe my various attempts to restore my account while away -- so I had to wait until I got home.

Awkwardly, once I got back to Brisbane -- after being away for nearly a month -- I discovered that I had also forgotten my computer login.  Or rather:  I'm pretty sure I remembered the "log in after the screensaver kicks in" password, because I use that several times a day.  But I couldn't remember the "decrypt the hard drive" password that preceeds the other one, because I only use that once every day or so.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I did remember it -- but the computer didn't believe me.  Maybe I used to hit "shift" in a way that I don't remember.

For security reasons, I hadn't written the password down.  Hm.  That's gonna change...


So, after many, many failed attempts at unlocking my computer, I ended up having to wipe everything and re-install Mint Linux 17.  Took about an hour for the install, but another hour or two for me to re-install addtional bits of software (e.g. recording software).  So, not horrible.

Luckily I didn't lose any actual data (documents, photos, audio files), because I had done a full backup (but not a disk image; just all my personal files) before we went on vacation.  But it was still a bit of a nuisance.


But -- now I'm back! 

And I hadn't realized how... lost... I was without my computer.

So now -- over the next few weeks -- I get to empty the photos off my phone, write down a very long list of quotes, log the gifts I received for Christmas, and -- eventually! -- record a song I wrote about a really nice guy at work.


--GG