![\"Scott](\"http:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/images\/scottat50.jpg\")
Well, my birthday came and went and now I\u2019m starting in on the next fifty years.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>I don\u2019t really feel like a 50 year old.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>I feel like two 25 year olds but my wife won\u2019t let me have them.\u00a0 That\u2019s a joke people.\u00a0 Laugh now.\u00a0 I actually do feel like two 25 year olds.\u00a0 They\u2019re both in the same body.\u00a0 One is the fun loving not quite mature version and the other is the rational \u201cit\u2019s time to be a grown-up\u201d person.\u00a0 It\u2019s not easy trying to balance those two.\u00a0 The libido of the one is not tempered well by the other who is constantly asked by others to handle adult issues.\u00a0 I\u2019m 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.\u00a0 Somewhere in there, where both of those 25 year olds overlap is the small space where I get to be me.\u00a0 So is this blahg.\u00a0 As an aside, I\u2019ve been using an old picture of myself for this blahg because I was having a good hair day that day.\u00a0 For today, and maybe today only, I\u2019m going to use a current, as of this morning, picture of myself.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been warned.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last weekend I had a situation that challenged me both to act and to think.\u00a0 It was as if the two 25 year olds in me were being challenged.\u00a0 My computer started to have problems a week ago Friday and I had to enact some repairs.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I of course had ignored this for some time.\u00a0 Well, that day I decided maybe the video card wasn\u2019t seated properly in the motherboard (that\u2019s as technical as I\u2019ll get) so I decided it was time to tackle this.\u00a0 I had built this computer myself four years ago from a bare bones kit.\u00a0 The kit consisted of a new case, motherboard, fan, CPU (processor), memory, and power source.\u00a0 I later added a larger hard-drive, new DVD player\/recorder drive, video card, and sound card.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 I don\u2019t however suggest that new parents learn to change diapers from Youtube.\u00a0 Learn by trial and error.\u00a0 Get your hands messy. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I opened up my computer and removed and reseated the video card.\u00a0 I started up the computer and I had no more problems with wonky colour display.\u00a0 Unfortunately neither of my DVD drives would work properly and I had promised to burn some disks for somebody.\u00a0 So I opened up the case again and removed all cables connecting my drives and reattached them.\u00a0 That did the trick.\u00a0 Both of my drives worked fine for the rest of the day and the display gave me no further problems.\u00a0 Cut to Saturday.\u00a0 My computer will not load into Windows.\u00a0 It starts with the black bios screen that recognizes all my drives but stalls after that.\u00a0 Several restarts later, I realize that the several restarts are not doing the trick.\u00a0 I open up the computer again and check all connections and try again.\u00a0 Still no go.\u00a0 I start with the basics and disconnect all drives and try with just my one hard-drive connected.\u00a0 The computer starts fine and loads into Windows.\u00a0 This is fine but I need those DVD drives to work.\u00a0 I try adding one DVD drive along with the hard-drive.\u00a0 Now my computer won\u2019t even load the Bios screen!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0I will just tell you that I stopped after an hour of getting a \u201cno signal\u201d message on my monitor and no apparent life in the computer.\u00a0 I decided to go out and cut grass.\u00a0 Three hours later, I tried it again.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I grab my laptop and research the Internet for possible solutions.\u00a0 Many sites suggest it might be the memory, the video card, the mother-board, the processor, or the power source.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it is the power source because my fan on the mother-board runs fine.\u00a0 I removed and reseated the memory, the video card, and the processor.\u00a0 Nothing changes.\u00a0 It\u2019s now 7pm.\u00a0 I quit and we drive to Dairy Queen and have dinner.\u00a0 When we get there, all of their Interac machines are down.\u00a0 It\u2019s cash only.\u00a0 Now I get it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the revolt of all technology.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Several hours later, I\u2019m lying in bed thinking out the problem.\u00a0 I can\u2019t sleep and so I pull out my laptop and do some more research.\u00a0 It becomes apparent to me in the wee small hours that I\u2019m going to have to replace the mother-board.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t as simple as that may seem.\u00a0\u00a0 A new mother-board requires a new processor and new memory.\u00a0 I\u2019m also thinking it might require a new case, new power source, and possibly a new video card.\u00a0 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\u2019t have a faster video card.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t getting any display through the on-board video either so that\u2019s what made me think it was the mother-board.\u00a0 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\u2019s drive east.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After a few hours of sleep and a print-out of what was in my dead computer, I drive to Canada Computers.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The sales person tells me she is not technically savvy enough to assist me and that Scott is the best person to assist me.\u00a0 I tell her my name is Scott and thank her for telling me I am the best person but I\u2019m admitting I still need some help.\u00a0 She gestures to Scott at the back of the store.\u00a0 I knew that.\u00a0 That Scott assesses my situation and explains I don\u2019t need a new case nor power source because those in my dead PC will work with the new components.\u00a0 It was a good thing that I had printed out the specs from my old system so he could look this up.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He tells me I can\u2019t just hook up the hard-drive and expect it to work.\u00a0 There are all new drivers and a chip-set with the new mother-board and it won\u2019t work with my old hard-drive.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Either that or hook up my old hard-drive, wipe it completely, lose everything, reinstall Windows, and start from scratch.\u00a0 I feel sick.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the long drive home my head is spinning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand why I can\u2019t just plug in my old hard-drive and expect it to work.\u00a0 If you own a bunch of DVD movies and your DVD player dies you can just get a new DVD player and it\u2019ll recognize all your old DVDs.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it that simple?\u00a0 Then I remind myself, I own a Toshiba Blu-Ray player.\u00a0 Nothing has been that simple with the Toshiba.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I thought everything had been settled when they upgraded me to a newer BDX2300.\u00a0 It too, has some issues.\u00a0 Some video formats will not play on it despite being able to be played on my normal DVD player.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 There goes Toshiba hijacking another of my blahgs!\u00a0 I\u2019m done with Toshiba; back to the story at hand.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t understand why connecting my old hard-drive with Windows 7 wouldn\u2019t work.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now we get to the crux of the matter and the part title of this blahg:\u00a0 THINK FOR YOURSELF.\u00a0 All the way home, I was sure that that other Scott was wrong and that this Scott was right.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Again I turned to my laptop and the Internet.\u00a0 Within a few minutes I had the answer I was looking for and this Scott was victorious.\u00a0 I promised I wouldn\u2019t be too technical and I\u2019ll stick to that.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to post the link here to a website that was invaluable:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>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<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Half way down, is a post by a user by the name of \u201c<\/span><\/strong>dcoetzee\u201d.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t like to rub it in but I\u2019m right and the Scott at Canada Computers is wrong.\u00a0 Think for yourself has always been a motto I\u2019ve tried to live by.\u00a0 When I worked for Hewlett Packard and Time Warner Road Runner providing telephone technical support I applied that methodology almost daily.\u00a0 Sometimes I would come across a problem I could not resolve but was positive the scenario had an answer.\u00a0 I would abandon the employer directive to not go outside our support boundaries.\u00a0 I would scour through search engine results and forum postings to find a solution.\u00a0 Most often I was right and I would use this to provide resolution to the customer\u2019s issue.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 THINK FOR YOURSELF.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t listen to advice or suggestions but it’s all about making up your mind.\u00a0 Having said that, \u00a0I\u2019m going to give you a suggestion.\u00a0 I would have qualified what I\u2019m going to provide as a good suggestion but I\u2019m encouraging you to think for yourself.\u00a0 By the way, this will be a good suggestion.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I have mentioned this before but I am a fan of the Stargate franchise.\u00a0 Stargate started as a motion picture with Kurt Russell and was later picked up as a popular television series.\u00a0 The first of these shows was Stargate SG1, followed by the spin-off Stargate Atlantis, and then Stargate Universe.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Highly unrepresented at this convention was Stargate Universe.\u00a0 It only ran two seasons and was very much different than the other two shows.\u00a0 It was darker and it didn\u2019t resonate with many fans.\u00a0 I however thought it was brilliant.\u00a0 One of the things I really enjoyed about the show was the soundtrack.\u00a0 There were some great songs used in the show and, although no official soundtrack has been released, I\u2019ve been able to acquire many of the songs used in the different episodes.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"One](\"http:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/images\/trophy.jpg\")
I would always qualify the support I was providing with the direction that it was being offered for information purposes only.\u00a0 Most customers followed the direction and fixed their issue.\u00a0 If I couldn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s why I won all those employee of the month trophies.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Deb](\"http:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/images\/debtalan-presspic.jpg\")
One of the great talents I have discovered from watching Stargate Universe is the singer, Deb Talan.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>In one episode, they used Deb Talan\u2019s song \u201cComfort\u201d.\u00a0 Let me share that with you:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n