Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

simply helpful

Pentel click erase: If I am going to erase something, I want it gone completely

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The best eraser ever.

Every once and awhile I come across something that I just plain like.  I don’t want any other thing but it.  The Pentel clic eraser is one of those things. I am a writer that cannot leave behind the shadow of the previous words or lines that came before. It’s distracting. If I didn’t like them enough to erase them, they better be gone for good. Thus I have grown greatly attached to my clic eraser.

It erases everything. If I am making notes in pencil and I want to rewrite a word or two for clarity’s sake, then I will search the house for a Pentel clic eraser. Sure you can buy the soft white polymer erasers in hand-sized rectangles, but they don’t have the class of the Pentel clic.  Your hands get them dirty and they get your fingers dirty, too. The clic eraser is clean, remains clean, fits like a pen in the hand and can be placed anywhere a pen can be placed.  I have several that I strategically positioned about the house, my handbag, book bag, desk, work station, etc.

For a time, the Pentel clic erasers were very hard to find, so I hoarded them and would not share.  They seem to have returned to the market, and my students are running around with mechanical erasers, clicking them because they find the snap satisfyingly destructive to the quiet of exam taking.  Along with being a cheap purchase and refillable, they are an allowable entertainment in class.  And they’re new (to my students at least).

But I have had this product for years.  I like to draw in pencil, using pictures I have taken on my travels as my models.  I create images by adding and subtracting lines until the right one is finally shaping the perfect curve, shadow or impression.  I erase the rest, and I expect them to disappear completely.  This eraser does that, and I don’t have to rest my hand on the paper.  Erasing from a polite distance, that’s me.

And that’s it. I just wanted to tell about liking this particular version of the trusty eraser.  You can get one anywhere and make what you want to remove gone completely. Sorry, it only works on pencil; bugs, annoying children, homework, and other non-pencil created items will just have to be dealt with in the usual fashion.

Advice: DVD stuck in TS-T632A ATA drive

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I know this little bit of advice is going to have a very small audience, but when I consider that just a couple of days ago I spent considerable time searching for the answer which this advice would have provided, I think it is worth my effort and your time.  It would have saved me considerable frustration.

CD/DVD slot

Let me begin with a little back story:  My computer has a built in CD/DVD drive like most computers.  However, mine is one of those slot drives which has no cover or eject button and only the slot is visible.  Now imagine my consternation when I put a brand new program DVD into this drive and my computer did not recognize either the drive or the disc.  As a result, I could not eject it and try another drive.

My device manager stated that the drive was not functioning properly, but that was the only part of my computer that admitted that I did have a CD/DVD drive.  I spent about one hour searching for an updated driver for the unit and confirming that no such update existed.  There were plenty of trails to lead me to believe there was a newer driver than the 2006 version I was currently using (or not using depending on how you view a situation when the computer does not know the drive exists in the first place), but it turned out not to be the case.

I spent another hour trying to find out if there was a manual eject.  I am very familiar with computer components as my father was a fiddler of electronic things (engineer) and I inherited this vice (but am not an engineer).  I expected there to be a manual means of removing this disc. But all my searching only provided me with three options.

  1. Use the software eject.  Open My Computer, right click on the drive, and click eject.  This was not a viable option.  Remember my computer is not recognizing the drive, so it was not showing up on My Computer.
  2. Use the built-in keyboard eject button.  Would you believe I never noticed this before?  It did not work, no matter how many times I pressed it.
  3. Take the back off the computer, remove the shroud underneath, remove the CD/DVD drive, remove its cover and then remove the DVD.  What?! You want me to open a CD/DVD drive, completely exposing its delicate innards?  YIKES!  I went looking for more options.

I know that most (all?) such drives have a tiny hole in which one can insert a wire (modified paper clip) and like magic (with a little pressure applied) activate the mechanism that will eject the CD. This drive did not appear to have one.  Some will hide it inside the slot up high or way low.  So I tried inserting the wire and working by feel to find this mechanism without result.  I spent the better part of an hour muttering about the engineer who designed this particular drive.  We were never going to be friends.

I gave up my fruitless search for answers on the Web and carried my computer to the kitchen table.  The back came off easily.  I complimented the engineer.  The shroud also came off with amazing ease.  I complimented this engineer also.  The drive slid out of its bay like it was greased.  I really liked this engineer.  My husband stood by encouraging my efforts.  (He will take apart anything from remote control boats to shotguns, but not a computer.)  I was explaining how any intelligent engineer will supply a manual means to remove a disc from a drive.  At this point I leaned over and looked at the drive’s slot edge-on now that the shroud no longer hid everything but the slot.  A tiny hole about an inch and half from the top of the drive caught my eye.  I ran for my modified paper clip.  Feeling much like a safe cracker, I eased the wire in, applied gentle pressure and out popped my DVD.  I could have done it without removing the drive from its bay, but could not have done it with the shroud and cover in place.

Moral of this story:  I am going to assume every drive has that manual means of ejecting discs.  I am very glad I did not take the drive apart.  The computer was well-designed for easy access.  Accept for the manual release being hidden when the computer is all together, the engineer was not so bad after all.  So always check for the manual eject hole and keep a paper clip close by.  Chances are 100% likely (or nearly so) that the drive does somewhere have a manual means of ejection.

Advice: Another grammar resource (requires experience)

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Last week I suggested A Writer’s Reference as an important resource to have as it contains just about every grammar, vocabulary & formatting issue likely to be run into by a writer (from student to professional), but this week I offer up a text that is geared entirely to the well-seasoned grammarian.

There is humor, sarcasm and clear cut demonstration of the rules of punctuation and sentence structure.  But you won’t laugh if you are a beginner because all Lynne Truss’s references require that you at least appreciate that there are rules and know quite a number of them.  If you don’t know most of them, you won’t appreciate the humor in her refining your understanding.  The title is a perfect example, though one of the simplest she provides:  Eats, Shoots & Leaves or if you prefer Eats Shoots & Leaves.  There is a distinct difference.  First off, imagine a panda bear.  He eats, shoots and leaves (which requires he has a license to bear arms or at least can hold a gun) or he eats shoots and leaves (which only requires he stick to his diet).  The title alone makes me giggle, but if you don’t get it yet, don’t purchase this book until you feel good about your use of grammar and punctuation.  If you are intrigued already, this is definitely the text for you.

It is important to note that Truss is English, but she kindly shows where the British vary from the Americans in grammar.  So do not fear you will refine your understanding only to find you will only be accepted by the British as knowing what you are doing all the time.

Advice: Back up your computer

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There are some things you should just do:  floss your teeth (at least the ones you want to keep, according to a dentist I used to know), cleanse your face of all makeup before you go to bed (thanks, mom), mean it when you say your sorry (self explanatory), exercise at least three times a week (just to stay in a holding pattern), be yourself (do you really want to be loved for something you are not?) and BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER.

BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!

I have two computers: one is my working computer that contains all my lesson plans and teaching stuff.  The other is my home computer which has my writing life.  Both are absolutely essential to me.  Sure I have hard copies of everything, but I don’t want to have to retype it all.  So I use a little external hard drive to back up my main hard drive.  Of course, it is only hooked up when I am backing things up.  There are numerous such devices available.  Mine is a WD Passport with bunches of gigabites on it, and it’s tiny.

I routinely back up my two systems so I needed it to be easy to manage.  It’s pretty simple to work the function of running the back up, and it can be set up two ways: auto and manual.  For some reason my laptop doesn’t like it when the Passport is set to automatically access the drive.  So I removed the auto backup software and do it manually, which is just like using a thumb drive.  Open it up, and drag and drop the whole drive into it.  My home computer manages the auto access well. So I handle things differently, letting the software determine what has changed and needs to be backed up.  Either way, I get my work safely saved to a second drive, and I have less to fear about losing my hard work.

Paper holder taking up space on the desktop?

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Since I scribble my notes on anything at hand, I tend to have a variety of paper sizes and weights to work with when I am transferring my notes to my computer.  Those papers without much stiffness just drape over when I prop them up.  My standard desk paper holder also takes up too much room, and I have had to add a clip to the side because the fan keeps making the paper wiggle and fly about.  And it takes up just as much room when not in use as when in use.

Then my mother-in-law gave me a Page-up dingus.  It looks like a little more than half an egg, that has a flat side, sitting on the flat side, and takes the same amount of room as an egg sitting on the flat side.  There is a curved cut in the top where you set the paper.  Since my phone, mouse, glasses, camera, notebook, etc. also take up room on my desk, this tiny thing is perfect.

You might think the fan would have the same effect, but you would be wrong. The curve creates a stiffness that keeps the paper in place. 

I am in no way affiliated with the creators, makers, or sellers of this thing. I just like it.