Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with recovery

Ahh, Vista... how I won't miss you.

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:38:14 -0800

Questions about hard drives, enclosures, and other ways to survive a blue screen of death. I have a HP desktop running Vista. I went to do a SP1 upgrade ahead of a potential change to Win7, something went off course, and now I own a desktop that won’t get past a blue screen of death when I try and start up. I’ve tried a handful of things to resolve the issue to no avail, and at this point, I’m just ready to get a new desktop (had been thinking about it anyway, so I figure this is a sign from the computer gods).

99% of my data was backed up ahead of the upgrade. However, I would like to be able to access the data on the old HP just in case. Limited technical knowledge, but a history of reading AskMe questions, leads me to believe that I can remove my HD from the old desktop, place it in an enclosure, and access it like an external drive.

How complicated is this? Is it really that straightforward? Anything I’m not thinking of?

Can I make a bootable DVD from a bootable partition?

DarkForest — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:57:24 -0800

I have a 7 Gb bootable recovery partition on my PC. Can I make a bootable DVD (DL) from it, either in XP or Ubuntu? Thanks!

Good meals for surgery patients?

Knowyournuts — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:53:55 -0800

What are some good meals for folks recovering at home from surgery? I want to bring some food to my friend, but he is too polite to say, "I want this, but none of that," etc. If you have had surgery, what were you able to eat? What did you absolutely not want? This is for a person who normally likes everything. The surgery isn't related to the mouth or GI tract. Thanks!

Humpty Dumpty played with a drive...

Static Vagabond — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:17:45 -0800

Damaged harddrive-- need to recover one particular file, but due to the damage, only perhaps 30% of the file is intact. What tools are available to just pull that 30% back? The drive is working to a degree-- if I freeze it I can get directory listings and see the file I want, but when I drag the file off the drive, windows errors out with a CRC error after about 30% and so the file fails to move/copy.

I'm looking for a tool that will keep what it can from the file.

So if the file is like (where G is good and B is bad) :

GGGGGGBBBGGGGGGBBGGGG I'd ideally like to 'recover' the good portions, so I'm left with either
GGGGGG___GGGGGG__GGGG or even just
GGGGGG

I don't care about the bad areas, or want the system to think too hard about querying them (drive only stays nice and chilly for so long).

I thought about installing an FTP server and ftping the file off the drive, but I'm hoping some mefites know of a more speciailized tool for the job, which might also grab those later good parts of the file. Windows options preferred.

Where can I buy a really awesome and functional cane to help me recover from my injury?

kryptonik — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:12:27 -0800

Where can I buy a really awesome and functional cane to help me recover from my injury? I recently broke my leg and ankle, got surgery to put a couple of screws in the leg, and am looking at a lengthy recovery, a month or two of which will require a cane to transition from crutches to walking on my own again.

I'm 28, in good physical shape, like to get around on my own, and want a sweet functional non-grandma cane to sport for the month or two that I'm going to need it. Any suggestions? I won't need the cane for another 10 weeks, so I'm OK ordering something online. Oh, I'm 5'6" which might make a difference.

Is there still honor among theives?

snapped — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:06:36 -0800

A coworker was robbed this week, and a box of very sentimental items was taken. Can anyone offer some advice for possibly having them returned or found? I am not particularly close to this coworker, and don't know all of the details, but here are the relevant ones:

-She lost her husband unexpectedly, about a year ago. She has a ten-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.

-She was getting an alarm installed in her home last week and somehow the installers "could not finish." She was suddenly robbed the next day or day following. Of course, many people I work with suspect the alarm installers are somehow involved, but I don't know much more of the details regarding suspects, etc. I have never really heard of such a scam before, but I'm sure it's not impossible.

-The saddest part of this story is that, among other valuable (and easy to resell/pawn) items stolen, a "memory box" that her son was keeping was taken. It contained jewelry and other items belonging to the boy's deceased father. Obviously this young man is crushed, to the point of his mother considering sending him to therapy to deal with this second, and once again unexpected, loss.

Now, maybe I'm just being naive, but I can't help but feeling that if the thieves understood the situation, they would return the memory box. I'm sure my coworker would feel the same way - I haven't spoken to her much directly because she is so upset about it, and as I said I'm not particularly close to her.

Can anyone think of a way to try and reach out to the parties responsible and let them know that they stole something of immense emotional importance to this young man (and his young sister, who I'm sure will be devastated to learn this happened once she is old enough)? I've heard great stories of these kind of things on the web, but they involved objects like laptops or other "trackable" items.

I know this is pretty desperate, and I've already planned to reach out to my church and other coworkers to try and give these kids something to restore their faith in the kindness of people around them. I have a Nintendo Wii, for instance, that I want to donate to them. But I realize that means almost nothing if they can't move on from losing these memories of their dad. Any suggestions you can offer me would be appreciated.

How to completely clear Apple Address Book in preparation for recovery?

odinsdream — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:22:22 -0800

Recovering Address Book data. Apple Address Book phantom entries keep returning, even after deleting the data files and prefs lists. Where are they coming from? How can I get the original data back? I'm trying to help someone recover their address book data after they upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard.

They started with around 200 address cards. After the Snow Leopard upgrade they have 20. These 20 don't seem to have anything in common with eachother.

Several online resources indicate that I could use the file:

~\Library\Application Support\Address Book\AddressBook.data.previous

...by deleting the AddressBook.data file, and renaming the above to sit in its place. I've sifted through the AddressBook.data.previous file with an editor. It's 1.9 MB, and appears to contain all of her 200 cards.

I haven't been able to get the replacement working, though, because of this oddity:

1. Close Mail, Address Book, iCal.
2. Delete the entire ~\Library\Application Support\Address Book folder, and delete all of the ~\Library\Preferences\com.apple.addressbook* files.
3. Re-open Address Book.

Result: Those 20 cards are back. The Address Book comes up empty first, then these cards magically appear. The Application Support\Address Book folder now contains data related to these cards, where before it didn't even exist.

MobileMe sync is disabled. There is no other Sync option in the Address Book preferences Accounts area. Where are these cards coming from?

I have a feeling that if I solve this part, I could probably get the recovery working, but I'm stumped.

Help me recover from an intense workout!

corey flood — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:13:14 -0800

What do you eat/drink (in addition to water) after a workout to help you recover more quickly? I keep reading suggestions that chocolate milk is the perfect recovery beverage, but I'm lactose intolerant and the idea of drinking straight milk makes my blood run cold. Other dairy options, like yogurt, are fine. I'm open to non-dairy milks (soy, rice, etc.), but are they going to provide the same benefits?

What do you eat after a workout? I don't have any particular concerns about keeping calories or carbs low.

Oh, and extra points for portability--it's a 45 minute drive from my dance classes to my house. (Will a 45 minute waiting period make a difference?)

In need of a Disaster Recovery Template

MattScully — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:56:46 -0800

Does anyone have an outline or template for an IT Disaster Recovery Plan? I have been tasked with creating our disaster recovery plan. The old plan is so old as to be pretty worthless so I am starting from scratch.

Any advice would be helpful.. a template or outline would be extremely helpful.

We know what we are going to do as far as the actual technology goes, so I don't need any help there. The difficulty is in writing the plan and the process itself.

Flood recovery options sans flood insurance

MysticMCJ — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:22:27 -0800

Flood recovery - What all do I need to be concerned with after my house flooded? My city, Louisville, just saw record rainfall. It appeared that the storm centered itself directly over my house, as the water levels raised several feet above the floor line. As a result, we are minus a few vehicles (all totaled) and had to pump out the entire basement, and then some.

We are working on getting the last bit of water out, then we are ventilating the house to assist in drying.

I already expect that we will have to replace the floors- every surface that's not tile shows significant damage. What else do we have to be concerned about?

Here's the kicker- no flood insurance. We live in an area of the city that has simply never seen a flood. Our insurance agent said that flood insurance probably wouldn't have covered this anyways. Can anyone explain that? Are there any sources of disaster relief that could assist us?

What I am ultimaty looking for - what all, aside from clean up, can I do to not only make the house liveable, but pass a home inspection for resale? And who can I contract out some of this to, while staying on a budget?

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm still shocked that it happened.

What to send someone who's recovering from surgery

dersins — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:50:39 -0800

I have a friend (in Los Angeles) recovering from serious surgery. What can I send her instead of flowers that's actually useful? A friend is recovering from surgery. She's due to go home from the hospital tomorrow. I'd like to send her (and her boyfriend) something that's actually useful in a situation like this, rather than flowers which I know for a fact she has plenty of. If I lived in the same city I'd bring over food, but from 1000-odd miles away I obviously can't do that. Any thoughts?

Restore Deleted NTFS Drive?

B(oYo)BIES — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 17:17:17 -0800

FileSystemHelp: I really messed up while installing Windows 7. I wasn't paying attention and marked my secondary drive for deletion (clicked on the drive, clicked delete). I then realized that this was my 1TB drive, with all of my files and pictures on it. I closed out of the installer and rebooted. I booted back into the Windows 7 installer and it still showed the drive as deleted. I did not format the drive. I was hoping that once I got Windows 7 installed I could assign the drive a letter and all would be good. When I got into windows, the disk manager shows the drive is RAW. I assigned it a disk letter, but cannot restore it to NTFS. I have searched online, and tried tools like Testdisk and GetDataBack. Maybe I don't know what I am doing, but I am not able to restore the file system or see my files. I scanned with GetDataBack NTFS and it was able to see a good ammount of files, but I only recognized 2 or 3 and they were nothing I am after. GetDataBack shows the disk as Fat-16Huge, so I am scanning it with GetDataBack FAT which is currently at 1% with 23 hours remaining. I am also analysing the disk with TestDisk, currently at 13%, but I am not even sure what I can do with that when completed.

Is there ANY way to get the disk to read as NTSF again? If not, I would assume that my only option is recovering files, so do you have any advice knowing my current situation? My stomach is upside down right now and I would appreciate ANY advice.

Thanks in advance.

How do I find the motivation to leave the house?

Danila — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:39:33 -0800

Long-term cabin fever, please help me get out of the house. I have a long history of depression and social anxiety, both before and after the onset of bipolar II disorder. Over the past 18 months, through medication and therapy, I have made tremendous strides in nearly every area of my life: mentally, emotionally, socially, intellectually, and spiritually. I am also very much an introvert and that won't be changing, but I have been able to sustain friendships and I have grown significantly closer to the people in my life.

The one thing that really nags at me right now is the fact that I still spend the vast majority of my time in my home. I'm more willing and certainly more able to go out, but I have very little desire to do so. In fact, I think I might go out of the house less now than I did when I was depressed.

Through the keeping of mood journals and regular discussions with my therapist, I really don't think I'm depressed. In fact, within my home I am quite active. I spend hours composing music in fruity loops, studying for college and posting messages back and forth with other students (it's online), talking on the phone with friends, reading, researching, etc. I watch very little tv although if I'm feeling physically sick (which is sadly often, due to severe allergies, PCOS, and migraines) I do tend to watch marathons and movies. Yet mentally I feel active, and I feel involved in the lives of others. And I feel good emotionally, in ways I never have before. I've also fixed my sleep schedule so I sleep at night now, and I'm awake during the day (a major victory for me).

But there's a whole world out there. I think some of the problem is that I'm just not used to going out. I have been sick in a number of ways since I was in grade school, and had to have a teacher sent to my home when I was in high school because I couldn't go (eventually dropped out). Before the onset of bipolar I did work, but that was only about a year before I became sick. I have worked and struggled to get the health care I need in spite of my limitations, to earn my diploma and associate's degree, and to rebuild my relationships.

Eventually, I would like to return to work (or continue my education at a brick and mortar school, because I realize I really like school). My therapist and I agree that I'm not quite ready for work yet, not even part time, but surely there's another way to leave the house. I don't even know how to do it, really, like how to establish that kind of routine and I'd appreciate some advice.

Yes, obviously I should back-up more often.

PhoBWanKenobi — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:00:21 -0800

Did my fiance's computer bork my thumb drive, and what can I do to get my data back? I use a 2 GB Kingston DataTraveler to transport my writing (particularly my novel*) between my two home PCs--both running Ubuntu--and my Windows XP work computer. I always always "safely remove"/unmount and haven't had problems with it on either type of system.

Last night, I plugged it into my fiance's Windows XP machine for the first time. It pulled up an error message--"USB device not recognized" and asked us to install drivers, but when I went through the driver installation wizard, it said the drivers were up to date. Since then, no other computers recognize the Kingston at all; it's as if I haven't even plugged it in. What's more, the thumb drive doesn't show up unless I plug it into the same USB port on my fiance's computer, in which case it spits out the same error message.

I realize that USB sticks are unreliable and sometimes just die but the fact that it still shows up on the fiance's computer when I plug it into that one port makes me wonder if the data/stick might somehow be recoverable from that port. Plus, I had been using it (and safely removed it) just twenty minutes before at work! I tried rebooting and unplugging the power supply (as well as installing drivers), but that's all so far. I'm at work right now, so I can't try any data recovery programs--and the computer doesn't "see" the stick, anyway--but I'll try any and all suggestions once I get home today.

So, metafilter, what are my options to try getting my data back?

*Luckily, I'd backed up my data two weeks ago, so I'll have only lost 17 pages; the drive being bricked would be a pain, not a disaster. But still a pain. Back up your data, kids!

raid 0 recovery

Iax — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:31:39 -0800

Is there any way to recover the files from a RAID 0 setup in a different computer? On my old computer I had a raid 0 with two 50 gig drives, it was for gaming so I didnt really care about drive failure, i didnt have anything important on it. Now a few years later the mother board has died and now a couple of weeks later I realize I want some files from it. Im not sure what the controller was, it was a built-in one on the Soyo dragon mother board.

Is it possible to hook the drives up one at a time in an external enclosure and copy/get an image, of the two 50 gig drives and then just jam them together somehow and have the files back?

I'm looking for free solutions, because the files are not that important.

Thanks!

How Do I Give Myself a Chance to Get Better?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:17:27 -0800

After a long and losing battle with depression, I am going to a short-term (10 day) partial hospitalization program at McLean Hospital near Boston. I need advice on how to convince myself that there’s hope for me and get into the kind of frame of mind that will allow me to benefit from this kind of program, despite its short length and limitations. I have struggled with depression since early adolescence, but felt like I was on the road to managing it and leading a healthy, happy life until a serious breakdown about 9 years ago, when I was 26.

I desperately want to live life differently and get better, and that’s what’s given me the ability to plug along over the last decade or so, trying new therapists, new doctors, new medications, and all kinds of lifestyle maintenance and changes (i.e. diet, exercise, supplements).

I’ve taken all the classes of anti-depressants, drugs for bipolar disorder, atypical anti-psychotics, thyroid supplements, stimulants, drugs old-fashioned and cutting-edge, 21 sessions of ECT. Mostly, they didn’t help. When it did, the effect soon wore off.

I was tested for everything: diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid problems, adrenal problems. Fancy doctors from various sorts of prestigious institutions tried looking at the problem from all kinds of angles, applying new diagnoses that might shed new light and help me get better, including bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, but the new diagnostic lenses and alternative approaches didn’t yield any results.

While much of the McLean program will have a diagnostic bent, it’s also supposed to have a therapeutic element, insofar as these 10 days will be a time-out and a potential physiological and psychological reboot.

I don’t know how much of the program's benefits depend on my ability to try to maintain a attitude that is at least open-minded (if not outright positive). But if there’s any chance at all that being able to feel less despair will improve my chance to get more out of the program, I desperately need to do so. I’m also afraid of getting written off as having a negative attitude by the program staff.

The trouble is that after years of encouraging myself, trying to maintain a positive attitude, and trying to get better, I can’t bring myself to believe that something else is possible. In another Askme on depression, a user here once wrote about how depression “ruins you inside,” and that’s a pretty accurate way of describing the effect this has had on me.

Not long after the breakdown, I picked up Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon, hoping to find some insights into what I was suffering. It terrified me so much I couldn’t finish it: the book was replete was stories of people who had struggled with depression for years and whose lives were lunar landscapes of pain and failure. Nine years later, I have become one of those people.

Hope seems fundamentally irrational, and I feel like an idiot trying to improve my situation despite all the evidence that shows that I can't be helped. I know that McLean doesn't have access to some kind of special magic potion, and I don’t know what kind of new information they could get that might help provide a new diagnostic or treatment angle to my condition.

Psychiatry treats despair and hopelessness as if they were irrational, or symptoms of an illness, but right now they feel pretty damn logical, insofar as it no longer seems logical to believe I can live differently. Yet somehow I need to muster the ability to believe that this can help me. I don’t know how to do that.

I am very grateful for your ideas and feedback as to how to increase my chances of benefiting from this program and giving myself an opportunity to get better.

I'm sorry, you are denied!

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:45:34 -0800

Will my credit ever recover? I was trying to do better.. got a job, paid on time.. But I got rejected for a credit line increase today. Mind you, my current limit is already only $300! About 5 years ago, when I was a freshman in college I neglected bills and wrote a some bad checks. Awful. I know. About three of these accounts totaling $5k went to collections. I paid about half for a year and then stopped because I was out of work. Today the debt hovers around $3k. I still don't pay these debts.

Despite this I was able to open a checking/savings account with a major bank and was able to get a secured visa w/ a limit of $300 though them in 2006. After a year of good payment history, they refunded my $300 and turned my secured card to an unsecured one. I thought that this was a good sign. I've been using it for little purchases and paying it off every month without a single late payment since 2006. I have an OK job now, but need to return to school soon and will probably need to get loans. Which is why I am worried about my history,

True, I should have paid down those debts ASAP but I went through some personal turmoil for some years and haven't really gotten back on my feet (completely stopped spending, got a steady job, found affordable housing, stopped relying on others for $, and established a real emergency fund) until about a year ago.

What do I do? I really can't ignore the past debts can I? One of my friends suggested just leaving it be since I'm so close to the statute of limitations on them. But that isn't true, is it? Debt doesn't just fall off your report if you hide long enough?! I imagine a lot of dishonest people (like me, I guess) would do this just to avoid bills.

Now that I can help myself a little more, what do I do? If I were to start paying them back today, what would it show on my credit report? Won't it still say that there are collections on them? My current score is a measly 520. How long does it take for my score to reflect repayments? Is it removed when I pay in full or when I start payment?

I feel DEEPLY EMBARRASSED and ASHAMED of this. As I should, but I want to fix things. Can you offer any advice?

By the way, I wasn't trying to up my limit to go on a spending spree. Just trying to up my limit so that I can pay the deposit to rent a truck and move.

TBI Resources

trbrts — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:25:49 -0800

Looking of resources to help a friend recover from a Traumatic Brain Injury. Where can I get started? A very close friend of mine was in a bicycle accident 2 weeks ago. His health situation is stabilizing slowly, but, it looks like his recovery is going to be a long one. I'm looking for resources about his injury and ways to help him recover. Thanks in advance.

Cursed Ghost Haunting my Data

Jezztek — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:54:57 -0800

Any alternatives to Norton Ghost for fbf recovery? I've been using Norton Ghost 14 to create backups of several important folders full of random information on my C drive (where my OS and installed programs are stored) and saving them to drive D.

Late last night disaster struck and I had to format C and re-install the OS. So I awoke happy in the knowledge I had all the good stuff backed up. It turns out recovering large folders full of information is a total nightmare in Ghost. I use the "recover files and folder" option since the recovery points were lost in the format.

The backup is stored as one large folder (File Backup Data) with many other smaller folders (labeled such as fbfFiles_0cb) which each contains a number of fbf files. When I attempt to import backup data from the main folder it spends a while reading but ultimately fails. If I try to import from just one of the smaller folders of fbf files it seems to work (and since the data seems to be spanned it seems to import more data then whatever was just in that particular folder).

This is where the real frustration begins, instead of having a nice list of folders/files that have been backed up I have to do a search for what I want to restore. Now I don't exactly remember what specifically I had backed up, so I'm already going to be missing some data just by virtue of not remembering the details. But to make matters worse, where I do remember the folder I want to recover it doesn't seem to provide any way to recover entire folders.

Say for instance I want to recover my folder "webwork" which in itself has 10 sub folders each with hundreds of files in them. If I search for "webwork" it shows that folder, but doesn't seem to offer any way to recover the whole folder, instead I simply have the option of drilling down into some of the subfolders. But if a subfolder has a lot of files in it Ghost tells me something along the lines of this search returned too many results, narrow down your criteria.

I can't imagine any way I can possibly backup the data I need in this manner.

So the bottom line is that I'm hoping that there exists other software that can read and backup fbf files such as created by Ghost, and do a much better job of the whole affair. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks much!

What's left to try on a dead SeaGate before paying for data recovery?

Avenger50 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:30:53 -0800

500GB internal SeaGate hard drive disappears from Windows, Linux, and the BIOS. What can I try before I pay to have the data recovered? Tested it with a few different operating systems and a few different machines, and though it always "spins up" this year-old SeaGate drive, configured with no operating system and a single partition, doesn't show up anywhere to mount or browse, like it's just not there. Besides the well-documented freezer trick, what's left to try before I send it to one of several MeFi-recommended recovery companies for $1000 or more?

Making HUGE MISTAKES, and being okay

ADoubtfulTrout — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:28:51 -0800

What are stories like this about making huge mistakes, and then recovering from it? Inspired by this story about Citicorp Center, I've been looking for other stories about people who made mistakes which would have huge, disastrous consequences, and how they handled both the ethical situation of what to do when they discovered it and how they acted to prevent disaster. I'd like to put together a short set of them addressing the same issues with a few conversation-starting questions for a luncheon discussion group, but I'm having trouble finding for good examples. Bonus points for suggestions related to software.

Fix disk drive error or pay for data recovery?

dios — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:09:11 -0800

Computer has "disk read error press ctrl + alt + delete" problem. I would like to get the data off it, and put it on a new computer. Is this something I can get fixed and then get the data off of it? Or do I need to pay out the nose for a data recovery person? So windows xp computer says "disk read error press ctrl + alt + delete." Do it, and you go back to the same error screen.

I'm a computer idiot. I know nothing about them mechanically. I would like the data off the computer (photos, documents). The data was all on the d: drive (my idiot's understanding is that I had one drive that was partitioned into a c: and d: drive).

So, I don't know if that is even something that can be fixed. But I checked with a reputable data recovery place.

They did a free initial screening of the drive. This is what they responded with:

"Your drive has sustained mechanical failure and requires clean room work and proprietary procedures in order to bypass the damage and recover your data.
Your drive has sustained mechanical failure to internal parts within the drive.
The media is in working conditions, but may have intermittent problems and is suggested to be replaced.
Drive clicks 3 times and then stops, and won't ID"

Cost of recovery: $1,600.

Now, I'd like the data off there. I don't know if I want it bad enough for $1,600.

My question is this: from that can anyone tell what is wrong with the computer, and if so, whether it is something that can be fixed to get the data? I'm planning on throwing away the whole thing and getting a new computer; I just want the data at this point. But I'd rather find a cheaper route than paying the $1600 for the data recovery. So maybe fix the drive and get the data myself? Or is $1600 a reasonable price to pay to get the data given the skill required to retrieve it, or can I likely find a cheaper place for this?

Is this all there is?

kitcat — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:37:03 -0800

How do you know when you've recovered from depression? It's been four years since I had what people used to call a nervous breakdown.
I guess in modern psych parlance that's a major depressive episode. I had to drop out
of my PhD program. I lost some friends (largely due to my own behavior). I've changed
(perhaps) irrevocably.

I'm still on meds, which I find necessary and don't feel bad about whatsoever. I've put my life back together, said to hell with the past, started a new diploma program in a radically different field and gotten happily married. I exercise, eat well and generally try to take care of myself.

But I still don't feel like my old self and I wonder if I ever will. This wouldn't
be a problem - expect that I like that old self a lot better than this self. I used to be
kind, sensitive, fairly confidant, impish, clever. Now I am closed off, cynical a bit dull-minded and feel terribly alienated from people. I hate talking about myself. I still don't truly enjoy the things that were so important to me four years ago (reading, mainly). My values have changed and I'm not sure that's for the better.

Recently I listened to Krista Tippet's conversation with Andrew Solomon (who wrote the wonderful book "The Noon Day Demon") in her audiobook "Speaking of Faith: The Soul in Depression." Discussing their own recoveries from depression, they agreed that
it feels like "you fall into your own life again." Andrew Solomon says, "I have the personality that is consistent with the personality I had when I was 10 and 20 and 25 and that then began to fall apart a little bit later on..."

And again on recovery:

"when the feeling comes back you think - 'Oh, this is a soul, this
is a spirit, this is something profound and alive which returned to me
after taking a leave of absence.'"

I don't feel these things, and I truly wish I did.

Hence my question(s): Hive mind, do you relate to what they are talking about here?
How did you know when you had recovered from depression?

Am I still depressed or is what I’m feeling only nostalgia and a normal part of aging?

As a healthy adult, how does a childhood illness continue to influence you?

artemisia — Tue, 12 May 2009 10:38:32 -0800

Looking for information (books, articles, or even better, your own experiences) regarding healthy adults who spent their childhoods coping with a chronic disease. How does growing up as a "sick" person influence their adult lives as healthy people? I'm tagging this "human relations" because I'm not interested in the physical/medical aspects so much as the psychological: that is, how the experience of ongoing childhood illness might influence the way that a healthy adult (who fully recovered from a childhood illness) relates to others, as well as to him/herself.

I'm thinking here specifically of childhood asthma, which often appears to abate spontaneously (especially in boys) with the onset of puberty. But I've made the question more general because I know there are other illnesses that a child can struggle through and ultimately recover from, and I suspect meditations on how such childhood illnesses continue to shape the survivor's healthy adult life would also provide insight into my specific interest in former/recovered asthmatics.

Based on the few personal essays I've found on the web, I can guess that surviving a chronic childhood illness can ultimately impart many amazing strengths: those who recovered from such illnesses mention, among other things, that the experience has made them particularly patient, grateful for and protective of their physical health, and also independent, resourceful, and creative (because, as children, they had a hard time forming friendships with healthy kids).

I'd be very interested in any personal observations, or links to resources, contemporary or historical, about this issue. I'm certainly interested in learning of other such "blessings in disguise" afforded by surviving chronic childhood illness. But I'm also interested in the less positive ways that childhood illness can having a lasting (non-physical) impact. This aspect doesn't seem to be addressed at all in the few sources that I've turned up.

Thanks so much!

Better Breakdancing: How can I decrease my downtime from strenous practice sessions?

ManyNinjas — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:38:20 -0800

Better Breakdancing: How can I decrease my downtime from strenous practice sessions? I'd like to double the amount I train without risking injury or constant soreness. I've been breakdancing for almost 3 years, and my problem is that I've never been able to practice more than 2 times a week without leaving my body feeling wrecked. I'd like to be able to train 4 times a week and be able to practice with my body feeling as close to 100% as it can.

I stretch for 20 minutes before I start practicing, and I also cool down with about 10-15 minutes of stretching. I've also taken up yoga to help with my flexibility. I still feel like I need to rest 2-3 days between breakdance practices.

Training puts a lot of stress on my shoulders, knees, wrists and calves. I would consider weight training, but doing that before practice leaves me with no strength to dance, and doing it after I leaves me sore for 2-3 days anyways. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. So what are the best ways I can keep my body from feeling sore, pulling muscles or getting injured, and maintain peak performance?