Random Babble

[tealin]

In case anyone is wondering when I'll ever post any worthwhile drawings again, then that person should read Monstrous Regiment soon because I'm working on a whole slew of stuff from that, and I won't be making any concessions in the pronoun gender department. I whipped through that book too quickly last year in my mad Pratchett binge so I'm trying to make up for it this time.

A question for computerly knowledgeable people: If I run Disk Cleanup, and it analyzes for eleven hours but still doesn't get anywhere, should I give up on it, or just let it run? I checked in the task manager and it says 'running,' not 'not responding,' and it looks like it's working in the Processes list. I've never done the Disk Cleanup before [shaaaame] so it's probably got a lot to sift through, but I did just defrag yesterday.

Comments

[magicnme.livejournal.com]

More Montrous Regiment? EE! *pumps fist* Brill!

[dimgwrthien714.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for art!

On the disc cleanup, you can either leave it for a few days (what my Dad does, takes about two days to get anywhere), or just shut it because it could have failed (I do that as I cleanup every day, and it still takes a while). Depends on your hope for it.

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

As always, I look forward to art. And partly because of your influence, I've started reading the Discworld series. I'm just about finished with "The Color Of Magic". So far, Terry Prachett reminds me of Douglas Adams, in that snarky British way.

As for the Disk Cleanup thing:

1) Which version of Windows are you running? (Or do you have a Mac?)
2) Have you run Defrag lately?
3) How much free space do you have left?

Usually, Disk Cleanup does take a long time to run. This is especially true if you haven't run Defrag lately and/or you are almost out of room on your hard drive.

Something that you might try before running Disk Cleanup in the future is to jump into your IE (or other web browsing program) and dump the browser's cache. This seems to always be a big chunk of what the cleanup program sifts through.

In Internet Explorer, go up to Tools and then down to Internet Options. It'll be right there on the first property sheet about halfway down.

Hope this is helpful.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I defragged yesterday, and also uninstalled a bunch of programs I'm not using anymore, deleted the MP3s I'd 'temporarily' ripped onto my hard drive, dumped the cache, and sorted through my accumulation of Quicktimes and AVIs that I should have weeded a long time ago. If the previous poster's experience is that it takes a couple days, then, well... I'll let it take that long. I just didn't know if it was a glitch that was making it take so long or if it was a normal thing. Oh, and I have Windows 2000, and about 50% free space (how have I used it all up??).

Yeah, Terry Pratchett started out as sort of the Douglas Adams of fantasy, with those earlier books, but he's developed better plot structure, depth, and character development than I've found in any of Adams' books. Just wait till you get to Night Watch. |: )

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

Okay... Sounds like you've got the bases covered. I'd let it run. Sometimes it takes a really long time.

I'll look forward to Night Watch :-D

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and expertise ... you're nice to have around! :)

[dragonclaws.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Maybe you can help me. I have a Vaio with windows XP or whatever the hell it is that's the most recent version, and it says that my Local Disk (C:) is practically full, but my Local Disk (D:)has nearly nothing on it. So here's my question: can I make it so that programs are downloaded to the D drive, and move said progammes there, but still have them work on the computer?

Sorry, twirlynoodle. My computer will just explode if I don't get this question answered.

[brendanm720.livejournal.com]

To answer your question in a broad, general sort of way, yes you can. However, not in the way that you're thinking. You'll need to uninstall the programs that you want to move and then reinstall using the "Custom" installation setting and tell it exactly where you want it to go. You will probably loose any customized settings that you had on those programs, and some packages like Microsoft Office will still put a whole crapload of files on your C Drive.

To answer your question in a narrow, specific to you sort of way, I'd say probably not. Usually, a "stock" D Partition on a Name Brand computer is just a dinky little drive (2-16 Gigabytes) that they put a bunch of software images on so they don't have to provide the end users with discs. These partitions are usually sparsely populated.

My best advice to you is to go through your Add/Remove Programs list and uninstall any programs that you don't ever use anymore. Then, I'd do everything that Tealin did [points up toward twirlynoodle's response], the IE Cache flush, and then I'd run Disk Cleanup.

After that, if I hadn't cleaned up enough, I'd start looking at my MP3's, and backing them off onto CDs or DVDs. If you do any artwork, digital photography, photo restoration, or movie capture/editing on that machine, I'd do the same with those files. Then, I'd delete 'em, and empty my Recycle Bin. That will clean things up significantly.

Hope that this is helpful to you.

[dragonclaws.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've done all that. Not the D drive stuffs, but the cleaning and everything. Thank you. I'll be sure to do that. I've really cleaned up my computer, and its still wonky.

[gilded-garb.livejournal.com]

I'm totally a lurker but I thought I'd pipe up for this. For some wacky reason, on a Vaio, the C drive is teeny tiny and the D drive is huge. Essentially, you have to install all of your programs on the D drive which is lame because like the previous poster said, most packages will dump stuff on the C drive anyway. My advice: do the uninstall/reinstall thing and move all your files (stuff in MyDocuments and all that) onto D drive. That's what we had to do on our Vaio desktop.

And just so that this comment somewhat relates to the post: I ♥ Monstrous Regiment! More art would be yummy :o)

*descends back into lurkdom*

[bellatella.livejournal.com]

You went through a Pratchett binge too? I just got over one (only because my library at my college is devoid of any good books.). Can't wait to see the new drawings! Monstrous Regiment, I think, is one of the best Discworld books. ^_^

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

'S funny, the first time I read it, I was rather disapointed (I remember thinking he must be stretching himself thin, as he'd come out with a Tiffany book earlier that year) but on subsequent rereadings I really, really enjoy it. It's just so much unlike any of the other ones.

And yes, binge: when I finished Going Postal last spring, I was reminded what a fabulous author he is, and tore through every one of his books I could get my hands on, reading practically nothing else for the next six months. I'd read them all before but I'd kind of put him aside for year or so, once I'd finished them all, so it was like discovering the series all over again. One of the benefits of having a poor memory for stories... : )

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Yay for Monstrous Regiment! I loved that one;)

[jesterquin.livejournal.com]

Monstrous Regiment is by far one of my favourite books.

I can't wait!

[infiniteviking]

Worthwhile? WORTHWHILE??

I like all your drawings, yo.

Looking forward to MR!

[amazon-syren.livejournal.com]

Question:

What is the "pronoun gender department"? :-)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

If you have read Monstrous Regiment, you'd know what I meant by that. : ) More or less. Pronouns can be confusing.

[amazon-syren.livejournal.com]

In fact, my dear, I have read MR.
(And written far, far too much fic about it... Go visit Hyel's MR site if you want to read some. ;-)

But I don't know what you mean by the pronoun thing.

Do you mean you're not diferentiating between 'he' and 'she' since so many of them turned out to be 'she' anyway? Or what? And how does it apply to drawing? Help? :-)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Ack! Hush! Quiet! There may be people here who haven't read it yet! (Of course, having said that, I'm not going to screen it or anything because I'm living life on the EDGE.)

Yes, that's what I mean; you know how I like to babble about my drawings, and it gets weird to not use any pronouns. Besides, my memory has a somewhat idiosyncratic way of assigning genders to characters in this book, so ... yeah. Uh ... yeah.

Sorry 'bout the mixup...

[amazon-syren.livejournal.com]

Re: "mix-up". No mix-up. Don't worry about it. :-)

Re: Ack! Hush! Quiet! There may be people here who haven't read it yet!

Screw 'em. :-)
(Don't mind me. I don't really care if I already know the entire plot of a given book before I read the thing, so I've never been able to understand why it would bother anyone else. I have no empathy, clearly. ;-)

So this is just a case of, well, effectively saying "screw 'em", and talking about the characters in your drawings? Or the opposite? (Using the wrong pronouns so that people who haven't read the book don't get it 'ruined' for themselves, while managing to confuse the people who have read it. ;-)

Either way, I look forward to seeing your art work. :-)

(Any chance of seeing some Polly/Mal innuendo? <*looks hopeful*> I'm a sucker for that stuff. ;-)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

This is essentially a case of 'I'll use the pronouns I want to use.' It mostly depends on where in the book one learns a character's definite gender.

As for Polly/Mal, well... I think 'innuendo' might be too strong a word, but there are too many scenes where Mal delivers a wry comment and Polly has to smother her laughter for me not to draw one. If you call that 'innuendo.'

[karwei.livejournal.com]

Monstrous Regiment is quite possibly my favorite Pratchett-y book.

[pyri-prongs.livejournal.com]

Gah, teh woe is me. Nowhere near, but I like looking at your art, even if I have NO IDEA who they are. :)

I knew it was a bad idea delving into the Discworld fandom around the time Thud! got published, especially since I knew beforehand they were awesome. It's asking for trouble getting into an amazing fandom when you know you'll get irreversibly hooked and will be forced to beg, steal or borrow all of the ninty squillion books he's written already. Don't regret it though :D

All my left over Crimbo money is being spent on Discworld novels ^_^;;;

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, I think my largest expenditure this year (barring [maybe] airfare) was in building up a hardcover Pratchett library with the help of eBay and the Royal Mail. (Why does no one in Canada sell their used books?)

[pyri-prongs.livejournal.com]

Cool! Ah! the joys of buying harcovers. And I imagine it's great having the full collection together in the end. ^_^

But I'm saving my money for uni; I need to put school in front of books for the first time in my life :D