Linux Links for Grub Recovery

I see a lot of searches for Grub recovery and Grub help. here are some links if you lose Grub on your system.

Here are some links that will hopefully get your computer going again.

Grub Home Page:  The main source for everything about Grub

PCLinuxoS Forum article: Great article from a real expert!

Distrowatch Weekly 11 January 2010  Grub recovery: Very good source with a fairly comprehensive list of distribution and recovery iso’s to help.

Super Grub recovery disk: Grub recovery software

Linuxhelp.blogspot.com: Good article to get your system working again.

The best recovery is back up important information and files. Sooner or later your hard drive may crash and nothing will help. Secondly, try not to lose Grub in the first place. Install Linux after Windows, not before.

A side note, if you have a system with Lilo, Grub installs well after Lilo, but Lilo generally is not able to write over Grub.

Life on a Chess Board

I change from interest, to interest looking for hobbies that are fun, and also be a brain challenge No matter what our ages, or occupation, we all have a curiosity that drives us ever forward to places we either have never been or have not spent much time in. Lately Chess has caught my interest again.

If you have never played Chess, it is outwardly a simply game with a number of pieces most of which look pretty much alike. Once you understand what those wood or plastic curiosities represent, the game starts to take on new dimensions, and can jump realities if your imagination is up to the task.

The smallest pieces are lowly pawns, peasants of old who were probably conscripted to fight a war they have little chance of living through. Like all men, they have dreams of riches and power. They are the foot soldiers who generally make the first move starting the battle as the two armies stand immobile facing each other. The lighter colored conscripted soldier steps out of the ranks, scoffs at the enemy some yards away, and he pulls down his zipper and begins to mark his territory.

Next out of the ranks and into the fray are usually the Knights. Powerful servants or friends of the King. They ride powerful war horses on the battle field, looking for victims. Generally ruthless in close proximity, they fell pawns and pieces with ruthless cunning, and surprising strength.

Those lanky Bishops are another matter, their allegiance is to the King on the surface, but their habits always leave me wondering who they really serve. Bishops have a long reach in the form of distant power. They may have spies and friends in the enemy camp. Outwardly Bishops appear innocent enough, but they too are killers; with a little more discretion. It seems Bishops kill close up by virtue of their long reach. They get close and poison or stab between the ribs those who thought they were friends. After their fiendish acts, they wrap themselves in their cloaks, and slink off feigning shock and innocence over the ghastly murders.

Out on the edge of the field are the Rooks. They look like simpletons until they have a foe in their sights and they unleash their destructive power raining down death and destruction from far away and up close. Defending possibly many acres of territory, able to traverse the country side carrying their own protection with them, they are much feared by the opposing armies, as well they should be.

The King of course is very powerful in his own right. Young and strong, , directing his armies, and managing to a large extent his own safety. No member of the opposing army wants to get close to the King without some protection from other members of their own army. The King once he decides where his encampment generally does not like to break camp and travel to a new location. There are too many risks for the King to move across the country early in the battle. Plus it does not look Kingly fleeing across the board.

The Queen is the most powerful piece though it was not always so. Through her cunning and ruthlessness, even the King gives the Queen more than a little respect. With all the power and protection of a Rook, the long arms of a Bishop, and her ear on the gossip channel, the Queen is a formidable enemy most do not want to have the unfortunate pleasure of facing. The Queen’s weakness of course is she is female, and liable to be struck down by a lowly foot soldier if she does not watch her step.

Chess as it is played is also very dynamic. The soldiers take on different roles as the game progresses. They start out scanning the fields looking for the enemy, working as sappers, and snipers, picking away at soldiers who dallied around instead of forming strong defenses with their compatriots.

In the middle game, the blood flows freely. Pieces and foot solders hack, slash, and cry out in pain. Some soldiers on the board are trapped and/or tortured, others are cut down so swiftly they do not even have time to realize they are dying.

Later still, in the end game, the remaining Soldiers become wild dogs, chasing the scent of spilled blood. The few pieces that remain standing at the battles end, work together to hunt down the enemy King, and give him the death he deserves for making their life so miserable.

Occasionally, a foot soldier, a simple pawn, survives the bloodshed and makes it to the far end of the board. For that lowly peasant, the power and riches of the Kingdom await him. With that final step he can ask to be changed into any piece in the battle! Instantly his wishes are granted. Behold his wrath as he is transformed from a nothing, and given the power of a Queen! The enemy King shudders at the sight, knowing his end has come much closer.

At the lowest levels of play, the battles are horrid, slashing, spearing, and hacking. Resembling a rabid pack of wild dogs, hot on the scent of fresh blood, only dimly mindful there is victory and treasure if they win the battle.

On the highest levels of play, chess battles take on a unique form, almost a dance. Perhaps a choreographed ballet, where the battle is not only be fought with precision and maximum effect; the battle can also be visually stunning, carefully crafted to give the look of simplicity. For of course the spectators looking on from the sidelines might imagine their games look as good, and one day they too will rule battlefields around the world.

The Art of Who You Are

When we were young children, we went through our days following someones preplanned agenda. Someone, usually our parents, have decided what we are going to do, when we are going to do it. A few years later and we are absorbed into a school system, on our way to being Borg’d.

Around ten or eleven most of us are becoming aware we have an identity or our own. We have not given more than a fleeting thought or two of who we are, but we know we are our own something.

It all starts falling apart when we reach our teenage years. We were doing fine, being a part of the whole, and having fun. We sit in our class with our friends and a few not so friends, and we start thinking we need to be a little different. We feel a need to stand out and have our own identity.

Where this urge comes from some think is peer pressure and media influencing us without our ever realizing it. Perhaps we participate via applying peer pressure on other teens. What I find so obvious looking back on the whole process is: I was changing, or at least trying to, and I had no real idea who I was to start with! Does that thought sound familiar?

Almost all of us, except for that little group we never want to be seen with, were all busy trying to be unique, be different, and find ourselves. We wanted to discover who we were and find our life path. It turns out after the fact, we not the best at placing the idea of finding ourselves in action.

What we did instead was find everything and anything we could that generally led us as far away from ourselves as we can possibly get. The clothes we wore were suddenly not good enough. We have to have different clothes, and we were not happy until we have enough clothes to wear through the school week, plus different clothes on the week ends.

We looked for others ways to change. For teenage girls, makeup was the beginning. In a rush to be different, young girls suddenly need to wear makeup. With teenage boys it was usually a change in behavior. We no longer wanted to be seen doing or watching anything that may be considered a child’s activity. We did things in private that we always did, but in public we never mentioned a word of it and chastised those that admited to doing childish things.

In our teenage quest to find ourselves, we turned to those a few years older than us and tried to emulate them. Of course they were trying to emulate those people older than themselves, so in essence we were picking up their discards. A few of us looked for ourselves in less savory activities, mainly the worlds of addiction.

Our actor who is living our life for us continues acting into our forties. Without warning, we relive a memory from our past, see a picture or movie about when we were young, and it all comes rushing back. Like hitting a wall, we realize that in our rush to find our unique selves, all we did was create an acting role. Like falling off a bicycle, we realize we are no closer to finding ourself than we were twenty years ago.

Suddenly that small group we never wanted to get close too seems more appealing. It all makes sense, now that we have left the fog we were living in. That small group of people we shunned, maybe they had it right all along. They too were trying to find themselves.

What separates them from us, is they were smart about it. They somehow understood that what makes us unique had nothing to do with clothing, looks, or language. They spent all these years working on developing themselves instead of the actor we created all those years ago. Now the addicts our age, who have not perished of their personal poison start hitting bottom. They die, or they too finally decide to start looking for their real self too. They too realize that what they are doing is hollow and has no meaning.

Lucky for most of us, we can find out who we are, and uniquely qualified to be us fairly quickly if we want to. All we have to do is take the actor which has been living our life, and send him or her into retirement. Once the actor in us is retired, we begin to have a glimpse of who we really are, and what we are really about.

While completing the process, for real this time, of finding us, we can add another skill and chapter to the book that makes up our life. We all were actors at one time or another. Some of us better than others, though we can all add acting to the book of our life.

Some say it is the media influence, others peer pressure, yet others Satan in the shadows working his evil, which takes us away from what and who we are meant to be. It may one or two of those things, it may be hundred more, but most of us seem to fall the same piper. In the quest to find ourself we get lost in the wilderness. We wander around in a fog, wondering why we are not happy, or at least content.

It feels so good to see those waiting for us, holding up the sign at the end of our trail. The sign that says, “Welcome Back, We have been waiting for you, and we are so very glad you showed up!

Stop Being Shy – Only If You Want To 2 of 2

Now that you are used to making comments on blogs and other articles you have read, share them with your friends. Speak to or email one or more of your ‘safe’ friends, and share the link to what you read and what you feel about it.

Emailing someone is safe, and sharing your opinion is only a little step from making comments somewhere where no one knows you, so it is also safe. You also want to keep reading and commenting on what you read at least once every day. Reading and commenting is the foundation stone of your process of overcoming shyness. You may want to slip back to where you are most comfortable because it is easy, but do not allow yourself to do this, keep moving forward.

You should be doing two things every day now, reading and commenting. Reading something on the web, commenting on it, and emailing your friends about what  you read with a link, and how you feel about it.

Once you are comfortable doing this it is time add another step. This step is only a small step from commenting on posts and articles and emailing your friends about what you read still including a link. In fact it is a safe way of combining both tasks.  Your next step is find forums you have an interest in and join them.

Forums are everywhere and most are easy to participate in. Some forum examples are Craigslist, which some feel is more of a zoo than a forum. Other possibilities are forums on computers, gardening, hiking, bicycling, personal development, the list in endless. Both Yahoo, and Google have groups you can become a member of on hundreds of  subjects.

All you have to do is sign up and start participating. Groups are a great next step because you are a little less anonymous yet you are still largely unknown by anyone other than comments and thoughts you contribute to the forum.

While you are participating in your group, do not let your commenting on what you read on the web and sharing it with friends fall to the wayside. You need to keep at it until it becomes habit and you do not even have to think about it any more.

If you have done these things faithfully for a month or so, they should be pretty much ingrained in you by now, and you can proceed to the next level. This marks a change from interacting on the web. You will be using your new found skills and abilities to interacting with real people in real time. For this step you will need to be a little adventurous and creative. Check out Craigslist, Yahoo, and search the web for groups that meet where you live that you have an interest in and can join and contribute.

Any group you join does not need to be something you have burning passion for, but it does need to be a group which you can enjoy and participate in. The value of moving your skills from the web to the world, is you are now starting to make the change in yourself with real live human beings. The time and effort you have put into the web have given you a new skill set you may have never used, or became rusty. Now being part of a group, you can talk, debate, contribute, or debate with some modicum of distance between you and those around you.

After you have spent enough time in a group environment where you have honed your skills, and you have accomplished what you set out to do. You are no longer shy, unless you choose to be and you now have good skills to talk to anyone about anything, anytime.

Now you have experienced that worst that can happen face to face in a safe environment of the web. You have been disagreed with, argued with, ignored, and everything else people do when interacting with one another. You also have been agreed with, quoted, asked for your opinion, and started new conversations. You have been a part of most of the worst and most of the best of not being shy. The rest is up to you now. Good luck, and I hope you are happy with the changes you have made.

Stop Being Shy – Only If You Want To 1 of  2

Stop Being Shy – Only If You Want To 1 of 2

If you are one of the many people who want to change yourself from someone who feels they are too shy to someone more outgoing I have a few ideas that may help you. Of course on the downside is you are the person who has to do the work. At first changing will be work that drains you emotionally, and perhaps physically. Once you get into the changing habit  those feelings will go away. You will begin to notice not being shy is not so difficult after all.

You have to really want to quit being shy to be successful. It is almost the same as learning a new subject in school, or learning a new job. If you want to be successful, understand success comes from within, not from anything you can read, listen too or watch. If you really want to change from being what you feel is being to shy read on. Otherwise you may as well find something else to read, as the rest of this post will be of little help for you other than a few pointers you may never use.

As you are still reading, here is the first task you want to accomplish on your path from changing from being shy to being more outgoing. You need to to decide what the worst is that could happen from changing from being shy into being more outgoing. Sometimes we prefer to be shy because it is safer, easier, or less stressful. Your reasons for being shy may include these reasons and more, and your reasons may be different.

No matter what your reasons are ensure you really understand what you are getting out of being shy. The reason for identifying the important  reasons you choose to be shy are important. After thinking about yourself and what you get out of being shy, you may decide that you really are enjoying quite a few benefits from being shy. You may find that being shy is comfortable, and now that you really looked at it you no longer feel any need to be something else, and shyness fits you quite well after all.

Think about all the reasons you want to not be so shy, and be more outgoing. Your reasons may be: you want to be more popular, you want to be noticed, you want to be able to talk to people. Spend as much time on this task as you did on your reasons for being shy. The purpose of these examinations of what you are getting and what you expect may cancel each other out. You may decide changing is more work than what you think will change.

I am going to proceed on the idea that after you have compared yourself now against you in the future, you decided you really want to change into someone more outgoing. I have one last task that you have to complete before you start on the process of changing yourself, sort of a sanity check to ensure you are making a good choice. I mention this because like all change this process takes a lot of time and effort on your part.

This last task is you need to define what is the worst that happen if you stay shy as you are. I am sure you are the perfect you right now, though you feel you can improve on you, and make yourself better. Next think about the worst that can happen if you quit being shy and expose more of yourself to the world around you. What is the worst that can come of not being shy?

Now, we are on to the actual process itself. The first step in moving away from shyness is like swimming in cold water. Taking little steps until you are sure you are ready to jump in and get it over with. While it seems simple to just make the change all at once, it is not the best way because too many things will have changed too fast, and that will take you way out of your comfort zone. Get too far out of your comfort zone and you will not want to stay there. We will be taking small steps instead.

How to Talk With Strangers

Talking with strangers is easy once you start to practice. Strike up a conversation wherever you are about what you are doing at the moment. If you are in a grocery line, ticket line, waiting room, hallway, or bus stop make an open ended comment about it to start a conversation.

Engage the other person, with open ended comments. Mention the way the store, is arranged, “I had to walk all over the store to find these few items, you think they would arrange products to make it easier to shop”. Waiting at a bus stop, mention while looking at someone how much you enjoy, or are frustrated by riding the bus.

Cashiers in the checkout line (when not too busy) are great people to talk to. They help carry a conversation because it breaks their boredom for a moment or two. Ask them how their day is going; are they having fun, and is today going better than their last day off? Simple, non specific and non threatening questions are best when learning to talk to strangers.

People usually respond because it is a non threatening question and not about anything they care about too much. Strangers are good people to ask questions of which you would never ask someone you know. Personal problems or delicate situations are made for strangers. Their answer is usually frank and direct, and at times filled with common sense and wisdom. When they answer you about a problem or frustration they are usually talking to it from life experience, and not pulling words out of the air.

If nothing else comes to mind, comment on someones clothing, or hair style, possibly even their shoes if they interest you. Tell them you like their hair, clothes, shoes, and where did they get them? Tell them they seem to have a knack for dressing cute, well, pretty, or smartly, if it is true.

Stay away from Land Mine Topics. Land Mine Topics are topics that can easily get out of hand, and take the conversation somewhere neither of you really wanted to go to, but now you are there, and you have to find a way out.

Land Mine Topics, are generally about: religion, sex, or politics. These are big hitters for most people, and we all have strong opinions. We will voice them if the opportunity presents itself, and a conversation with a stranger is an opportunity. Strong opinions always meet strong opposition, and if you are not careful, you may find yourself in a heated conversation, rather than a simple chat.

If you are unfortunate to find yourself in such a conversation, there is help available. The easiest thing to do is shift gears and start talking in the third person. This way you won’t make things worse by directing your thoughts or comments to the other person. Change your style of talk to starting with phrases such as: some people, other people, a few people think, act, do, or whatever ending makes sense in the moment.

If there is a rebuttal, meaning the other person is getting excited and still disagrees with you, it is time to bail out of the conversation. If you are fast on your feet, you can change the conversation to something else far away from the current topic, such as, “Hey, look at that little kid, he/she looks lost.” We should move forward  little bit, we are blocking the aisle.” For the rest of us a simple, “You have a valid point, I never thought of it that way.” will help you slide away from land mine territory.

If you are really desperate find a reason to leave the conversation. “Hey look, the bus is coming.” “You know, I meant to get pickles, and I almost forgot.” are a few examples of how to get away without being too obvious. No matter how careful you are these awkward moments will happen, so be prepared. It is better to practice alone than have to think under the stress of the moment.

The surest way to become better in talking to others is to practice every chance you get. Find your own two or three general conversation starters, and go from there. Before you know it, you will not even remember you thought you did not know how to talk to people.