Lost & Dubious Treasures

[naomikritzer]

I am currently cleaning out and re-organizing the basement. This has involved multiple trips to Menards to buy cheap, sturdy, ugly shelving and cabinets. I have also been digging through boxes. Things I have found:

* My social security card
* Two Nepali posters, one advertising the IUD, the other advertising the Safe Home Birth Kit
* A heating pad
* Two hair dryers
* A whole lot of 5 1/4 inch disks

Some of these disks appear to belong to Ed, but a small number are mine. Odds are good that they contain my teenage writing. There are two questions that occur to me: (1) Should I want to access the data on these disks, do I know anyone who owns a computer with a disk drive that accomodates 5 1/4 inch disks? And (2) Even if I do, do I really want to read anything I wrote as a high school student?

The basement project is coming along very nicely. I highly recommend the Rubbermaid cabinets and shelves -- they go together quickly and easily, provided that you have the recommended and theoretically optional rubber mallet. (If that's "optional," then screwdrivers are optional when assembling Erector-set-style shelving, because you could just use your thumbnail.) Don't buy it at Target, though, unless you hate Menards enough to pay money to avoid it; Menards has the same items for about $20 less.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

*Innocent look*

I still have a working 486-based machine with 5 1/4 drive, 3 1/2 drive, DOS, and Word Perfect 5.1...

[naomikritzer]

Oooh, these are almost certainly WordPerfect files, too.

[swords-and-pens.livejournal.com]

"I still have a working 486-based machine with 5 1/4 drive, 3 1/2 drive, DOS, and Word Perfect 5.1..."

Wow. A purist.

Sweet. :)

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I don't know how far back our machines go, but the oldest is a Tandy 1000 (in a closet)

We have a machine with a 5 1/4 drive and a 3 1/2 drive, and Windows 3.1 as well as DOS. Martin *likes* to use DOS.

You may actually want to spend a little while looking at them on someone's old box. Some files may be of sentimental value, or useful for record-keeping. On the other hand, I've found some of my disks that old are no longer readable.

[naomikritzer]

Yeah, this has been in a basement for ten years and who knows where before that. I have no idea if it's still readable. If the machine with the 5 1/4 drive is usable and accessible, I would love to come over sometime and transfer the files to a 3 1/2 inch disk (my current computer does have a drive for those, though I can't remember the last time I used one).

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Sure - do you have my phone number? Just call. I don't think we're very busy this week, except I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday.

[springbok1.livejournal.com]

Before you go to the trouble of trying to open up your 5 1/4" floppies, you might double check with dad. Last I knew, he still had most of my high school writing (maybe even middle school) stuck off on a folder on his server.

guess what ...

[thetruthsquad.livejournal.com]

I have a slew of Naomi stuff on my hard disk from 1991 ...

The Dad

Re: guess what ...

[naomikritzer]

Hmm. There was a computer in my room starting in about 1989. I wrote a ton of stuff on it, and I doubt I ever would have requested it to be backed up.

I looked through the directory you sent me, and it mostly looks like papers and college entrance essays. I don't see anything there that looks like it might be "Darknight," the first story I ever attempted to get published.