bitter magnet

I woke up this morning at 4:55am. And not to catch an airplane, to study, or to run an experiment, but to go shopping at Filene's.. (yeah, i'm an avid shopper) :-) in the newspapers they advertised 15% off coupons (on top of sales), and "early-bird" sales only valid from 6am - noon. They also mentioned that they would hand out $15 gift cards to the first 300 shoppers. So Michael & I left SP around 5:10am, caught the T sometime around 5:25, and got to the store at 5:30am (still dark). There were already at least 200 ppl in line when we got there..it was insane! A few folks kept cutting in line, and some of us had to call over the Filene's security to set 'em straight. One lady tried to cut in as people were going in, and when security tried to stop her she began yelling her head off, causing the hugest commotion (i felt like i was watching the Ricki Lake talk show). Anyway, we each ended up getting gift cards (over the megaphone the Filene's guy said that they actually ended up having more than 300 to give away).

So I went straight to the suits and quite oddly, I ended up buying the first suit i tried on! It's a black suit from Anne Klein, size 4 (i'm was actually amazed that i fit into that quite well, after 2 thanksgiving meals yesterday and not having exercised for the past 4 days). Anyway, the jacket is quite long, and it covers most of the skirt so it doesn't look weird. It's actually pretty nice. It was originally $300, but it was on sale for $119..with the 15% coupon it was about $100, and then with the $15 gift card it was only $85!! that's amazing!

Anyway, Michael bought some socks with his $15 (and i got a $17 picture frame for $4). Then we decided to "stop by" Filene's Basement..hah..to make a long story short, Michael ended up buying a suit (orig price $499, but he got it for $140, after the all the discounts). You see it was on sale for $249, but then it was $180 after that markdown (it had been there for 2 weeks), and with my "lucky coupon" (the one handed to me at the entrance of Filene's Basement) that turned out to be 25% off, which was really excellent. :) Oh and Michael's suit was really cool too, it was DKNY, dark brown, really stylish-looking. I hope there is some formal coming up soon where Michael & I can attend, where we can both show off our newly-accquired apparel. :)

well, i should really get back to work. so much stuff to do, it makes my head spin!

..ack, i just realized that last week i only ran a grand total of 14 miles (usually do 20-25). :( thing is it was so hectic with all the happenings (laptop stuff, michael getting sick, etc) that i just didn't have time, plus also i was really tired. oh well...maybe this week i'll have more time (however should be getting even busier as IEDM inches even closer).

anyway, right now i'm quite happy with having Windows XP on my laptop...it's much easier (a lot of stuff is just Plug-n-Play, no need to search for right drivers), and most importantly, it looks cooler. :) but that doesn't mean that don't still hate Microsoft. ;-)

-anita

if at first you don't suceed...try, try, try, again, dammit, until you kick some ass... ;-)

For the first half of the Big Game today, Cal had 0 against Stanfurd's 10 pts...really bad- basically it was fumble after fumble..then in the 2nd half, we started kicking a$$!! In the end, it was 28-16. WoooOOo-hooo!

anyway, it was great, i went with a bunch of Cal alumni (incl: christine, caroline, nate, GJ..MIT students whom i knew at Cal) to Hurricane O'Reilly's to watch the Big Game. there were tons of ppl there (both Stanfurd & Berkeley alumni groups were present)..it was a really lively crowd!

and as i mentioned, Cal was losing pretty bad for the first half (we were soo discouraged) but in the 2nd half it seemed like everything had turned around (for the better)! we ended up winning, and you wouldn't believe how loudly the Cal folks cheered! it was astounding. everyone was shouting and jumping for joy, even as we walked out of the bar (and at the T stations on the way home, some of us were singing Cal fight songs and shouting "Go! Bears!"). there were a lot of us dressed up in bright blue & gold outfits and yelling about...a lot of the other ppl on the T looked really puzzled, started looking at us strangely and even asked what was going on!

anyway, it's amazing that we won, but what's even more amazing is that 3,000 miles away, all the way in Boston, a bunch of Northern Californians can band together and create such a hullabaloo, can rejoice in a celebration over something that no one else here even remotely understands. And it's not just Berkeley stuff, it's other West-Coast phenomena in general. Most MIT students here don't know that Stanfurd deserves to be axed, are already used to crappy, gloomy weather, and don't know the meaning of the word "protest" or "school spirit." So it's cool that for once, you can hang around folks who agree that 42 (not 32) degrees is freezing, who will sing "Big C" with you in front of random strangers, and who don't mind hearing you complain about how much better some things are just better in the Bay Area. like, that's the bomb, dude. :)

so on Thursday, i got the new drive from Hitachi, and shortly thereafter i had Windows XP installed (i got a licenesed copy from an EE lab). since it was a new OS i had to reinstall everything, but i didn't care - at least i got all my research folders and email stuff back. i didn't get a few files (like the house meeting minutes etc, but oh well).

anyway, windows xp so far is the bomb..way better and faster than win2k. i'm glad!

argh, today was an INSANE day! i get to work around 11:30, and i work on my presentation in the lab. all is well until around 2pm..i'm about to head of star market to get some food (and then go home for lunch) when i get an e-mail from Michael's advisor, informing me that michael was just taken to Cambridge Hospital in an ambulance, after getting really bad stomach pains. so i was sort of freaking out cuz i didn't know what to do (i thought i should call, etc) but then i just decided to go over there (took the T and then the #69 bus). i got there around 3 finally, and it was good to see Michael was doing better and everything (though he was still in some pain). anyway, what happened was immediately after eating lunch (he had some kung pao chicken from a food truck and then an ice cream from a vending machine) he started to get some clenching stomach pain, and then he started shaking, and had shortness of breath (to the point where he could barely breathe/talk). the doctors couldn't really figure out what it was..they referred him to a gastroenterologist for further tests. i hope they do figure it out, cuz it's scary to think that it could happen again.

anyway, aroudn 4:30 we took taxi back to MIT, and then i had to rush off to my allergist appointment (was at 5pm). i mentioned that i think i might be sensitive/allergic to wheat or gluten, since bascially everytime i eat it feel sick. she noted that down..and she also looked in my medical history.. she made an appt for January for a skin test, to see if i'm allergic to certain foods...and she told me that i was anemic, and that i really need to get an iron supplement, otherwise it's never going to go away. i'm a bit puzzled as to why i am anemic though..i eat spinach and red meat, and i never eat junk food! i also take an vitamin+iron supplement everyday. anyway, it doesn't matter.

argh, i am so swamped with stuff to do! in terms of research, i have to work on my presentation, read a bunch of papers, try to understand my experiements, and look into a bunch of other stuff. i also have tons of SP stuff to take care of..it's amazing how time-consuming this stuff can be (meetings, preparing for meetings, compiling info, etc). and there's japanese class too...plus i have to deal with my laptop situation (won't get another hard drive for a few days..then i have to reinstall/restore everything). arghh! just thinking about all the stuff i have to do makes my head spin!!

my cousin Grimi gave this candy to me when i was back home (i mentioned i liked coconut, and so she gave me a piece saying i had to try it). i saved it , and i ate it just now. it was AMAZING! i normally do not like candy in general, but this was an exception. The name of the candy was "Raffaello" by Confetteria . It was basically coconut, white-chocolate, cream, and almonds (heaven! ;-). thanks, grimi!! :)

oh, and today was really windy and cold - 42 degrees, but with windchill it was about 34 degrees. but michael and i went running...we ended up jogging 7 miles! i had done 2 earlier on the stepper in the gym, so that's 9 total. so this week my total mileage is 23--not bad.

# posted by anita @ 8:30 PM

LAPTOP UPDATE : i called Hitachi this evening (Friday) and it turns out i can get this thing called "advance exchange" in which they send me the new hard drive first, and then i have to send the old defective one, in the same packaging. all they have to do is take my credit card # so i promise to rerturn it. i now remember that this is exactly what i did last time (though i did it thru ibm, cuz it was a separate company back then)

anyways, for dinner today Michael and I had this $2 chicken corn chowdah from Star Market..it was de-licious! i only decided to buy it cuz it was $1.00 off (expired on Nov 15) and i thought it was too late to cook anything (we ended up eating around 9). michael thought it looked good, and so he got one as well. we both agreed it was excellent-much better than those soups you get in building 4 (watered-down, etc) or stuff from a can.

and in terms of research, last night (Thurs night) and this morning (Fri) i was up late working on a first draft of my iedm presentation. it was such a pain the rear since i had to use Michael's computer to recover all the TSM files that i needed (for some reason, it wouldn't work on my desktop (Win98) or on Narvaez (lab downstairs).

p.s. today i did the lamest thing..i locked myself out of my office. it sucked cuz my house keys and bike keys were also in there, so i had to call the MIT polic right away to let me in. they cop was really nice though, before he unlocked my office he was commenting on the video games on our floor of building 39, and how we had the weirdest elevator.. (have to agree there)

p.p.s. today was friggin' COLD. about 3 C (whatever that is in fahrenheit). it was windy too, biking was super-difficult.

..well part of it when towards two huge pieces of pumpkin pie. :) in one sitting just my mom and i ate half of the pie we made! it was delicious, to say the very least. oh, and the sour cream topping was *the best*...

anyway, that has got to be one of the best desserts ever. PUMPKIN PIE WITH SOUR CREAM. my next challenge is to make a pumpkin cheesecake, that also uses a sour cream topping. never tried one, but just the sound of it is amazing!! hmm, i am so thankful i am not lactose intolerant. :)

yay, i ran ~7 miles today (and i was only supposed to run 4!). the thing is ran a little over four miles initially, but then when i got back to the house my mom still wasn't home from shopping (and i didn't have the key). so after waiting a bit i ran another mile, came back, and same thing..i did this 3 times. anyway, it was great because (1) it was sunny and 62 degrees outside, and (2) after i was finished i wasn't exhausted and (3) that means i don't have to run the ~3 miles i have to tomorrow . it's amazing, just a year ago jogging 7 miles was so difficult.

anyways afterwards my mom and i made pumpkin pie, with a wheat-free crust (combination of almond flour, oat bran, and flax seeds). i still haven't tried it yet, but my mom did and said it was really good. she used sour cream for the topping, instead of sweetened whipped cream. i think that is an excellent idea, as usually whipped cream is too sweet for me (esp if the dessert itself is already too sweet). i've tried using yogurt but it doesn't have the same consistency. oh well-i get to find out soon after i have dinner! :)

ok, i just got off the phone with Hitachi HD support. after scrambling around this house to find a screwdriver (to remove the HD and see the serial # and other stuff) i finally removed it and gave them the necessary info. Well, to my sheer surprise, the HD is under warranty (the warranty is 3 years), and so she then asked me if i wanted to process an RMA request and all that. Basically what will happens is that I send the HD in to them with an RMA number(that they provide), they check it out to ensure it's defective, and then send me a new one. i remember this from 2 years ago. anyway, i guess that's good then..so my only task now is to restore the data on there. yeah, i do have a backup from 10/24, but it would still be nice if i could get some of the new data (basically anything that was changed between then and 11/4). to capture these changes, i would have to get the following data:


-entire Eudora folder (don't really need attachments, since already on desktop)
-MyDocuments folder (i save a lot of junk to that directory)
- music that was recently downloaded ( a few files?)
- 11/3 spec+ meeting minutes and 11/4 house meeting minutes
-any research folders that were updated (entire VZ0071 folder..anything changed since 10/24)
-digital camera pictures taken (i think the only ones were from pumpkin carving on 10-27?)
-config safe folder?
-c:\winnt\repair ? (setup.log?)


that should be it. i can't think of anything else.

ok, well i've been whining about my laptop so much lately, i guess i should really mention the good news:

1) my computer can actually recognize the HD and its partitions (~10 GB each). Last time (2 years ago) the HD crashed, it couldn't even find the HD (totally dead)
2) upon powering on, my computer finds Windows 2000 (it finds c:\winnt) and tries to load it (last time, when i tried to turn it on, all it said was "Operating System not found).
3) worse comes to worst- I have a 10-day-old copy of the entire HD on TSM. and *all* my research data is already backed up on Narvaez. all my e-mails are also on my desktop at home. the system state data was backed up 2 months ago, but i believe i can get a more recent one using restore in ConfigSafe. furthermore, i don't recall installing any new programs in the past few months.

but here's the even better news:
- i am not dead. :)
- i am not deathly ill (or at least not aware of being such). yeah, my stomach has been hurting a great deal these past few days, but i'd take that anyday over things like leukemia, a brain tumor, or not being able to walk.
- the weather is perfect here (today it was sunny, must have been 65 degrees).
- my abs (and back, legs, etc) are having a blast with this new pilates classes that my mom introduced me to (i'm going tomorrow as well)
- i am continuing to have a blast studying japanese! i never get sick of it, it's so interesting and so much fun.
- i am getting to spend time with my family (first time home in 10 months). tonight we had dinner at my tia nora's house...since tio julio and danny were not there for the most part, it was the just the 5 of us women, eating, talking and laughing over the most *hilarious* things..it was great!!!
- and last, but certainly not least: i have michael, the cutest, sweetest guy in the world!!!! ;-)

Note that NONE of these above things mentioned my laptop, research/career, or money in general. that actually wasn't done on purpose..interesting. so basically what's really important are your health, your loved ones, and just doing things that you like to do (oh, and good weather would be nice.) ;-)

(btw: I AM SO FRUSTRATED with this laptop thing!)

anyway, new info:
- i downloaded the most recent version of DFT (Drive Fitness Tool, for IBM/Hitachi drives), put it on a floppy, and ran it on my laptop. it passed the Quick Test (phew), but not the Advanced Test :(. about 2 or 3 times the HD was making weird clicking noises, very similar to the sounds it makes when it tries to boot up but can't (right before the BSoD). I imagine that is when it is unable to read/write to a sector. Anyway, after the Advanced Test was over, it said that "one or more sectors is corrupted" or something like that, and it gave me the option of either erasing the disk, repairing the sector(s), or just doing nothing. since doing either of the first two would result in data loss, i did nothing. argh. well it gave me an error code and stuff, maybe tomorrow i will call the IBM folks and ask them what to do about this. Since i got the HD in Dec 2001 i'm not sure if it's still under warranty or not. regardless getting a new HD shouldn't be too expensive, and it wouldn't be too horrible if i had to move all my data onto a new HD...

-i made an Emergency Boot CD using a certain utility i downloaded (made by this russian guy), but was unable to use the 2nd option that has NTFS support. So i don't think this thing is going to work for me, since the main reason i made it was to access the harddisk. The thing also had Linux tools and other stuff on there, but i had no idea how to use them. :(

- i talked to my dad and he says that maybe we can meet on Wednesday (before my flight leaves) and we can try to fix it (using Fast Repair?) with the Windows 2000 CD (he has it). I'm going to first try it without an ERD, and then with one (i can make one using the files from TSM here). maybe i should also put the SAM file, since it is small enough to fit on a disk, and i think that file is somehow corrupted.

oh, and i almost forgot: in my drive info (from DFT), under security features it said the password was "not set," and the "security mode" was "frozen". i wonder if this is why i couldn't use a lot of utilities (the Win2k Recovery Console, the Microsoft Reg Repair utility and the NTFS support on the EBCD?) . there is a utility on the EBCD to reset the NT password, and i'm wondering if should try that? however i'm a bit skeptical of doing so, since it said it could corrupt a sam file and it would make some encrypted files (EFS files) unusable, whatever that means....

ok, after browsing the net even more, and getting TSM to work, there are a few updates:

- With TSM i was able to copy over C:\WINNT\repair, which dates to 12/2001 (when Win2k was reinstalled on computer), makes sense. There is also a folder Regback, which has registry files from 9/2003.

However:
1) The SOFTWARE file is too huge to fit on a floppy (16MB)..even the file at first installation is 5 MB.

BUT: i just found out that the Fast Repair option doesn't expect these registry files to be the floppy; supposedly it looks for them on C:\WINNT\repair and copies them over. What the Fast Repair does is it does the Manual Repair stuff :

[X] Inspect startup environment
[X] Verify Windows 2000 system files
[X] Inspect Boot Sector

it also supposedly checks the registry.

So the first thing i want to do is use this without an ERD. IF it doesn't work, i'll have to figure something else out

also: i think that once i can boot into it i should use ConfigSafe to restore it to a previous point. I don't remember when it last did a snapshot...i wonder how i can find that one out.

today i ran ~7 miles (can't tell the distance, but i jogged for 80 minutes so it's a rough estimate)..first mile or so was *really* hard for some reason (my shins and other muscles were hurting, i guess it's cuz i didn't really warm up). anyway, it got better, and i finished just in time (~5:30, when it started to get dark). oh, and it had just finished raining (light drizzle) and about halfway through, as i was passing by Oliver's Market, i saw a double rainbow! it was very cool, i wished i had my camera.

anyway, almost immediately after this i went with my parents to Circuit City, where my dad bought a cell phone. He got a monochrome Samsung phone, with the cheapest Verizon plan (cuz i said Verizon was the best). while he was talking w/ the sales guy i checked out some laptops, but none of them interested me (they were all too big and bulky). argh. i wish my laptop would come back to life, i really need it! :(

ok after browsing the net more, i think i figured out what i'm going to try next (to salvage my laptop). it will have to wait till Wednesday though, since i need a Windows 2000 installation CD (and my dad left his in San Jose).

anyways, i read somewhere that said that if your SAM registry file is messed up as well, the administrator password authentication won't work (and thus you won't be able to use the Recovery Console to repair the registry). so i guess that could explain it...

but anyway, i heard from at least 2 sources that the way to repair this issue in Win2k is not to use the Recovery Console, but to use Fast Repair (in Emergency Repair option). This supposedly uses an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), but one website said that if the ERD is not there it can try searching your computer for a Win2k installation and getting it from there. However, according to this Microsoft tip, you can actually make an ERD if you have a recent backup tape of the system, by copying some system state files to a formatted floppy disk.

So the plan is to boot using the Windows 2k installation CD, but instead of hitting (C) for the Recovery Console, hit (R) for Emergency Repair, and then Select Fast Repair option (will use this newly created ERD).

anyway, in order to get access to the tape backup, i have to install TSM on this desktop here at home, and then login and restore a certain system folder. that's all going to take a while since i have dialup here (TSM is a 40 MB installation file, after about 20 minutes only 7 MB has been downloaded).

so i hope this works....

...i don't really know myself, but i'm glad one american airlines pilot did...which is why i'm here. :) i got in last night around 9:30pm (12:30 am boston time)..dad picked me up finally (there was some confusion over which terminal i was at). afterwards we went to his house and i ate some food (the gluten-free meal served on AA was bland to say the least, so i ended up not eating a lot of it). also we stopped by his work before driving to SR. it was 1am (4am ET) when we finally got home, so i was dead-tired to say the least (also, considering i haven't had much sleep this past week).

anyways, i brought my laptop here, to see if my dad and I can resucitate it back to life sometime this weekend. i tried the Win2k registry repair utility that i mentioned before (required making 6 floppies) and that didn't ask for any passwords, but it said it was unable to repair the registry. Argh...if i only i can past this administrator password problem!!! i've tried everything.

this week has been of the worst, to say the least. i shouldn't be complaining left and right, but just to outline the events of this week:

- MONDAY: don't get much research done, as busy doing SP-related stuff.
-TUESDAY: late at night, laptop crashes and doesn't boot. minutes from SP house meeting (lively conversation, to say the least) and other stuff is on there.
- WEDNESDAY: It's raining pretty hard, and my backpack gets soaked despite huge umbrella. While i was walking home, some a**hole in a SUV barrels down Albany Street (riddled with puddles a foot deep) and leaves me soaked (i just happened to wearing my favorite jeans).
-THURSDAY: I can't work on my iedm presentation since my laptop is on the fritz. spend all day googling the error and trying several things to fix it but no avail.
- FRIDAY: on my laptop, i try Win2k repair utility (requires scrambling to find 6 floppies)..took a while since i had to find a Win2k machine to make the disks on and at first there were corrupted files on them. After finally entering the utility it gives me access to the directory (no passwords) but then it says it was unable to repair it. :( back to square one.
I also install TSM on an other machine, in attempt to recover some workable copies of research, but it takes too long and since i have to leave for home soon and get to the airport. So as i'm leaving for home, i get stuck in the Building 39 elevator for ~20 minutes (didn't have cell phone, or anything..was pretty bad).

Restoring the system hive without an ERD
If you don’t have a recent copy of the system hive saved to an ERD, you have two options for fixing the damaged system hive on your server: Fast Repair and the Recovery Console.

Using Fast Repair
You can run Fast Repair from the Emergency Repair Process screen described above, but before you do, make absolutely sure that you have no other choice. If you run Fast Repair on a Windows 2000 domain controller, Windows 2000 will activate the system hive as it was when you first installed the operating system.

Fast Repair looks in %systemroot%\repair for the requisite files, but these files won’t have been updated to include any additional programs you installed on your server. For a domain controller, this includes things such as Active Directory. When Fast Repair finishes, you must reboot and reinstall all necessary software and drivers. When you finally get the domain controller going again, be sure to back up the system state daily so you can restore the Active Directory from Directory Services Restore Mode.

from: http://asia.cnet.com/itmanager/netadmin/0,39006400,39117840-3,00.htm

argh. well computer still isn't fixed..maybe tomorrow can get the data recovered. the options at this point are

1) use the Windows 2000 Registry Repair utility from Microsoft (just came out a month ago)
2) use a program to reset the Win2k admin password
3) try Fast Repair without an ERD (probably won't work)

i sort of want to wait until all my data is backed up first though...

anyway, i just started an experiment on my devices..will have to come back to the lab tonite. right now i'm going to go work out. anyway, i hope i get some decent data from this..since i haven't been able to do anything all week.

i haven't posted in a while. but just to give an update - Tuesday night (actually, since it was around 2 am, it's technically yesterday morning), my laptop crashed as it was trying to shut down. when i turned it back on it tried to boot up but instead gave me the blue screen of death, featured with this wonderful message:

Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable

after that it restarts and tries to bootup again and the same thing happens. I googled this error and found out that this problem is quite common (and the *same exact thing* also happened to Michael's laptop a few months back). The general solution is to use the OS installation CD (in my case, Windows 2000) and repair it using the Recovery Console. Since my laptop originally came with Windows98 (Win2k was later installed by MTL Computing Support), I didn't have the Win2k CD. However, I borrowed one from Michael, and it looked promising all the way up to the part where it asks you to enter the "administrator password." I ("anita7" on MTLNT) am an administrator on my laptop, so i entered my password for that--however, it wouldn't take it. i tried entering a blank password, and it didn't accept that either. i googled it and a few others with the c0000218 error message also had this issue, and some gave links to sites that had programs that allowed you to reset the password. however, michael said those didn't work for him, that he thinks he remembers finding an installation CD that didn't ask for the password (he can't remember which one).

anyway, i think the issue is that i need to supply the original admin password that was on there when Win2k was first installed. Since it was installed in December 2001 by MTL support guys, it's probably best if they check it out first. They probably have seen this error many a time and are much more knowledgeable on how to fix it. i sort of don't want to take my chances in following some random instructions i found on google, since i might end up screwing it up even further (at this point i just want to recover my data!)

ok, this is just a angry rant--i've been waiting *30 minutes* to take a shower here in SP...i've been running the water for all that time and STILL the water is COLD (not lukewarm, COLD). this lack-of-hot-water problem is quite common in Sidney-Pacific (has been an issue since Day one, that was the subject of the very first e-mail that went around to the residents), but this is the absolute worst its been. What if you were going for a scheduled meeting or interview, and you weren't able to take a shower for this reason? You would end up being late , or you would have to scramble to the Z Center and use the showers there (probably be late anyway).

also, i'm pissed cuz the heaters haven't been working for the past few days either. what's going on? Argh...