Sunday, August 10, 2008

Tallies for 9 August 2008

I wasn't able to post this yesterday evening as planned. It was a very busy afternoon and evening. First my niece, a professional photographer from the Chicago area who is visiting Spokane for the summer, picked up my daughter and her boyfriend to do a photo shoot for their senior pictures. My husband and I went out to get some shopping done and on our way home, received a phone call from my parents, who were in town visiting my aunt and sister, and wanted to drop by before heading home. It was late before everything settled down...too late to blog. However, I'm very excited, because my dad had brought some old family documents and a family photo from 1920 that he obtained while they were visiting his mother in Michigan two weeks ago!

Here's some of what I worked on yesterday:

2. Back Up Your Data!
C. Backup all your data using a flash drive, an external drive, CDs, DVDs, or an online resource.
I'm in the middle of a big backup using Carbonite. It is taking days, partly because the first big backup does take a long time, and secondly, we don't keep the computer on at night. Once everything is backed up the first time, subsequent backups will take minutes, not days. The price at Carbonite is right, but since we don't have a lot on my laptop, I might just use a little freebie service for that. My desktop's hard drive is pretty full, and besides needing to do some clean up, I'm thinking of moving all my files with pixel drawings (another digital hobby I was really "into" for a while, before blogging) to my laptop to free up room on the main computer.

4. Write, Write, Write!
B. Participate in a genealogy or family history related blog carnival.
I submitted an entry for the 4th Edition of the "I Smile for the Camera" Carnival yesterday.

5. Reach Out & Perform Genealogical Acts of Kindness!
A. Comment on a new (to you) genea-blog.
I commented on Amir Dekel's blog, I Dream of Genea(logy). Amir is new to the Genea-Bloggers Group, and in fact, is new to genea-blogging, although he has had a personal blog for a while.
B. Join another genea-blogger’s blog network on Facebook Blog Networks.
I joined Tina Sansone's Gtownma's Genealogy Blog Network. Tina is another new-to-me genea-blogger.

Wow, it looks like I'm on my way to a Bronze Medal in Category 2 and have already earned another Bronze in Category 4 and a Silver Medal in Category 5 (sounds like a tornado!)...all on the first day! My challenge, I know, will be Category 1 (Cite Your Sources!), in which I hope to earn a Platinum!

5 comments:

footnoteMaven said...

Go Miriam!

I'm standing on the sidelines cheering my fellow Washingtonian!

Cite your Sources! Yea!

fM

Jasia said...

You go girl!

Can't wait to hear more about your new documents and photo!

Elizabeth O'Neal said...

Hi Miriam - When you stop your Carbonite back-up at night, does it pick up where you left off when you go back the next day? I've been trying to do an initial back-up with Mozy for ages, but I can't leave my computer running for the 2.5 weeks Mozy says it needs, or my laptop will burn itself up. When I stop the back-up, it wants to start all over again the next day - very frustrating.

I've heard good things about Carbonite, and if it will let you pick up where you left off in a back-up, I'll probably cancel my Mozy account!

Congrats on your GB Games progress!

Miriam Robbins said...

Thanks, Maven and Jasia!

Elizabeth, YES, Carbonite does start up where it stopped the night before. I originally was going to go with Mozy, but read a few blogs where people had some serious issues getting their files downloaded from their site after hard drive crashes. My hubby had been urging me to get Carbonite because he loves Kim Komando's radio show and she highly recommends it. We're still in the 15-day trial phase (Day 9, I think) and have 41% backed up. I'm on my laptop now, with my son on the desktop, so I can't check to refresh my mind on how many GB our C drive is (we also have a smaller hard drive for downloads, to prevent infections to main drive in case we accidentally download something infectious).

Anyway, so far, I'm very pleased!

Vidar Øverlie said...

Hi Miriam,

Thanks to you Miriam and the others who initiated these games. This competition is a win win for all of us that many others should have the opportunity to benefit from. I am just practising for the Scandinavian or European games that will take place before the next Olympic Games! It is time for the genealogist to link up world wide. USA, Canada and Norway are just a small fraction but many more will join next time.