Computer Woes and Foes

Finally had to give up and reinstall Snow Leopard on the old iMac. (Too old for any of the newer versions of OS X.)

Something got corrupted a few months back, and running Disc Utility wouldn't fix it. Main problem was it wouldn't remember settings like network passwords, even when I told it to. Had to tell iTunes I loved it dearly, with passwords, every time I wanted to open it. (Though once I was in I didn't have to reauthorize it, fortunately.)

Last night it went completely kaflooey. Kept telling me every folder was write protected, even after I manually made them writable.

Tried Disc Utility, but after hours of running it was still saying it needed nine hours to complete (same as at the start, even though I could see it was making progress). I thought about letting it run, but finally shut it down. This morning the iMac wouldn't boot from the HD, so I booted it from the DVD and reinstalled. Now going through updates.

Dig a Little Deeper in the Well, Boys...

Excerpt from a fantasy novel in progress. Teachers and students are on a field trip, telling campfire stories:


"There are things under the ground," said Llewellyn, his deep voice deceptively calm, "though not as many as in the folk tales, nor as easy to reach. Still, there are creatures and forces which may be disturbed by deep digging in the right areas. Some will even be attracted by digging, and meet the digger halfway."

"That's enough to give me nightmares, right there," said Theal, with a wince.

"I know of a well, long abandoned and of unknown provenance, where if you listen in a quiet moment you may hear breathing," said the healer, with an impish smile.

"Thank you very much for that information," said Theal, now shivering.