Learn Something Everyday -Getting Outlook Back -Feb 5, 6

February 5  The most significant thing that happened today in my world was not the super bowl… or the salad bowl... which went just fine with pizza.  It was that I got my old Microsoft Outlook back… and in it were over 13,000 unread messages and all my Contacts, which were not backed up anywhere and had been lost since December 21, 2010. We take a lot for granted until we don't have it any more.

The short version is: After six weeks of working on fixing Outlook, we have it fixed and working again at long last. Thank you Shelby for all your help.

Lesson Learned:  My son tells me that Outlook is not designed to have more than 2GB of data in it… so when I got close to 6GB accumulated there it crashed on me.  I need to not let unread emails pile up for years and years.  Sorry.  I will try to do better.

Here is the long version of what I went thru to get the problem fixed:

After spending more than 4 hours and $200 with a computer tech guy here on Mayne Island… and taking my computer in to Future Shop, where they could not figure out how to fix it… they gave me my corrupted Outlook file on a portable hard drive so I could work on it. 

Like, if they couldn’t fix it, how in God’s green earth would I ever figure it out?  So I talked to my son and he said he thought he could fix it… so I mailed the hard drive to him.  When he received it and finally got home where he could work on it, he had it fixed in just a few minutes… but it took several hours to scan the 6 GB file and clean up the problem.  Then to speed up my recovery time Shelby sent me back the repaired file in the cloud… as well as mailing it back.  It took me several days to find the cloud… I had no idea which cloud had my file and when I did find it the download failed four times before I finally realized I had to stay with my computer to keep it awake to the absolute end of the download.  The download took over 3 hours and 27 minutes. 

Next there was this huge problem of how to get the file into the right place and figure out how to open the file.  I needed Shelby again… and so after the Super Bowl he guided me thru how to do it.  We spent about an hour on Skype and my computer working on finding the right file.  We ended up getting it off the returned portable hard drive.  Then Shelby left me to work thru getting it to open.  This was no small job… and shortly after 10 PM there was a scream of ecstasy from my corner of the house!  Eureka!  I did it… and all my contacts were there!  Equilibrium has been restored to this part of the planet!

What a hard way to learn a lesson.


"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill

February 6, 12  Have you ever heard of “The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun?”  I stumbled on the guy who did this in my recovered Contacts file.  Even if you have seen this before you need to check out this great little inspirational animated flash presentation again.  It is full of choice quotes and a good way to spend five minutes.

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun:

1.    Stop hiding who you really are and take time to figure out what makes up your DNA

2.    Start being intensely selfish

3.    Stop following the rules… except for gravity almost all of the rules are negotiable.

4.    Start scaring yourself.

5.    Stop taking it all so damn seriously.

6.    Start getting rid of the crap.

7.    Stop being busy.

8.    Start something.


Hope that you all are off to a great start on the week... 
full of FUN!  :-)