Brettia

And Brett posted to his weblog, and lo! the world said, “Yay.”
Or not. Everyone’s favorite weblog has been updated again. I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting my next bit of whatever, I know you’ve been on the edge of your office chairs all this time, wondering when I would finally post another entry, and now I have come, and IT was good.

I’ll stop the Tolkien style now. Let him turn over in his grave at the mass of urfiness I have posted above. Um…anyway…

Brettia had a near-death experience. I was incredibly happy to see that my web host had installed a new control panel for me to play around with, and I accidentally deleted the phpBB database of posts and users and settings. I know, this seems impossibly stupid, but there was a little red X next to the phpBB database on the new control panel, and I clicked it, wondering what it meant. The control panel asked for no confirmation, nor did it say what it was doing until I saw what had happened and realization dawned. My curses could be heard for miles. My brother thought I was dying because I kept yelling SHIT at the computer screen. But I was alive, and Brettia was not.

I panicked for awhile, and contacted my host to see if they could recover the database. They could not. I then unearthed a three-week-old database backup I had done when switching to this new one back at the beginning of September. I was lucky enough to be able to successfully restore all posts up to September 4th. Not bad, considering the possibility of losing everything, equivalent to over 200,000 words and ten months of writing by eight people.

A severe crisis was narrowly averted, but it was a crisis all the same. My friends will not be happy. I wouldn’t blame them if they left Brettia completely, but I hope they decide to stay. I know I’ll never be such a dumbass again.

Today I got to go on an SSV [Super Stupid Vacation (© Keegan)]. This is any kind of family trip which I either dread or think is completely pointless. It turned out all right; we went up to this place by Slide Rock State Park that’s unknown and secret, which means that it wasn’t one-tenth as busy as the actual Slide Rock area. (Slide Rock is a natural sandstone rock formation in the bottom of Oak Creek near Sedona, Arizona. The slippery surface and slow-moving water provides an excellent waterslide-like experience, though the water is quite cold.)

We got home at about eight, and I restored Brettia soon after. I hadn’t even thought of the backup I had made until we were on our way home from Slide Rock. Stupid is as stupid does.

Technology-wise, nothing has improved. I had planned on trying to negotiate a match deal with my dad to get a computer, but I haven’t put it forth yet. I need a good sound plan, but either way they’re going to end up paying a lot of money. I’ll need about one to two thousand dollars, which is quite a lot, to me at least. I know two different people who can build a PC for half the price of a regular Dell or HP, so I’m going to look into talking to them.
Chances of my getting anything are pretty slim, at least until my birthday in nine months, since we (my family) might be going to Europe (this would be my third time) over spring break. I’m thankful and happy to get to travel a lot, but I always end up going on some expensive trip right when I have the greatest chance of finally getting my dream computer. Earlier this year, when the war in Iraq was going on, we had contemplated canceling the trip, but we decided to go ahead anyway. This was the right decision, since everything had died down by the time I left, but my mom had promised me I could get a new computer with the money that had been going for the trip if I opted out. One more chance lost.

With another trip possibly blocking me for a third time (there was another time back in sixth grade), I’m not entirely sure I really want it to happen. In the event that we do go, it’ll cost about $4,500 for all of us, which is not at all cheap, and both my parents are wanting to get new cars because my mom’s lease is up on the Malib (yes, it’s a Malib, because the ‘u’ is missing from the back lettering [melted off]) and my dad has been having many problems with his Jeep that he keeps having to get fixed. My mom wants some kind of SUV and my dad now wants a Jeep Rubicon, which is the same as the regular Jeep Wrangler but really tricked out.

This car thing leaves me wondering what I’ll end up getting to drive when I’m old enough. If I can’t even save up enough money for a $2000 computer then I certainly will never be able to get a $10,000 - $20,000 car, depending on if it is used or not. Meaning that I will be driving one of my parents’ cars. Up until now I was engaged to the Jeep, but that engagement might be broken if Dad gets a Rubicon (he’d be really attached to it). And I don’t want to drive an SUV, because the gas would be so expensive (SUV = bad gas mileage).

This weekend was supposed to be a good one. No homework (at all) nothing I need to do, just a weekend of relaxing, reading, and tinkering. That’s all I wanted to do. Then there was pain and Brettia and SSVs, and now one day is gone and I haven’t relaxed or read or tinkered at all. But tomorrow is football, so I’ll be free from 10:00 to 7:00. YAY!