Deb Talan « The False Ducks Blahg

Posts Tagged ‘Deb Talan’

SAY IT AIN’T SO…NO MORE WEEPIES

Tuesday, February 1st, 2022

I guess the correct title for this blahg should be: “SAY IT AIN’T SO…NO MORE THE WEEPIES.” Earlier in this month I posted my 2022 False Ducks Video Ramble, THE 2022 FALSE DUCKS VIDEO RAMBLE, in which I mentioned that Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, known collectively as The Weepies, have split up. I hadn’t heard any news of the duo throughout 2021 so I checked their Facebook page earlier this month and read the following post:

The Weepies final shows EVER are coming up in January 2022!

It’s been a time of big change all around for sure. Before the pandemic we realized we had to go our separate ways. We are both so grateful for the time we spent making music, putting it out into the world, and sharing it with all of you. It was magical, and we’re both forever changed and enriched by that time. As we move on to other creative projects we hope that you, like us, will treasure the era when we made music as The Weepies.

Thank you for the support through the years. We’ll see you in the days ahead.

All the best to all of you.

Deb & Steve

What a punch to the gut! I checked out their Wikipedia entry and found that the following last line had been added:

Talan and Tannen got married in 2007 and had their first son in October that year.They went on to have two more sons later. They later divorced, which was finalized on New Year’s Day 2020

Again, what a punch to the gut. Readers of this blahg will know that I’m a huge fan of The Weepies and had seen them twice in concert in Toronto. I wish them the best but I’m still deeply saddened by this news.

I guess the biggest thing for me, besides the fact that there won’t be any more new The Weepies albums, is that I won’t get to see Steve and Deb live together again. Perhaps they’ll tour Canada again separately and I’ll probably go to their individual concerts but I’ll never see The Weepies live again. I saw them twice in Toronto back in 2016 and 2018. Here is a picture when they played The Drake in 2016:

I wanted to take some video of the concert but I couldn’t shut off the bright light on my cell phone. I decided to record part of the concert from my pocket but I only managed to record part of the song “Jolene” sung by Steve and part of his next song about a Jig. Here they are:

I did manage to find the following video online that someone posted from that concert in Toronto. This is The Weepies performing “Ever Said Goodbye”:

I wish had recorded more and especially some of Deb Talan’s great vocals. She sang a couple of songs from her yet to be released CD “Lucky Girl” when she was in Toronto but I could only find the following video of one of those new songs, “Butterfly”, from her Detroit, Ohio concert two nights prior to the Toronto concert.

Here they are The Great Hall in 2018:

I did record the entire audio of the recording and I thought I would post the entire concert here for download. Here the link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/o18w68858tn7zva/The_Weepies_-_2018-04-17_The_Great_Hall%252C_Toronto%252C_ON.rar/file

Here are a few individual samples. First up here is “Hideaway”:

Next is Steve’s great version of “Sing Me To Sleep”:

Deb Talan closed the show with the following stirring version of “Stars”:

I thought I would take the time to post some of their other live performances. YouTube has many excellent videos of The Weepies in live performances so I thought I’d re-post some of them here so you can get a feeling of what we’ll all be missing out on now that they’ve separated. First up is a rare slow tempo version of their song “Be My Thrill.” This was previously done uptempo so I’ll offer up the official music video of that song followed by the slow tempo version. The slow live version is from their appearance at the Oregon Zoo on August 20th, 2011.

Also from 2011 is The Weepies performing “Gotta Have You” from their album “Say I Am You” at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA on August 17, 2011:

Staying with 2011 here are The Weepies (Deb Talan, Steve Tannen, Jon Flaugher) performing “I Was Made for Sunny Days” on a beautiful summer evening at the Britt Festival, Southern Oregon – August 23, 2011. I love “I Was Made for Sunny Days” and find myself singing this infectious song:

The Weepies went back again to the Troubador in West Hollywood, CA on August 14th, 2016 and here’s “The World Spins Madly On” from that concert:

Here is a compilation video of The Weepies at the Kirkland Performance Center in Kirkland, Washington on May 17, 2018. It features the songs “Hideaway”, “Walk On”, “Crooked Smile”, “I Don’t Know Why”, “Old Coyote”, “My Little Love”, “Wish I Could Forget”, and “Sing Me To Sleep”:

Here’s another compilation video from 2018 when The Weepies appeared at Sony Hall on December 16, 2018. This compilation features clips from the songs “Walk On”, “Growing Up”, “Little Bird”, “All That I Want”, “Gotta Have You”, and “Sirens”:

Jumping back to 2015, this is a full version of “Sirens” from their last album performed live at the State Theater, Falls Church, Virginia on June 21st, 2015:

Another one from 2016, this time it’s a full version of “All That I Want” from their performance at The Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA on December 11, 2016:

The following is not a live performance but the official video of “Sunflower” incorporates video of a live performance by The Weepies at an unknown venue:

I wanted to post a couple of videos that I never got to hear The Weepies perform live but are fantastic songs and something rare and unique from them. The first is “Mend” from the soundtrack of the movie, “Wish I Was Here”:

The second is from a compilation album of Springsteen’s Born To Run album recreated on ukulele by various artists. I love Steve’s vocal here on “Backstreets”:

I am sure there are more live videos out there to be discovered. I’ll keep on looking. Farewell The Weepies. I wish Steve and Deb the best. Thanks for all of the music!!

Tags:Deb Talan, False Ducks, Scott Henderson, Scott Henderson. False Ducks, Steve Tannen, The Weepies
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STILL THINKING FOR MYSELF

Tuesday, August 10th, 2021

Scott - May 18, 2021 Recently I had to do a computer repair for my friend Bryan and it got me thinking about a blahg I wrote in 2012 when I had to do my own computer repair and was given some bad advice from a computer salesperson. Needless to say, I didn’t take the salesperson’s advice and figured out for myself the repair, which he said couldn’t be done, and I was successful and got a blahg out of it. The original blahg was ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF. It was a blahg not only about the computer repair but celebrating the fact that I had turned 50 and that I could still think for myself with positive results. Next month, I will turn 59 and I’m still thinking for myself but my body has other ideas of it’s own when it comes to pain and arthritis. Too early to write about that stuff here.

Before I get too far off topic, or into the topic, let me talk about the repair I did on Bryan’s laptop. First, his laptop is a brick. It’s a few years old and large and heavy and running Windows 10. After a recent Windows update it would no longer load into Windows. Bryan just kept getting the spinning blue wheel of death. I know, I know, the image to the left is not a spinning blue wheel but it belongs to death so who am I to argue. Bryan got the spinning blue wheel of death and his laptop would no longer load into Windows. He asked for my help. In the past, when he had the same error he was able to fix it himself so I knew that this time would be a bit of a challenge.

I took his laptop home and tried to load it up but I too got the spinning blue wheel. I left it alone and eventually an error message similar to the one below was displayed:

That gave me a reference point to try and begin to fix the problem. By the way, clicking OK or CANCEL did nothing and the same error eventually came up again. Searching for different answers suggested trying to do a System Repair or a System Restore. Of course if you can’t load into Windows then how do you get to these options. There is another way.

What Windows doesn’t tell you is that getting into these extra options or even a Safe Mode of Windows is not like it used to be. I remember with Windows XP and I believe Windows 7 all you needed to do was tap F4, F8, or some Fn’ key (get the play on words) and you would get some other options to boot your computer. Pressing any of those keys didn’t help. What I found was you had to power on the laptop then turn it off once it started to load into Windows. Do this two times and on the third reboot, the Advanced Options loads. Choose “Troubleshoot” then “Reset This PC” if you want to Reset PC without repairing or choose “Advanced Options” after “Troubleshoot” to get to “System Restore” or “Startup Repair”. Unfortunately neither “System Restore” or “Startup Repair” worked for me.

It was at this point that some websites were suggesting getting into Safe Mode to try some other options. So getting into Safe Mode is another set of instructions I had to research. So, when you get into “Advanced Options” you have to choose “Startup Settings”, Windows 10 then will say that you can restart your device to change advanced boot options, including enable Safe Mode. Press Restart. After Windows 10 restarts one more time, you get a screen that lets you choose boot options. Select 4 or F4 to start in Safe Mode. Once I had Safe Mode, I was able to look at all of the options that other websites were suggesting.

The LogonUI.exe error message was very specific and some technical support sites were suggesting that I could rename the LogonUI.exe file to LogonUI.old and then copy a fresh version from a different directory and paste it into the Windows/System folder. You can research that for yourself but I’ll tell you right away that you can’t do any of that from Safe Mode. The suggestions tell you to enter Command Prompt in Safe Mode but these system files such as LogonUI.exe are protected. I couldn’t even run a “chkdsk” (this is actually CheckDisk that verifies the logical integrity of the file system) because it too won’t run in Safe Mode.

In my previous blahg, ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF, I talked about a disk called a Hirens Boot CD. It allows you to run a mini-version of Windows XP from the disk. I still had that Hirens CD from 2012 and I was able to boot into the mini version of Windows XP and rename the LogonUI.exe and copy a fresh version over from a different folder and put it in the Windows/System folder. Unfornately that didn’t change a thing. I still would get the LogonUI.exe error when I tried to boot into Windows 10. I even tried “chkdsk” while in the mini version of XP but that wouldn’t work either. It was at this point that I put the laptop away for the night.

I thought about the problem the next day and all of the suggestions I had tried and that failed. I had emailed Bryan and he told me not to bother further and he was just going to remove everything and reinstall Windows 10 fresh. I didn’t want to give up that easily. It meant that I had to accept defeat and, like 2012, I wasn’t prepared to throw in the towel. It was a battle of wits against the computer with the computer taunting me and me wondering what it would take to get this computer working properly again.

The solution to the problem was easier than I thought. I had eliminated all of the things that didn’t work and it was a matter of finding a method that would work. I was sure that running “chkdsk” was the answer because usually “chkdsk” would find errors and repair them. The problem was finding a way to get “chkdsk” to run in Safe Mode. The quick answer is you can’t do that. The error I was getting when trying to run “chkdsk” in Safe Mode was:

“A function call was made when the object was in an incorrect state for that function. A snapshot error occurred while scanning this drive. Run an offline fix.”

By researching the “run an offline fix” phrase, I easily found a solution on the following website: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/safe-mode-chkdskscan-wont-work/96e79025-ec52-448b-91f8-3fd4bc113313.

Before you begin reading all the posts on that Forum, let me just draw your attention to a post by a user by the name of “Jason Dale” dated July 2, 2017. His reply was almost four years after the Forum was created with the problem of trying to run “chkdsk” in Safe Mode. Here’s what he posted:

The /scan option might not be available in safe mode. Use chkdsk /f c: if a virtual disk (VM) or chkdsk /r c: if physical (if you don’t know, it’s probably physical). /r implies /f – /f fixes file system issues, /r repairs sectors.

I know this is 4 years old but all these BS answers are frustrating.

Focus on the direction to go into a Command Prompt in Safe Mode and type “chkdsk /f c:” (without the quotes). The problem is that your system is using C:, and “chkdsk” can’t repair things that are in use. You will get a message that looks like this:

Answer Y for Yes and then reboot your system. CHKDSK will run before Windows starts so it can repair the drive before Windows starts using it. That’s what I did. Bryan’s laptop restarted and started to run “chkdsk”. It was going to take some time so I walked away and watched television for an hour. When I walked past the laptop, I tapped a key to wake it up and was very surprised to find that it had booted into regular Windows 10. I shut it down and restarted it and it booted into Windows 10 again. Success!

So what did I learn from this? First, never give up, never surrender. That’s a reference to a line from the movie “Galaxy Quest” in case you were wondering. Second, stop overthinking. All of the suggestions I tried were other people’s suggestions and were sending me down the wrong rabbit hole. Third, think for yourself. When I started thinking about “chkdsk” and believing it was the key then all I had to do was find the way to run it. Then user “Jason Dale” may have offered me the right solution but I was the one who found it after placing my faith in the notion that there had to be a way run “chkdsk” outside of Safe Mode. Think For Yourself. I said 9 years ago and it’s still working for me today.

When I went back and re-read ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF, I discovered something else that I was recommending in that blahg besides thinking for yourself. I talked about a singer I had discovered by watching the television series ‘Stargate Universe.’ I wrote that “one of the great talents I have discovered from watching Stargate Universe is the singer, Deb Talan. In one episode, they used Deb Talan’s song ‘Comfort’… If you research Deb Talan you will learn she is a member of the group “The Weepies”. I didn’t know that and I don’t know who they are but I’ve listened to a few of their tracks and I enjoy them… As always, if you like a singer, especially an independent artist who doesn’t get the airtime like some of those others who should go back to street singing, in my humble opinion, then go out and buy their CDs or attend their concerts…I don’t know if she’s going to come to Canada anytime soon but if she does, you can bet I’ll be there.” Nine years later and I’m still listening to Deb Talan and I’m still listening to The Weepies. In that time, they have released the album “Sirens” and Deb released her solo CD “Lucky Girl.” They’ve also performed in Toronto twice and you can bet I was there.

On the album “Sirens” The Weepies did a cover of Tom Petty’s “Learnin’ To Fly.” I was skeptical when I heard they were doing a version but I think it works for them, the way they did it. Check it out:

It’s funny that Deb Talan would revisit the flying motif on her album “Lucky Girl.” Give a listen to “Losing My Fear Of Flying”:

I could go on an on about Deb Talan, Steven Tannen, and The Weepies but you need to think for yourself and see if they’re for you. Here’s another track to try and convince you. This is their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Back Streets” from the CD “Born To Uke.” This time Steve’s taking lead vocal:

The Weepies only did the one song for “Born To Uke” but if you like it, maybe you’ll like the entire CD. Check it out…or don’t. Think For Yourself. Never stop.

Tags:chkdsk, Deb Talan, Safe Mode, Scott Henderson, Scott Henderson. False Ducks, Steve Tannen, The Weepies, Windows 10
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I’M PULLING FOR YOU DEB TALAN

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

Well, I did it. I broke my rule about social media and visited one of Scott Henderson still thinks he's cool! those websites that I revile. If you know anything about me, and I hope you do after reading my blahgs, then you will know that I prefer anti-social media. That means I’m on nothing other than my blahg. My daughter Abbie is the same way and we constantly joke about “Twitter is for twits” and “if you want to find me, I’m in the phone book…not on Facebook.” I know someone else has probably made those jokes before but I’m sure I originated them. Moving on, I visited Facebook.

The Weepies, Deb & Steve

Before you start condemning me or lauding me, depending on your social media viewpoint, let me explain. You should know from past blahgs that I’m a fan of The Weepies and the work of that musical group and their husband and wife team Steve Tannen & Deb Talan. I’ve posted a few songs here and how moved I am by Deb Talan’s voice. “Be My Thrill” was their last album back in 2010 and I try to check and see if there is anything new from them. I constantly check out www.theweepies.com for information but there hasn’t been any news updates for them in a while. So, last week I decided to search the internet for news related to The Weepies or Steve or Deb. Boy did I get a shock. I found a news story that stated that, back in December, Deb Talan had announced she had been diagnosed with stage 2 Breast Cancer. Insert shock or mouth wide open picture or very sad face.

From past blahgs, other than those that mention Deb or The Weepies, you will know that I lost my friend Roni Summer Wickens last year to breast cancer and learned that an old acquaintance, Sherry Cornwall, also lost her fight to a rare form of cancer. I didn’t want to post too late here my admiration of Deb Talan and begin offering up my hopes and prayers that she’ll beat her cancer. The news article that I read about Deb’s announcement also linked to The Weepies Facebook page. There, I learned more about Deb’s brave struggle and saw some updated photos of her going through her chemotherapy. On the Facebook page there was also a mailing address where you could “send Deb a love note or care package or a few words of encouragement via snail mail.” I’m quoting that last part from their Facebook page. Of course, I wanted to send Deb a letter. I wanted her to know how much her music means to me but more importantly that I’m pulling for her. Here’s the text of the letter I wrote:

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Dear Deb,

I hope this letter finds you in good spirits and better health. It was with great shock last night that I read online that you were undergoing chemotherapy for stage 2 breast cancer. I frequently check out www.theweepies.com looking for news of The Weepies but had not read any updates on there recently. Yesterday, I decided to google any news of you or Steve and I found an article dated before Christmas about your cancer diagnosis. I do not participate in social media sites like Face Book so I did not know there had been postings there about your diagnosis and your ongoing struggles with chemotherapy. I broke my rule about visiting Face Book and read some of the postings and viewed some of the pictures. My hopes are that you will persevere and you will beat your cancer. I did not sleep well last night thinking about you and Steve and what you must be going through; you especially. So, that’s why I’ve decided to write you this letter.

I am sure you have received letters from other fans and well-wishers but for me, this is a first. I’ll be 52 this year and I live in Demorestville, Ontario, Canada…about two and half hours east of Toronto. If you ask anyone, they will tell you I have very eclectic tastes in music. I don’t listen to the radio much because it’s all top 40 around here from artists who might have some talent but their music is over-produced and their songs have no meaning. On my Ipod I have a strange range of music from Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Judy Garland, Blossom Dearie, some Dixieland bands and the odd rock tune from John Mellencamp or Billy Joel and of course every Weepies song I could find. I grew up on Billy Joel and when he stopped recording that was the time I stopped listening to conventional radio. Luckily, Billy Joel performed in Toronto last month and I took my three children to see him. I had not seen him perform in more than 20 years. Let me tell you, I’d drive twice that far to go see The Weepies and I hope that will happen someday.

So how did a guy like me, with such varied tastes, become a fan of The Weepies? It started with Stargate. You are no doubt aware of the movie that spawned three great television series. I particularly enjoyed Stargate Universe and during one episode, heard you on the soundtrack performing “Comfort.” I enjoyed the song so much that I just had to research you more. Thus my fascination with The Weepies began. No local stores around here carry your CDs so I’ve either had to order them online or download from Itunes. I began gathering all of your music and the music of The Weepies that I can find. I even enjoy listening to “Gravity” and “Navigation” from PBS Kids when they randomly get played on my Ipod. Sometimes it amazes me when one of your songs is played on television or in public. I frequent a thrift store called “Value Village” in Belleville (25 minutes from my home) and they have piped in music. One day, I was surprised to hear “I Was Made For Sunny Days” coming over the store’s speakers. I remember saying, “Hey it’s The Weepies” out loud and getting looks from other shoppers. The looks and stares continued when I began to sing along with the song. Recently, I heard “Big Strong Girl” played at the end of a “Psych” television episode and I said aloud, again, “Hey, that’s Deb Talan.” I like those moments. I sang along during that song, too.

What is it about your songs that I enjoy? First, you can understand the lyrics and the lyrics have meaning and connection. I guess it’s not that easy to describe but I’d rather listen to your songs than anything else played on the radio. I don’t want dance tunes or fluff but something that touches me or makes me want to sing along out loud and get stares. I keep a personal blog on my website www.falseducks.com and a few times I’ve posted about your music or linked to a video on YouTube of some of your performances. I’ve particularly enjoyed the slowed down ballad version of “Be My Thrill” that you’ve performed in concert. I have too many favorites to mention and I always find a particular song to suit my mood. Right now, I’m listening to “Same Changes” and next up it’ll be “Painting By Chagall.” Steve’s well represented as well, as I enjoy his vocals on “Dating A Porn Star” “Love Doesn’t Last Too Long”, and “Living in Twilight.” The “Be My Thrill” album was brilliant and I can’t wait to hear what comes next.

I just wanted to let you know how much your music means to me. I don’t know how many 50+ year old fans you have but believe me, you’ve got one here. I’m pulling for you Deb. I wish nothing but the best for you and Steve and your children. I know you’ll be back and my hope is that you’ll get up here to Canada. And if you do, you’re welcome to come out to my house in Demorestville. It’s rural and we have a great spot and the above ground pool will be open in a couple of months.

That phrase “The Music of Your Life” is so true, your music is the music of my life. You’re going to get through this and the music will keep on coming. I’m ready for it.

A Huge Fan,

Scott Henderson

I know I could probably have written a better letter but it says what I want it to say. I’m pulling for you Deb Talan. I really mean that. We lose so much in this world and it would be tragic to lose such a wonderful voice. I might have been a little forward in writing the letter because I really don’t know anything about Deb or Steve or The Weepies but it doesn’t make my admiration any less genuine. In fact, Deb sings a wonderful song called, appropriately, “Nobody Knows Me At All.” Give it a listen:

The lyrics are so true. Nobody knows me at all. If it wasn’t for this blahg, nobody would know about my musical tastes. I’m not ever sure how well I really know my musical tastes. This morning, I was reminded so much of what I wrote in that letter to Deb about understanding the lyrics and the lyrics having meaning and connection.

I have my Ipod on shuffle when I’m shaving and this morning a song by Fred Eaglesmith came into the rotation. The song was “Crashin’ & Burnin’ ” from his ‘Drive-In Movie’ CD. I highly recommend it because all of the songs are great and there’s a train theme running through many of the songs. Sorry about that running through pun. I know it was a bad pun but listen to the song, it’s very good:

That’s what I mean about songs having meaning. I still remember when I first heard Fred Eaglesmith. I used to listen to a radio comedy show on CBC radio (that’s the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) called “Madly Off In All Directions”. It’s usually a remote concert from some Canadian location hosted by Lorne Elliot. On this particular show, they had Fred Eaglesmith as one of the artists and he sang a very funny song called “How’s Ernie?” It’s a funny song about a guy reminiscing about his old girlfriend and the fact that he misses her father more than her. That started me on listening to Fred’s music. I’ve seen Fred Eaglesmith in concert a couple of times and the last time, at The Regent, in Picton, he performed “How’s Ernie?…much to my delight.

I like music that has lyrics that I can remember or sing out loud. If I had to think back to when it really all started then I’d have to say it began with my brother and Harry Chapin. My brother Tim had the Harry Chapin record, “Greatest Stories Live” and he played that record all the time until I was almost mad. I had to trade him for that record to get him to stop playing it. Fortunately, for me, the record began to grow on me and I eventually purchased every Chapin record I could find. Chapin’s songs were essentially stories set to music and you could understand the lyrics. As I’ve grown older, most of his songs take on more meaning for me. Here’s a particularly endearing song that reminds me so much of my daughters. It’s Harry Chapin’s “Tangled Up Puppet.”

There aren’t that many artists who can write great songs like that or even sing a song that will move you. Harry Chapin and Fred Eaglesmith are among my favorites in that category but now I add Deb Talan to that list. We lost Harry Chapin far too early and we just can’t lose Deb Talan. Her talent and her voice is so rare these days that we should all be pulling for Deb. Recently, as I mentioned in my letter to Deb, I heard her song “Big Strong Girl” played at the end of a ‘Psych’ television episode. It was so moving and I want to close with that song.

Deb Talan, you’re a big strong girl, you can get through this. We need you to get through this. I need you to get through this. I’m pulling for you Deb Talan.

Tags:Deb Talan, False Ducks, Fred Eaglesmith, Harry Chapin, Scott Henderson, The Weepies
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ADVICE FOR THE NEXT 50: THINK FOR YOURSELF.

Sunday, October 21st, 2012

Scott Henderson at 50 Well, my birthday came and went and now I’m starting in on the next fifty years. I don’t really feel like a 50 year old. I feel like two 25 year olds but my wife won’t let me have them. That’s a joke people. Laugh now. I actually do feel like two 25 year olds. They’re both in the same body. One is the fun loving not quite mature version and the other is the rational “it’s time to be a grown-up” person. It’s not easy trying to balance those two. The libido of the one is not tempered well by the other who is constantly asked by others to handle adult issues. I’m tired of having to deal with issues that concern my senior parents and having to be the watchful eye or counseling father to my own children. Somewhere in there, where both of those 25 year olds overlap is the small space where I get to be me. So is this blahg. As an aside, I’ve been using an old picture of myself for this blahg because I was having a good hair day that day. For today, and maybe today only, I’m going to use a current, as of this morning, picture of myself. You’ve been warned.

Last weekend I had a situation that challenged me both to act and to think. It was as if the two 25 year olds in me were being challenged. My computer started to have problems a week ago Friday and I had to enact some repairs. For some time, the video display on my monitor would go all yellow or blue and if I wiggled the cord in the back of the computer, everything would be fine for a time. I of course had ignored this for some time. Well, that day I decided maybe the video card wasn’t seated properly in the motherboard (that’s as technical as I’ll get) so I decided it was time to tackle this. I had built this computer myself four years ago from a bare bones kit. The kit consisted of a new case, motherboard, fan, CPU (processor), memory, and power source. I later added a larger hard-drive, new DVD player/recorder drive, video card, and sound card. It’s really not that hard once you learn the basics and with all the videos on the internet, you can learn to do just about anything. I don’t however suggest that new parents learn to change diapers from Youtube. Learn by trial and error. Get your hands messy.

I opened up my computer and removed and reseated the video card. I started up the computer and I had no more problems with wonky colour display. Unfortunately neither of my DVD drives would work properly and I had promised to burn some disks for somebody. So I opened up the case again and removed all cables connecting my drives and reattached them. That did the trick. Both of my drives worked fine for the rest of the day and the display gave me no further problems. Cut to Saturday. My computer will not load into Windows. It starts with the black bios screen that recognizes all my drives but stalls after that. Several restarts later, I realize that the several restarts are not doing the trick. I open up the computer again and check all connections and try again. Still no go. I start with the basics and disconnect all drives and try with just my one hard-drive connected. The computer starts fine and loads into Windows. This is fine but I need those DVD drives to work. I try adding one DVD drive along with the hard-drive. Now my computer won’t even load the Bios screen!

I could bore you here with the number of attempts I made and the various combinations of what I hooked up and what was not but I will just tell you that I stopped after an hour of getting a “no signal” message on my monitor and no apparent life in the computer. I decided to go out and cut grass. Three hours later, I tried it again. Nothing. I grab my laptop and research the Internet for possible solutions. Many sites suggest it might be the memory, the video card, the mother-board, the processor, or the power source. I don’t think it is the power source because my fan on the mother-board runs fine. I removed and reseated the memory, the video card, and the processor. Nothing changes. It’s now 7pm. I quit and we drive to Dairy Queen and have dinner. When we get there, all of their Interac machines are down. It’s cash only. Now I get it. It’s the revolt of all technology.

Several hours later, I’m lying in bed thinking out the problem. I can’t sleep and so I pull out my laptop and do some more research. It becomes apparent to me in the wee small hours that I’m going to have to replace the mother-board. This isn’t as simple as that may seem. A new mother-board requires a new processor and new memory. I’m also thinking it might require a new case, new power source, and possibly a new video card. I had almost ruled out the video card because the old mother-board had on-board video which meant I could use that if I didn’t have a faster video card. I wasn’t getting any display through the on-board video either so that’s what made me think it was the mother-board. The other hurdle was that the next day was Sunday and the only decent place that would be open to buy these components was Canada Computers in Kingston; an hour’s drive east.

After a few hours of sleep and a print-out of what was in my dead computer, I drive to Canada Computers. I explain to one of the technicians/sales persons there that I needed a new mother-board, processor, and memory but I might need other things as well. The sales person tells me she is not technically savvy enough to assist me and that Scott is the best person to assist me. I tell her my name is Scott and thank her for telling me I am the best person but I’m admitting I still need some help. She gestures to Scott at the back of the store. I knew that. That Scott assesses my situation and explains I don’t need a new case nor power source because those in my dead PC will work with the new components. It was a good thing that I had printed out the specs from my old system so he could look this up.

It is at this point that I think to ask him about connecting my old hard-drive with all of my installed programs and saved personal data. He tells me I can’t just hook up the hard-drive and expect it to work. There are all new drivers and a chip-set with the new mother-board and it won’t work with my old hard-drive. He tells me I have to hook up a different hard-drive with a Windows operating system and add my old hard-drive as a second drive. I will then have to back up everything onto the new hard-drive from the old hard-drive and then eventually reinstall every program I have. Either that or hook up my old hard-drive, wipe it completely, lose everything, reinstall Windows, and start from scratch. I feel sick.

On the long drive home my head is spinning. I don’t understand why I can’t just plug in my old hard-drive and expect it to work. If you own a bunch of DVD movies and your DVD player dies you can just get a new DVD player and it’ll recognize all your old DVDs. Isn’t it that simple? Then I remind myself, I own a Toshiba Blu-Ray player. Nothing has been that simple with the Toshiba. In a couple of other blahgs I have detailed how my previous Toshiba had problems and I ran into a nightmare with customer support at Toshiba to get it replaced. I thought everything had been settled when they upgraded me to a newer BDX2300. It too, has some issues. Some video formats will not play on it despite being able to be played on my normal DVD player. But the most frustrating of all is that it will fail to power off and I will have to unplug the power to the unit to shut it down. There goes Toshiba hijacking another of my blahgs! I’m done with Toshiba; back to the story at hand. I didn’t understand why connecting my old hard-drive with Windows 7 wouldn’t work.

Now we get to the crux of the matter and the part title of this blahg: THINK FOR YOURSELF. All the way home, I was sure that that other Scott was wrong and that this Scott was right. It was the battle of the Scotts this time as if it was the two 25 year olds inside me duking it out to see who knew better. Again I turned to my laptop and the Internet. Within a few minutes I had the answer I was looking for and this Scott was victorious. I promised I wouldn’t be too technical and I’ll stick to that. I’m just going to post the link here to a website that was invaluable: http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/microsoft-windows/windows-vista-and-windows-7-8/threads/281576/using-a-new-motherboard-with-windows-7-on-an-old-hard-drive. Half way down, is a post by a user by the name of “dcoetzee”. He suggested downloading a free program called Hirens to create a boot CD that will allow you to load up a mini-version of Windows to click hard-drive repair and it will fix all your problems. After installing all of the new components in my old case and hooking all connections I downloaded the Hirens Boot CD, which contains a program to burn it to CD, booted from this CD on my newly rebuilt PC and followed dcoetzee’s instructions. I removed the CD, loaded up my PC and it loaded right into Windows 7 and installed the new drivers for the mother-board. Those drivers that it couldn’t find were on the CD that came with my new motherboard. No fuss no muss. I didn’t lose anything and all my programs were installed and all my data was where it should be.

I don’t like to rub it in but I’m right and the Scott at Canada Computers is wrong. Think for yourself has always been a motto I’ve tried to live by. When I worked for Hewlett Packard and Time Warner Road Runner providing telephone technical support I applied that methodology almost daily. Sometimes I would come across a problem I could not resolve but was positive the scenario had an answer. I would abandon the employer directive to not go outside our support boundaries. I would scour through search engine results and forum postings to find a solution. Most often I was right and I would use this to provide resolution to the customer’s issue. One of my many work related trophies I would always qualify the support I was providing with the direction that it was being offered for information purposes only. Most customers followed the direction and fixed their issue. If I couldn’t resolve the issue on the call, I would go home and research the issue further so that the next time I encountered the problem, I would have a solution. I guess that’s why I won all those employee of the month trophies.

THINK FOR YOURSELF. That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to advice or suggestions but it’s all about making up your mind. Having said that, I’m going to give you a suggestion. I would have qualified what I’m going to provide as a good suggestion but I’m encouraging you to think for yourself. By the way, this will be a good suggestion.

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before but I am a fan of the Stargate franchise. Stargate started as a motion picture with Kurt Russell and was later picked up as a popular television series. The first of these shows was Stargate SG1, followed by the spin-off Stargate Atlantis, and then Stargate Universe. I have enjoyed all three of these shows and this past summer Abbie and I went to Chicago for a Stargate convention and got autographs for some of our favorite stars from Stargate Atlantis. Highly unrepresented at this convention was Stargate Universe. It only ran two seasons and was very much different than the other two shows. It was darker and it didn’t resonate with many fans. I however thought it was brilliant. One of the things I really enjoyed about the show was the soundtrack. There were some great songs used in the show and, although no official soundtrack has been released, I’ve been able to acquire many of the songs used in the different episodes.

One of the great talents I have discovered from watching Stargate Universe is the singer, Deb Talan. In one episode, they used Deb Talan’s song “Comfort”. Let me share that with you:

There was something about her voice that evoked something in me. There was a fragility in her singing and it was something different than the top 40 that you are subjected to on FM radio. Maybe she’s been played on FM radio but not in my area and certainly she’s not someone I had heard of before. I wanted more.

If you research Deb Talan you will learn she is a member of the group “The Weepies”. I didn’t know that and I don’t know who they are but I’ve listened to a few of their tracks and I enjoy them. Somewhere during your research you might find out about a concert Deb Talan gave at Finney Chapel, recorded on May 3, 2003 at the Fifth Annual Oberlin College Spring Folk Festival in Oberlin, Ohio. I’m not promoting the bootleg of this CD but if you want some fine acoustic playing and singing then find and listen to this concert. Here’s another sample of her singing at that venue a beautiful song she wrote called “My Mother Now”:

If that’s not enough then listen to a more upbeat song called “I Don’t Know Why”. She encourages the audience to sing along on the chorus.

As always, if you like a singer, especially an independent artist who doesn’t get the airtime like some of those others who should go back to street singing, in my humble opinion, then go out and buy their CDs or attend their concerts. Check out Deb Talan’s website for more information: http://www.debtalan.com/about.html. I don’t know if she’s going to come to Canada anytime soon but if she does, you can bet I’ll be there…both of me.

Tags:Deb Talan, Scott Henderson, Stargate, Toshiba, Windows 7
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