if it had been a snake...
Did you ever have one of those moments where you think, "Well, duh. Could I get any dumber?"Had one today. Aren't they fun? :-)
On Saturday, the guy from Dell told me there were a couple things I should probably do before someone else from Dell called me back later in the week to check on the progress of my virus situation. One was to find the reinstall CDs that had come with my computer--just in case they had to wipe out the entire system. (Yeah, like I have a clue where those might be.) The second was to back up all of my music files--just in case they had to wipe out the entire system.
Well, I did finally find the discs. That was a miracle in & of itself. And I'd already backed up all of my other important documents & files--manuscripts, photos, etc.; the ones I knew how to back up.
But those music files, they're tricky. For one thing, you have to find them & I didn't really know where they were on my computer. For another, they're big & take up a lot of space on a disk. And since I now have hundreds of songs in my iTunes folder, I was going to need a buttload of disks to save them all.
I tried doing this yesterday with four zip disks & ran out really quickly. Then today, I decided I was going to play it smart. I'd go thru my music library & save only those songs that I'd either bought from iTunes or ripped from CDs I no longer have. (I got a little overly excited about the whole iTunes/iPod thing & getting rid of things I no longer needed. Bad, bad idea. I should have hung on to them for at least a while longer.) This, too, filled up the disks pretty quickly.
And then I had a brainstorm. Or rather, after two days of fiddling with this & getting nowhere, my heel-of-the-hand-to-my-forehead "duh" moment. If I have an iPod...& have most of my music on my iPod...& can send my entire library of music files from the computer to the iPod...then wouldn't it only be logical that I could also send music from the iPod to the computer? (Yeah, now you're getting the duh part.)
Just to be sure, I visited the Apple website, & sure enough, there were instructions for doing just that. Sheesh. I'm telling you, I am a master at finding ways to waste time. Without even trying. When I am trying...man, get out of my way. It's procrastination as you've never seen it before. But even without trying, I've wasted probably two days on this little side project. (And just watch...because I've gone thru all of this in an attempt to prevent my personal files from being lost, my system will never actually need to be completely wiped out & reinstalled. Almost makes it worth it. :-P)
Thankfully, while all of this has tapped into my Tylenol supply (:-p) it hasn't interrupted my writing schedule. Not too much, anyway. Got another nice chunk done last night before I finally went to bed. Managed to finish another chapter & am hoping to get a good start on the next one tonight.
I might even listen to all that music on my iPod while I do it.
