Vacuuming with big cats

I’ve been stubbornly insisting that I’m doing Nanowrimo, despite my paltry word count so far and my job still being very busy.

However, this weekend my brain had had enough, and it pulled out a sure fire weapon to get me to admit I’m not doing Nano: “Elizabeth,” my brain said, “You need to upgrade to Mountain Lion NOW.”

My brain is more clever than me, and quite persuasive, so that’s what I did. This required:

* making a backup disk image of my current system, because, um, I never made an official backup of this computer, which I got three years ago, and didn’t have the space to re-use the partition I’d used for my previous computer to make a real backup

* a trip to Best Buy for a new hard drive because I really should have a backup other than Time Machine. This included a bunch of other errands too. Like new socks, and a haircut, and the last of my Christmas shopping. Plus writing breaks at Panera and Starbucks (see, brain? I got work done despite you!)

* making many backups of the computer and my working files, plus a bootable clone just in case I had to go back to Snow Leopard or find a program that only works under Snow Leopard

* the actual installation. Step one: download the upgrade. Step two: go jogging while it’s downloading. Step three: Install. Step four: yardwork while the installation is going.

* Checking all my important applications to make sure they still work. Downloaded a new version of my password manager because that one broke. So far it seems to be the only one, and I got all my data back.

* Making a new backup of the new system like I should have three years ago. Because I don’t really want to lose everything.

So far I like it. New software stuff to play with, what’s not to like? Except now it’s all set up, and I have to find another way to procrastinate.

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