#187 Computer Problems
Mark: Hi and welcome back to EnglishLingQ. As usual, Jill's here with me, Mark. Jill: Hello.
Mark: And we have a lot of very exciting things to talk about today. Do we?
Jill: Hopefully, we can come up with a few.
Mark: Yes. You know one thing we were just talking about, which is probably relevant to many of our listeners, is the whole issue of backing up your hard drive on your computer. I don't know, have you ever had your hard drive…? Jill: I haven't had it crash. I know people who have, but it's quite nasty when that happens and you just lose everything. Mark: For sure.
Jill: Years worth of documents, pictures, whatever that you might have on your computer.
Mark: I know.
It can be pretty bad, especially if you've had the same computer for a long time. Yeah, as you say, years worth of stuff on there that's lost. The reason we were talking about it is, of course, that Steve – Steve my dad – just had his Mac hard drive go on him and that computer's quite new. Jill: What is it, five months old?
Mark: Yeah, if that, if that and, unfortunately, lost a couple podcasts with some LingQ members in other languages, which we were going to put up on our other language LingQ podcasts. So that was too bad and then, of course, whatever other information he had. As usually happens whenever I hear of someone else whose hard drive crashed I say to myself God, I really have to backup my computer, which I don't end up doing. Jill: Yeah, I haven't either; I haven't done it. Mark: And I should too, because I had problems with my Mac, the one I had before; before they replaced it, actually, and I was quite paranoid at that time. I was backing up everything because it kept crashing on me and so, at least now, a lot of stuff we do we keep online. I think after our podcast I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out how to backup some of my more important files, pictures, as you say. Jill: Well, yeah, I mean there's stuff that you can never get back if your hard drive crashes. You know that can be pretty upsetting, I would think.
Mark: That's for sure, that's for sure. Like, for instance, pictures of snowshoeing. We didn't take any pictures yesterday, but my dad and I took Henry our French Programmer… Some of you who listen to FrenchLingQ, the FrenchLingQ Podcast, would know Henry because Henry and my dad do the FrenchLingQ Podcast, but we dragged him up snowshoeing yesterday. I think he enjoyed it.
Jill: Well, it was a beautiful day here; all week was nice, I think. I mean I love snowshoeing too. It's great just to be outside in the fresh air when it's nice and sunny out and you're getting some exercise, but being outside at the same time. So, I mean it's probably not everybody's cup of tea, as we say. Not everybody likes it, but I think most people if they gave it a chance and got out there would like it, maybe not to the degree that you do it. Henry, being his first time, was probably a little bit overwhelmed.
Mark: Well, yeah, I think Henry wasn't quite prepared, since he showed up in jeans and runners. Not that you can't wear runners, but the jeans got a little bit wet. Jill: Yeah and cold.
Mark: It's fine, actually, when you're going up the hill. When we go up here at Cypress Mountain it's quite steep and you go up hill and you've been before. You're basically going up hill for however long you choose to go up and then you come down hill. There's not a lot of meandering… Jill: …hill, rolling hills, no. So the whole way up you're hot. Mark: You're hot and taking stuff off. Jill: Yeah.
Mark: You know, even though it's whatever, obviously, below freezing and snowing. You're hot and you would take your gloves off, but then you're falling and your hands are in the snow. Jill: Oh I don't fall. Mark: Well you would be if you followed us.
Jill: I don't know. Yeah, no, maybe, I know. Sometimes I do steady myself with my hands, but I do take my gloves off because sometimes my hands are just cooking.
Mark: Totally.
Jill: They're so hot and that makes you a lot cooler just having your feet exposed, your hands exposed. I mean, obviously, snowshoeing you can't have your feet exposed, but your head or your hands make a big difference. Mark: I thought you were saying you take your shoes off.
Jill: No, I don't go that far. But, yeah, you get hot going up and then I find once I start coming down then I zip up again and put everything back on.
Mark: It really doesn't take long to cool off again. And by the time you get to the bottom very often I'm quite cool because you're not working very hard coming down. Jill: No.
Mark: Not compared to going up, especially, I mean it's amazing. What takes you a long time to go up you can come down in a tenth of the time.
Jill: Yeah, yeah.
Mark: Because you just kind of jump down the side of the hill in the nice soft snow. There's nothing you can do to yourself. Worse case you fall over in the snow and it's kind of fun. Jill: Yeah, exactly, or you can slide a little bit down and you can sort of ski down a little bit if you want.
Mark: Yeah.
Jill: I'm sort of careful right now. I went last week one night because it was so beautiful out. It was a little bit crunchy, actually. I don't think they'd had snow for awhile because we've had some really sunny weather. It was a little bit slippery, so coming down hill I was being careful because I didn't want to fall, obviously. There wasn't a lot of powder right there, so that took me longer to come down then it normally would of just because I was more concerned about falling. But, generally, coming down is pretty quick.
Mark: Well it's hard to walk down a flat sort of well-traveled icy patch of ground in snowshoes because the picks face the other way. They're not built for going down so much they're built for gripping when you go up. So when you go down it's… Jill: And I find it's hard to hold yourself back. It's easier to sort of jog down the hills then it is to try to walk. Mark: Right.
Jill: Walking is harder because you're holding yourself back and it just doesn't work very well. Mark: Yeah.
Anyway, I hope Henry enjoyed it. He was pretty wet by the end of it, but we got him out of the city up on the hill there.
Jill: And he lives right downtown, so I'm sure he enjoyed that. Has he ever been up to any of our local mountains skiing or anything like that?
Mark: I think he said he'd been up to Cypress once, but I don't think he did anything up there. He just went up and looked around. So, anyway, that was good for him.
Jill: So now if he's going to continue doing it he's got to get at least some proper pants. Mark: Yeah, for sure.
Jill: I mean shoes…you can wear…well people do races. People do run and I wear my runners too if I'm running, but it's nice if you have gaiters to put over them to keep you a little drier or even put some plastic bags over your socks and then put your feet in your shoes and then bring a pair of extra shoes with you so that after you can put on dry shoes. Mark: Yeah, exactly.
Jill: You know, the shoe thing is not such a big deal, but definitely to have something other than jeans.
Mark: Yeah, jeans are really not recommended attire, no.
Jill: Knowing Henry it was probably jeans and a T-shirt because he doesn't wear too much. He seems to think it's quite warm here. Mark: Yeah.
Jill: We all think he's nuts. Mark: Yeah, that's right. No, he had his proper jacket. Yeah, he was alright. His upper body was fine it was the lower body that was a little bit suspect. How about yourself? What did you do this weekend, anything exciting?
Jill: We just went over to the Sunshine Coast again. Chris' sister gave us their crib that they used for their two little girls, so we picked up the crib and set that up. Mark: Getting things ready, aye?
Jill: Yeah, we just set that up. It basically takes up the whole room because it's just this little tiny office. We can fit, you know, one or two really narrow like 18 inch wide dressers or something in there and that's it, nothing else. But that's okay, that's fine, it will work just fine. I don't know, we did that. We visited over there and played some cards and ate a lot of great homemade food that his sister made.
Mark: Oh yeah.
Jill: Oh, we went to a movie last night. We went to see Juno, which has been getting a lot of…
Mark: …good reviews.
Jill: The main actress is Canadian and it's also directed by a Canadian. I believe another actor -- I think maybe the boy in it -- the boyfriend of the main girl is Canadian as well. There's a lot of Canadians in it. Mark: So it's really worth seeing then? Jill: Well, it is really, really, good. Who else is in it…Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman, but they have smaller roles. It was really well done.
Mark: It was, aye?
Jill: It was very funny, very witty and yeah, it's not like there was a lot to the plot. It could have been a movie that was just really lame and not much going on because it wasn't complex. But because of the dialogue and the wit and all of that it just was really entertaining.
Mark: Really? I didn't know it was meant to be funny. I don't know much about it I've just heard it mentioned. It looks like it might be somewhat of a serious theme, but I guess it isn't. Jill: No, it's quite funny. It is a serious theme, of course, teenage pregnancy, but she's quite the teenager. She's got a mouth on her like you wouldn't believe and very intelligent, very witty and then her dad and her step-mom are very different kinds of people but, again, very funny. So yeah, it's quite an enjoyable movie. Mark: I will have to go and see it.
Jill: Yeah.
Mark: Actually, Kindrey and I were talking about going to see it or going to see a movie, which we don't do very often, but really thinking we really should go. Jill: Yeah.
Mark: I think that sounds like a good one.
Jill: I mean Chris liked it. All the men that I know who have seen it liked it. I don't think it just appeals to women. I think it's sort of a happy movie. Mark: Oh that's good. I know that a lot of the time the movies that get nominated are not necessarily always that interesting. They get nominated for whatever reason, but that's good to know that that's a good one. Jill: Yeah, I think you'd enjoy it. And yeah, I guess that was about it. That was our weekend.
Mark: That's good. You're not like some people that have to find out the sex of their baby so that they can get the right color wallpaper and paint the furniture the right color and go out and buy 15 different outfits before the baby comes home? Jill: No, we just think it's nicer if it's a surprise. To me it's just going to be so neat to be told after all of that, you know, you have a little boy or a little girl. If I already knew it would be sort of, I think, anticlimactic or something. So, you know, it's to each their own. I know some people like to know and from that standpoint, being able to buy clothes and stuff, I guess it's nice. But I mean for the first little while, really, what do they wear? Onesies and sleepers. You can buy unisex ones and after the baby is born you can go and buy some things that are gender specific.
Mark: Oh yeah.
Jill: And I mean bedrooms can be, you know, whatever, yellow, green, blue. You can use blue for a girl. I would just say you'd probably stay away from maybe purple and pick, which are sort of specific to girls, maybe. Mark: Why, are you repainting the baby room?
Jill: No, we're not doing anything either because we're not planning on being there for much longer. Mark: Right.
Jill: We wouldn't have repainted anyway, regardless. But, no, we just thought it would be more fun to be a surprise.
Mark: It's funny; people seem to be either one way or the other on that. Jill: Yeah.
Mark: I know we were the same way. We didn't want to know. It's kind of fun to find out when the baby comes out. Jill: Yeah, exactly.
Mark: Friends of ours are just the opposite. They're like how can you not find out? I have to know. If I can find out I have to know because then I can go out and do this and do that and get prepared.
Jill: But what do you need to get prepared?
Mark: I have no idea.
Jill: That's what I don't understand. Mark: I have no idea.
Jill: I mean you need a crib, you need a stroller and you need a car seat. You need all those things that you need regardless of whether it's female or male. Mark: Right.
Jill: I just don't really get what you need to get prepared for. Mark: Yeah, I don't either. Jill: I think for some people the curiosity is just too much for them.
Mark: They just can't take it. Jill: They can't take it. They just want to know so badly.
Mark: Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Jill: Yeah, yeah, so whatever works for you, for the individual. For me I'm fine waiting. Mark: In fact here now they don't even want to tell you. Jill: No, I think you have to…maybe some will if you ask specifically, but she never asked me. My ultrasound tech never even asked me if I wanted to know, you know, whereas I know they used to ask you.
Mark: Yeah.
Jill: And so I don't know if I had asked if she would have told me or not. Mark: Right.
Jill: But what I have heard from some people is that a lot of times you have to schedule a separate one that you have to pay for instead of it being covered under medical, under our insurance. And it's $100.00 or something, not a lot, but that you pay for and then they'll tell you, so I don't know. I heard several years ago they stopped doing it because there are certain cultures that don't really want to have girls. And so that they would find out that they were having a girl and then they would abort. So I'm not sure if that is in fact the case. Mark: I think so. I mean that's what I was told too here. That was sort of the policy because they were worried about that that they wouldn't tell anybody. However, if you're there and you ask the technician they'll usually tell you. Jill: Yeah and then the whole thing about…I know somebody who was told no. They would not tell them and they would have to schedule another one and they did have to pay.
Mark: Wow.
Jill: So to me now that's just a cash grab. Mark: Right.
Jill: That's just, you know. Mark: I mean it takes them no time to do that.
Jill: Well, they're looking already and they can tell, I'm sure. When you go for your extensive…I don't know, I can't think of the word right now, but the in-depth ultrasound they spend 45 minutes with you anyway. Mark: Yeah.
Jill: It's not like it's a five-minute process. So, you know, they could tell you if they wanted I think. But then there's always the chance that they're wrong too. Mark: That happens too, I know, and maybe they don't want the liability issues. Jill: Well and then what do you do? You've gone and painted your room pink and purple and you have a boy. Mark: I know.
Jill: How mad would you be then?
Mark: A boy in pink and purple sleepers.
Jill: Yeah, exactly.
Mark: Yeah, anyway, it's all good; it's all good fun. Jill: It is fun, yeah.
Mark: I guess with that we'll wrap it up for today and we'll pick it up again next week. Jill: Alright, see ya', thanks.
