Today's name of the day at the ROM is Michael. Actually, it's been more like the name of the week. I've entered so many Michael's into the membership database that you would think it would go out of style. The web address of the day is definitely thejaggededgegroup.com, just for the name alone. It would have to be for the name, since there's nothing on the page yet.

I had my first Krispy Kreme doughnut today. It was... kind of tasty, but really sweet, and it had this weird texture and I didn't need to chew. I'm sorry, but... shouldn't you have to chew a doughnut? You'd think. Calvin, at work, says you should have them nuked, because 'they're just like angel wings'. I'll take his word for it. Anyway, I had said doughnut at a membership/foundation coffee mixer, or something, this morning. Of course, the point was to mingle together, but membership talked to membership and foundation talked to foundation. It's like foundation views membership as it's poor relation, or something. That said, I think it fair to point out that the coffee was quite delicious.

My commute in to the city from the Petes this morning was quite extraordinary. The sun was coming up and had cast a rosey glow over all of the clouds in the very blue sky. The light itself had that special fragility of autumn sunlight, that clear brightness that can only barely chase away the frost. And there was frost. There was a delicate silver coating over all the umber and chocolate shades of grass along the highway; with the coloured leaves above it was even more beautiful. Add to that how quickly the drive passed and how smoothly the traffic moved and I could almost persuade myself that I should move back to Peterborough and commute in to work.

Almost.

...

And, this just in: Bad news.

Your computer and Maxtor's own diagnostic tools are unable to detect
your hard drive. The clunking noise means the power is working, computer
knows that something is attached, but is unable to follow-through with
the detection process.

I tried switching ide cables, power cables, and primary/secondary
positions on the motherboard. (As well as using another computer.) The
problem is definitely the hard drive itself, which will need to be sent
to a professional recovery center if you are to recover any data.

There's http://www.cdrdatarecovery.com/ in toronto that advertises an
"under $500" special.. They might not be a bad option, since they don't
charge you if they can't get any data. Or try a big US company like
http://www.drivesavers.com/.

What a recovery center can do is replace the drive components in a
cleanroom or move the disk platters to a new drive altogether, that sort
of thing. It isn't cheap, but you have to decide how much of your
time/money your data is worth to you.

This terrible, terrible news comes straight from Derek who was doing an autopsy on Natasha. And just this time last week I was trilling joyfully about her. I should have backed up her files... I kept meaning to, but just never got around to it. I've been so busy. And now I want to cry. I guess Mom and I will discuss the options tonight.