Tips to format your computer

Aii-yii. It's 36 degrees right now and I live in Florida. Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? It does to me. Well I didn't come on here to complain about the weather (no, I complain about it on Twitter)..I came on here to inform you that last week I formatted my computer. By myself. Yeah I know I alread told you I formatted my Windows XP computer. My purpose now is to help those poor souls who are going to take on that feat all by themselves. May heaven be with you my child. Anyway lets get right down to it.
First you should know; It will take you all day, especially if this is your first time. So make sure you have the time to be able to do it.
Secondly read this post (mine) and this one and this one before you wipe out your computer. And print all of those up so you have something to refer back to.
Thirdly, have an external harddrive to back up everything, pictures, music, documents, online antivirus software (that is if you got it online) etc.
Backup and restore all your Windows drivers on that external harddrive, also save the installation for whichever program you used to back up all your drivers (I used DriverMax, it's easy to use). So if you downloaded DriverMax, save that installation file on your harddrive, cause once you wipe your computer you won't be able to connect to the internet to download and install DriverMax (or whatever other program you choose).
I recommend watching this, it gives you a selection of driver backups and how to use them.

Alright next, find out exactly what you have inside your computer's little head. You can print out what software, drivers, installers, you have from your Device Manager but I recommend downloading and using Belarc Advisor in addition to printing out what you have on your Device Manager. It will basically audit your computer. A very nice feature. So print out those two things, you might be needing these papers later so don't do anything without them.
Now make sure you have all your discs, to reinstall your software (ie.
A Windows XP installation CD with a valid Product Key, Drivers CD). These CD's should have come with your computer. If not....well find a way to get them. Also make sure you have your software CD's (ie Microsoft Office, Photoshop CS3) with your valid serial keys.
And lastly......make sure you have an extra laptop....see if you can borrow a friend's. Cause once you start wiping it you can't get back online and look up something that you have a question about. So it would be a good idea to have another computer to do that with.
Got all that? Okay good. Time to start over.
Insert the Windows installation disk into your CD drive, shut down your PC.
Then, boot from CD which bascially means when it's starting up, you should see a black screen before your blue Windows logon screen. When you see that black screen punch F12 or F2 (depending on your computer).
Follow the Windows installation. I would go into more detail but the site that I referred you to at the beginng of this post did such a nice job...that I'm gonna refer you to that. Now this is going to take forever. So go see a movie..actually go see 2 movies...yes, it will take that long if not longer. Mine took 4 and a half hours.
After that's done though...bam! Say hello to your new Windows! :)
Now it may be a lil outta whack...screen might be messed up, icons too big/small, whatever...that's cause you don't have the drivers to make it run normal and pretty like.
So install any missing drivers. Chnaces are though you won't have all of them (at least I didn't). Now remember that DriverMax I had you download? Well, install it on your computer and import all the drivers you had exported to your harddrive before you formatted.
Next, install a anti-virus protection. Pronto. I highly, gigantically, recommend you do it before you go online.
If your anti-virus was on a CD go ahead and upload it. If you downloaded it online....well make sure you download it on to your external harddrive before you wipe it, so that you can download it on to your computer from your external harddrive.
Now, go online and update Windows. Be sure to install any software updates you need and make sure your firewall is up and you are protected.
And you're done! Let me know how it works out for you :)

I have way more to post than just this..

But it will have to do for now.
I'm a columnist (sorta) for The Alligator, the newspaper at UF and here is my first column....ready? Ta-da!! You can read the original here but I posted it so that if you're really lazy you don't have to make that extra click :P

Online proposals no substitution for face–to–face romance
By Michelle Hipps, Speaking Out

LuckyD0g21: So what are your plans for this weekend?

SunshineGrl43: I’m gonna hang out with the girls and maybe go see Bride Wars.

LuckyD0g21: You think you can squeeze me in for a date?

No matter how it’s phrased or what online method is used, it’s becoming more common for guys to ask girls out online.

I can’t help but wonder why.

My friends suggested shyness, a desire to speed up the relationship or maybe just the opportunity presenting itself. Though these are all critical, I think the real core issue is rejection. That, I think, is the harsh reality that makes guys use the online method when asking girls out.

They can ask for a date and if the answer is no, well, it wasn’t said to their face, so they’ve saved their ego. How convenient.

Since when did rejection become so avoidable?

Rejection is something we should face, I believe, fairly frequently. Rejection will make you tougher and make you work for the things you really want. If there’s someone you wish to spend time with, no amount of rejection will stop you from getting what you want.

Aside from the obvious, experiencing rejection will influence how you reject others. My personal experience with rejection, though sometimes painful, has proved beneficial.

When I was placed in the position to refuse an applicant for hire, I did it gently and gave her another option, pointing her across the street to another place that was hiring. Who knows — maybe I pushed her through the door that was supposed to be opened by my rejection of her application.

Avoiding rejection and placing buffers around you to prevent rejection is, quite frankly, weak. Rejection and all the other pains of life make you stronger, so avoiding them is your undoing. Knowing this, I won’t accept a proposal for a date when asked online.

Ask me in person, or ask me over the phone and put yourself out there. Show me your courage; show me you’re willing to face rejection to get what you really want.

I’m not saying that asking a girl out in person or over the phone where you’re more vulnerable will secure your chances of scoring a date. Nope, I can’t guarantee that. However, it will make us respect you. It reminds us what you’re putting on the line to ask us out: yourself. It also reminds us ladies that we can’t just CTRL+ALT+DEL the conversation like nothing happened.

No, if we turn your offer down we need to do it gracefully and nicely because we are dealing with a person and not some vague online identity. Conversing and dealing with people in person is tough on both parties, but we haven’t reached a point in our lives where we strictly deal with people online. We still have to master face–to–face interaction with people, which means we need to practice it.

So put down your BlackBerry or iPhone and say hello to the person next to you – especially if it’s a person you’re interested in. And instead of asking them for their e–mail address, I suggest starting with, “You wanna get some coffee?”

Michelle A. Hipps is a telecommunications senior.

A poem? for moi?

I had to wipe my computer, the whole process took me about 3 days to do....yet I managed to get through it and I have to say, I'm very happy with myself. :)
So that's my excuse for not being the dedicated blogger that I should be.
Anyway I someone wrote a poem and dedicated it to me so I thought it would be apropo to share it with you. (I'm having a de ja vu` moment....did I already post this?) meh...well here it is again.

Strangers
By: Kristopher Elliott

Optimistic and Fidgety
It’s hard to get a bearing on what
To think or what to perceive
But that night I took a chance
And walked away with
A good friend
That stranger in the night…

One widget to rule them all..

I needed to add widgets to my blog to point people to where I'm at on the web. So I strolled over to various sites to look at their widgets and was not really liking the huge variety that I saw...I mean I like the widgets..but each site that I was on had various sizes, colors, etc...they seemed so mish-mashed when I tested them out. And I realized that someone needs to create one widget that can pull from any/each site that you want and neatly organize it for the audience's review. So I found widgetbox.com and that's what I have on my website....but, I'm still not happy with it...it has advertisements on it...and I can't add widgets to it...notice technorati is not on it...hulu's not on it...the widgetbox.com only gave me a limited selection, and that makes me unhappy.
But it was the best I could find for the current moment. I can't see myself sticking with it for very long, but I shall settle for it now. Because if I know the web, like I think I do, something better will come out. I'm counting on it.
Anyway you gotta watch this video it's so sweet.

Happy Belated New Year...I'm late...I know

You miss me? Well lucky for you the feeling is mutual.
My very last semester of undergrad school starts tomorrow. I'm excited and at the same time I'm not. I want to go to school, to you know, get this last semester over with, but at the same time...I really have no desire to get up and go. Alas, I shall, because it's what's best..or so I'm told.
My computer was infected with Adware, so I resorted to system restore, something I really didn't want to do. But it fixed my issue. It also dawned on me to renew my antivirus system..something I haven't done in quite a while. Still have yet to hear back from Eset though...
Anyway, I really have to snazz up my blog...it is so lacking...it's just been on the backburner cause quite frankly I've had alot of other important things to do...ie. work, pay bills, sleep, eat, (repeat).
But I promise you audience of one, I shall get to it later this week.
Anyway, it's 1:43, and it's already past my bedtime.
Oh! but I have to tell you my new year's resolution: to live with less. Yep, that's it. Last year it was to be a vegetarian for 6 months. This year, to be a little cheaper and more efficient with my things.
Anyway I gotta run to bed. But read this when you can...it's things you should know about the internet.