Success!

I passed! I got approval from the requesite committee members, I've made the requested changes, and I'm officially Dr. SaraBear. All that remains is to give that big ol' document a final proofread and send it off to the university's grad school for a format check. It's such a relief to have this burden off of my shoulders. I've been living with this goal for so long. Gotta finish the dissertation. I'll do that after I finish the dissertation. Not until I finish the dissertation.

Now I'm left to wonder ... what happens next?

D-day

It all comes down to this.

On Monday, I'm defending my dissertation.

I have no idea what to expect. Major changes? Tough questions? Wholescale rewrites? Prolonged, derisive laughter? Tears, either on my part or on the faces of my committee members?

I really don't know. But whatever you're doing on Monday afternoon, please take a moment and pray for Mojo.*





*I am not, in fact, known as Mojo. I am referencing a Simpsons episode. Feel free to laugh.

Burning love

I am a successful DVD burner. Bow before me.

No, really, it's a big accomplishment for someone whose forte isn't electronics. I had no luck with the Cheetah program, but I didn't tinker with it for very long because the very nice technical support guy at Sonic got My DVD up and running. What worked for me might work for you, so I'll put it here.

First, uninstall RealPlayer or RealOnePlayer (or OneRealPlayer or the OneRingRealPlayer or the PrecioussssssPlayer) or whatever variation of "real," "player," and possibly "one" you might have on your computer.

Second, turn off all the programs that automatically launch at the computer's start-up. Yes, it disables your virus sweeper and various other components. You can turn them back on when you're done burning; just don't forget to turn them off before your next burning session.

Those two steps worked for me, and I'm burning like a champ now.

Aren't you proud that I got through without a "burn, baby, burn" joke? Oh, does that count as one? Drat.

Help for the hopeless

So I'm a TiVo gal. Don't have one? Go get one, ASAP. No, really. I'll wait.


So now that you've got one, you'll probably want to save some of your favorite shows forever and ever, my precioussss. TiVo lets you do that with TiVoToGo, where you can send programs to your computer and then burn them onto DVD. Sounds pretty sweet, right? The problem is that the officially recommended software, MyDVD, doesn't, um, work. It's a huge hair-pulling, gut-clenching pain in my non-techno-savvy neck.

A possible solution came to me today from a very nice man at TiVo support, who told me off-the-record and very hush-hush that I should by no means use MyDVD. Instead, he recommended I use Cheetah to burn my DVDs once I get my shows onto my computer.

My optimistic heart beats a little faster. Let's hear it for Cheetah and its magical (I hope!) ability to solve my burning problem! If you've had this same problem, check them out for yourself: www.cheetahburner.com

Here's hoping I saved you the half-hour you might have had to spend with TiVo support.

Is this thing on?

This is my inagural foray into the world of blogging. I have no goal in mind for this corner of the web right now. We shall see what unfolds.

The title of my little venture comes from, of all places, an ad I once wrote for a garage sale we hosted. At a loss to describe the shards of our lives we were putting out for sale, I simply ended the ad with "and intriguing miscellany." I figured it would spark a few people's curiousity. And sure enough, two twenty-something women told me they made a point to come to ours because, "Look! Intriguing miscellany! How can we skip that?"

Do I remember what they bought? Alas, no. But I hope they remain intrigued by it to this day.