computer issues update

Iwas able to sucessfully able to install Windows 7 on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. It works pretty well, looks nice and starts faster than XP.

I wrote last night that I was unable to install 64-bit Win7 because it was no compatable with my CPU. There was the option for a 86x installation but I did not realise that that was 32-bit.

I spent all last night transferring files, formatting the drive, re-installing XP and re-installing the drivers and programs. It worked nicely. No problems. That was until this morning. My computer gave an error on boot, that my hard drive couldn't be located. That was the problem I started with on Wednesday.

I thus tired to install Win7. It worked but I was left without wireless and the dell XP drivers wouldn't work on 7.  After much surfing I was able to down the drivers for wireless for Vista and 7. Funnily enough it was the driver for Vista that worked. Don't ask me how. So now I have my computer back. I can only hope it lasts...

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computer trouble

It has been a long day and it's still not over. Eva and I were at a birthday party last night. It was neither local nor in Tallinn so we had to stay over and get an early morning train back home. I got to sleep a little between 2 and 5 (Eva couldn't) and we went to bed when we got home at 8. Since I got up at 1 I have been working on fixing my computer woes.

There was some system error that was causing XP to crash. I had lost my profiles and also access to all my files (as they were saved on the desktop and in My Documents). After much reading online and trail and error with command prompt I was able to find my files. The computer has saved all my documents, files and settings to a super folder called found.002 and a sub folder called dir0001.chk. I was able to find the address through command prompt with the following script:

dir c:\ /s /b | find "search item"


I was then able to save the files to a text file with the script:

dir c:\ /s /b | find "search item" > list.txt where search item is the file or folder you are looking for and list is the name of the text file in which you want to save the address.

Then I was able to copy the address to Internet Explorer and voilà my files appeared.

My problem was that I wanted to install Windows 7 on my laptop. However I didn't have enough space free to install it. Futhermore I couldn't access my documents to delete unneeded files to create that space. So I was stuck in limbo. I didn't want to format my drive because I would lose my unbacked-up data and I couldn't access the data to copy it to a drive outside my computer.

Now I was able to access the files (buried deep into the windows folder I discovered but hidden so they needed to be accessed directly and couldn't be searched or browsed in Windows Explorer), I was able to transfer them to my sticky and on to Eva's grandparents computer (which is what I am typing this post on right now). Now that I have my most recent files backed-up I can go ahead with formating my drive and installing windows 7. Yay! Formatting will also get rid of the trojan which was responsible for the problems in the first place.

Updae: I've just installed windows 7 64-bit and unfortunately my computer is not compatable with 64-bit. Looks like I'm back to XP.

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porridge and vega

We sat at the breakfast table eating our porridge. It was seven in the morning. I had been up since 6, school morning as it was. With classes starting at 10 at home in Ireland it was rare for me to be up before 9. For some reason now lost to me I started, whilst drinking my mug of tea, to remember being home in Cork, in the opera house some 6 years ago. I was with my father and Suzanne Vega was in town to give a gig. It was an intimate affair. At the time one of my favourite activities in the evenings was to retire to my room, turn off the lights and lie on my bed listening to Suzanne Vega. There was something about her voice and her style that spoke to me. It still does. And so this concert was one of the more memorable events in my life, definately my favourite live performance. I remember her on stage, just her and her guitar and she's playing Tom's Diner.


I was sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner...

And so Eva and I are sitting over our breakfast singing Vega songs (Luka, Liverpool, Blood Makes Noise...) together before I go to work. Between us we have enough words to accompany the tune. It's bad, so bad but sometimes the best things in life are rough and unpolished.


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Walking from Balti Jaam into the old town I am stopped by a foreigner. He asks me the location of Viru tee*. We were standing on Nunne so he was on the totally wrong side of the old town. I tell him this and he is unsure whether he can trust me or not. He asks me again and I tell him again that he needs to walk through the old town to the other side heading in a south-easterly directon. After ten minutes you will reach Viru, just keep on an eye on the signs. So I leave him and head on my way. Afterall I have work to go to. I thought about going back to him and telling him to walk with me as I am going in that direction. I also think of handing him the map that is in my pocket. I think what an Estonian would do in this situation. I keep walking and do not look back.

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Standing on the minibus on the way home the bus stops to take on a passenger. There is only one seat free and that is in he front. This big woman gets on with two large shoppig bags filled with groceries. For an Estonian she is full of talk about how the bus is full and there is no seats free. She tries to put her shopping bags in the front seat but she can't lift them over the back of the seat. She makes talk with the driver and another passenger in the front. The driver suggests that she exists the back of the bus and sits in the front. It is late and dark. The bus is full of people wanting to get home to change out of their work clothes, have dinner and watch Kodu keset linna. God damn this woman everyone is thinking. I look over to Eva to whom I left the last free seat. I raise my eye-brows to heaven. After much huffing and puffing and more talk the woman eventually manages to get in her seat, get help with her seat-belt and make herself comfy. After all this she then asks the driver how much. Walking home I discuss with Eva how it is normal practise in Ireland to converse with srangers and make small talk. The fact that I was annoyed with this woman lets me know somewhat that I have besome climatised to the Estonian way of minimal engagement.

* Actually Viru tänav.

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what they think of us

Watching Abdul Turay on ETV it struck me: "Are Estonians obsessed in knowing what foreigners think of them and their country?

For those who saw the emission,  I thought the most cringy part was the end, the lines below particularily stick out in my memory.


What is your plan...why are you here?...so you are here to stay.

It seems one can't be black in Estonia without people thinking that you have some ulterior motive. Maybe this man is to blame.

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out of time

out of time
Originally uploaded by orvalrochefort

It looks like it might be the end of the road for my laptop. I wrote last year how it failed spectacularily but with a lot of hair-pulling and a systems CD I was able to save the day. It was fine again for a year or so, no blue screens, no issues of great report. However this summer (when engaged in writing my thesis of all times) it started to blue screen again.

Yesterday things got serious. I couldn't even access safe mode, it stalled before opening, error was avgrkx86.sys. I was eventually able to access the desktop (don't ask me how, sheer luck maybe), having completed a scan of the computer that found serious system erors, and I renamed that file. This allowed me restart the laptop and access safe mode. I tried to do a system restore but strangely enough their were no restore points older than last Wednesday (11 Nov; the compter is 4 years old btw). I asked the computer to restore to last week and restarted the computer.


Upon re-entering XP I was told that my profile settings and documents couldn't be loaded. No drivers were present either, i.e. no internet. All my files (because they were located either on the Desktop or in My Documents) were missing. The C drive was still nearly full so my files haven't been deleted. I just can't see or access them as XPcan't load my user profile. Furthermore, back in safe mode, I was told that the system restore was a failure.

I attempted to do a repair install from the systems CD but repair is not one of the options. The web tells me that if a system is very corrupt repair will not be available. I am running XP service pack 3 and my systems CD is service pack 2, don't know if that makes a difference. I also tried to do what I did last year, type sfc/scannow into command prompt but that is also a dead line. It won't start the scan.

So yah. Eva's brother is a computer wizz and his take on it is that it's a hardware problem. He says it is likely that my harddrive is dying. If that is the case there is no going back. What is important now is to copy the files. I have an external hard drive at home. Sadly because of weight I was unable to bring it to Estonia. I have all my files saved up until the end of September but nothing has been backed-up after that.

To cut a long story short I don't know if I will be able to keep updating this blog everyday as I have been doing the last three weeks. It's likely that I won't. It finally seems like it is the end of the road for my Dell Inspiron 6000 and also my NaBloPoMo challenge.

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vanalinn looses me

Estonia - Tallinn - Old Town View
Originally uploaded by Darrell Godliman

Living outside of Tallinn city centre, I don't get much of a chance to walk the streets. Thus my knowlege of the geography is patchy. Some areas are second-nature, others are unchartered territory.

One place that always gets me lost is the Old Town. Beautiful and seductive it can be completely confusing. I don't mind getting lost when I have the time to spare but it's a different story when you're on a deadline. One wrong turn last week cost me a long semi-circular tangentary walk. I wanted to go out the Toompark/Balti exit but instead ended-up on väike rannavära, north-west rather than north. My destination was Balti Jaam so I had a nice walk on my hands. Talking the tram would have saved my feet and my time but as I didn't know where I was and was just following the directions given to me by passing strangers I just walked. I eventually made it but I was dead late.

~ . ~

Yesterday morning was such a beautiful morning in the Old Town. The air was crisp and clear but not too cold. The sky was a deep blue and there was a mist in the air that obscured the tops of taller buildings from view. There was a great potential shot of a church tower reaching into the sky and with the near-empty misty street there was a certain magic about the atmosphere. Sadly I didn't have a camera on me to make the shot a reality. However it is possible that that in the end the shot wouldn't have captured that magic. Elu on hea.

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God bless Estonia, God bless kali

Last week Eva and I made kali or kvass as it is known in Russian and English. Kali is a weakly alocholic drink made from rye bread (rukkileib in Estonian). It is an awesome drink for all seasons of the year, though especially served chilled in the summer months. It can also be given to children as an alternative to beer (percentage is only 0.5). It is also great to drink in-between sauna-sessions. For those of you who are only familiar to hotel-saunas, Estonian saunas are quite an experience! They are hotter, one goes naked, it is not uncommon to beat each other with the branches of the birch and the drinking of alcohol is customary. Eva and I normally have 4 or 5 sessions of 3 to 4 minutes. In between we cool off, drink, get wet again and rejoin the heat. The trick is to get your skin a nice lobster colour. I can't wait until we can cool ourselves off in the snow again! Either that of a skinny-dip in a lake. How Nordic I have become!

Anyway, back to kali! First off one needs starter which can either be made at home or bought in a pack. We went for Nordic's Home-Brewed Kvas/ Kodukali and followed the accompaning instructions. One sachet makes 3liters of kali and luckily enough for us we had three 1lt bottles sitting in the garage. (see above).

The sachhet is added to a mixture of warm water and sugar. You can see Eva adding the starter above. To this one adds yeast, puts a lid on the pot and lets the mixture stand for 24 hours in room temperature. In the picture below you can see the yeast working its magic.

The next day I took personal resposnsibility for bottling the kali. In the two pictures below you can see the sterling work that I was accomplishing.

It was tirsty work but I would have to wait another 24 hours before the finished producted was ready to be tasted. I placed the bottles in the garage and the booty was reading for the Sunday sauna. Kali and sauna, a perfect match! And no, I don't have any pictures of me drinking kali in the sauna...

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on the making of rye bread

Eva just posted on the making of rye bread. All you homebakingophiles, breadophiles and Estophiles go and check her post out!

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sushicat

Eva has an interest in all things Japanese, especially anime and cuisine. Encouraged somewhat by Kris's review Eva and I paid a visit to Sushicat on Roosikrantsi.

My initial impression of the atmosphere was that it wasn't as kawaii and yuri as I had been expecting. Contrary to what it says on the website the waitress wasn't dressed like a young schoolgirl nor as a maid. The food-staff also were also not dressed very anime-like but were atired in sensible chef's clothes.The place is very poky. Everything seems to be on top of something else. Even with the squash they only manage 5 tables, catering for some 15 people maximum. There was a steady stream of people coming in and out (this was at 3), both to dine-in and take-out. Even with the small space and the the amount of people in it, the atmosphere did seem to be missing something. Maybe that's me.


For some reason the whole theme feels very gimmicky to me. I could not bridge the gap between the pictures of Japanese girls and their cats on the walls and the white Nordic staff and customers. On the screen above played some sort of fantasy anime which after an hour or so the staff changed to lopping the same live-performance song. Luckily we had already left before we had to listen to it for the fourth time.

My reservations and confusion about the theme and decor aside, I had to say that the food was very good. I don't have much experience with Japanese cuisine but from what I know the dishes were tasty; at a reasonable price (I had shirashi, a selection of vegetables and fish on a bed of rice and lettuce (45EEK/ €3) and Eva had a selection of vegatarian maki rolls and nigri (90EEK/ €6)); it filled the spot; and came with complimentary green tea and miso soup, which was so much better than the miso soup you can buy in packs. Eva had sake (8cl, 25EEK/ €1.60) and I had plum wine (4cl, 20EEK/€1.30). Both were very nice but the plum wine is definitely my favourite. It was surprisingly good and I know I'll going somewhere to buy a bottle of it. I heard that another sushi restaurant in the city sells plum wine in bottles.

All in all it was an interesting, enjoyable and tasty visit to Sushicat. Will we be back again? Perhap, we'll see. Is it worth a visit? Definitely.

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ei, ta ei oska eesti keelt

I stood at the top of the classroom with my back to my new group of students. There were 9 of them and it was 12th grade. They were discussing me behind my back as I wrote my name on the white board, oblivious to the fact that I understood what they were saying.

Student 1: Do you think he speaks Estonian?
Student 2: I'm not sure, I don't imagine so.
Student 3: An Irish person who speaks Estonian? Don't be stupid!
Student 2: Is he Irish?
Student 1: Of coure. Jeez, it's Irish studies class.
Student 2: I guess. But still, if he's been here for a while...


Later, at the end of the double lesson things are starting to turn personal. In the first lesson I gave them a quiz about Ireland to fill out in teams. We went through that and discussed the answers. The Corrs were well-known by the class. One of the students was familiar with the TV series Fr. Ted. That said, the girl was on a team that said that Protestantism was the main religion of the Republic. You can't win them all I guess. All in all it was a mixed-bag of knowledge about Ireland. In the second class I asked the students about their opinions of Ireland, the stereotypes, the attitudes etc. Luckily one of the students had actually visited the country last year.Unfortunately she couldn't remember anything about it. When prompted to give a few words that described her experience she said empty and a terrible English but beautiful accent. After that it was hard to get more information out of the students.

I had thought that a discussion would more or less flow from the quiz but this was not the case. I had prepared to give a brief introduction to Ireland dealing with the main events in history, the peoples that had contributed to its culture but it was late in the afternoon and people were getting sleepy. Looking around the room the students turned their attention to myself. Asking about what I like to drink, why I came to Estonia, why I stay etc. I tried to be as brief and non-personal in my answers as possible. Not much, occasionally cider; partner; partner and because I like it here. They asked other questions which I refused to answer. I have the right to my personal life. One of the girls asked me how well I speak Estonian. Not sure how to answer this question (linguists are the worst people to ask supposedly simple questions about language; there is a joke that says that in a room of 5 linguists you'll get 8 answers to a question, all answered very passionately and convincingly). I turned the question on its head and asked her how well she would rate her English abilities. She asked me if I could have everyday conversations in the language. I told her that I could more or less and that I understood what they had been saying about me at the start of the lesson. Naturally they had to take a moment or two to think back to what they had been saying and then it was their turn to get embarrassed. Sorri! Sorri! they said.

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waking up to Lotte

Normally I share my the breakfast table with Veski Mati's kaerahelbed (oat flakes). Despite them being very tasty company in the morning, especially with some kodumoos (home-made jam), they can get a little boring sometimes. It was time for a shake-up. In walks Lotte. Both Eva and I are Lotte-fans. I mean, how could one not be? For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lotte you might want to click here.



Lotte is a dog-girl in a red dress and has red hair. Her father is the village's award-winning inventor. She likes to hang out with Bruno, a cat whose father was a hammer-thrower who flew away while competing one day and never returned. Together with a rabbit called Albert they are trained by a Japanese bee, Susumu, in Judo and air-baloon to the Judo-competition, in Japan. Despite only having practised Judo for a number of days they win the competition and Bruno's father returns. All's well...

However, back to Lotte and her Rõõmsud - paisutatud nisu meega (Happies - honey puffed wheat). Reading the box this morning it took me quite a while to work out what meege meant. That was until I turned the box to read the side panel and found that meege was actually supposed to be meega. It seems for all that Lotte is good at Judo she can't spell. Time to go back to school, me thinks.

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