Comments:

Bex - 2006-02-26 09:39:48
I am so sad to hear about Diary-X - this is the second time I've had this message from friends... I remember when I had thousands of my photos stored at a place called PhotoPoint, and they went down and took everyone's pictures with them. Now I used Webshots, but who's to say it couldn't happen with them? Stephanie, I love reading your diaries, and am hoping you continue journaling at Diaryland - truth be told, your new look at DiaryX was very hard for me to read...must be a webtv thing, but all the words on the right hand side were obliterated and I would have to c/c/paste your whole entry into a blank screen using email in order for me to even read it. I hope you will continue somewhere... I'm finding Diaryland to be very good for me now that I've become a paying member... All best...
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Sasha - 2006-02-26 10:41:06
I feel so terrible for you. I can't even agree with some people who say that it isn't all his fault because it's always a risk to have your infomration stored on someone else's site even if you're paying for it. -But- as far as I'm concerned the fact that you were paying for it should have assured you that greater care would be taken care of your information. Not doing backups for a year and having a massive hard drive failure isn't an accident or even a moment of carelessness. It was just plain irresponsible. Livejournal is pretty good, even the free account is highly customizable.
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Carol - 2006-02-26 11:17:02
I haven't had any trouble with blogger yet. It is free and seems to work well.
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ann marie - 2006-02-26 12:32:22
That is absolutely horrible! I feel so terrible for you also! Especially since most of your entries were heart-felt! I still have backup of all my entries from my GeoCities days saved, but since I've switched to Blogger, I depend on them to save everything.
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K8 - 2006-02-26 13:23:15
I would be mad as hell too! Of course I haven't backed up my diaries either (or my computer. I need to get this desk cleared off so I can get that external hard drive set up & all that backing up done. Toying with fate, that's what I'm doing!) I keep diaries on both xanga and Open Diary -- I chose to pay on both of them. I've been on Open Diary so long that it's home & family now, but we do have our technical troubles over there too. I second Bex -- I hope you find another spot to write in, and let us all know where that is!
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Denver doug - 2006-02-26 13:26:42
So sorry, it is almost like losing a near and dear relative. Immortal words gone forever. I've been reading you for ages. Hang in there Milady.
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LA - 2006-02-26 13:50:53
Well, crap. I'm so sorry it's all gone. I know what having that record of the last 5 years of my life means to me, so I cry with you. I don't even archive my entries because I refer back to them so often. I did download a back-up though. Twice. Now if I can just get my machine to cooperate and burn a disc of it. Put the disc in the safe. And pray my house doesn't burn down! Glad you're staying here at D-land! Love having you in the 'neighborhood'!!! ~LA (who is still on a chocolate high)
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bb - 2006-02-26 15:31:26
Are they going to give a refund to paying customers?
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Bozoette Mary - 2006-02-26 19:46:53
You said it well, my friend. I'm mad as hell too. I'll be staying at Typepad, since I've already paid for an account there. I did have a backup, but it's at least a year old (probably older). Weetabix gave a tip, though -- evidently you can search at http://www.archive.org to see if perhaps they picked up some of your entries. I'm going to give it a try and I'll let know how it goes.
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a friend :) - 2006-02-26 20:21:17
9/11, a date; 911, an emergency I don't really understand why I'm trying to write a journal entry at a time like this. Perhaps an attempt to gather my jumbled thoughts will help me to make some sense of the insanity. I don't know... For whatever reasons, I just feel the need to do this. Earlier this morning, I was on my way to the social studies office to get a cup of coffee when I passed a teacher in the hall. He asked if I had heard about the World Trade Center. I hadn't, and he filled me in. Since then, I've been able to concentrate on little else. I spent much of the day in the Media Center, a room off the back of the library equipped with a television. I watched the events unfold along with other staff members who came in during their free periods. I watched in stunned disbelief as the second plane crashed into the north tower. I watched the subsequent, fiery explosion. I watched the billowing black smoke. I watched as first one tower collapsed, and, then, a little later, the other. I watched parts of The Pentagon crumble. I watched those scenes over and over, not able to comprehend what my eyes were focused on. I watched in fear. I watched with a heavy heart. I worried about our National Security being compromised, and I felt my own personal sense of safety shatter. I wanted desperately to be with my children. I wanted to answer their questions and hold them in my arms. I wanted to tell them everything will be all right. When I got home, I did answer my daughters' questions (to the best of my ability), and I did hold them in my arms. But I didn't tell them everything will be all right. How can I? The horror... the horror.
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a friend - 2006-02-26 20:21:43
Ground Zero I live about 75 miles north of New York City, which is on "terrorist alert" today. Nearby West Point Military Academy is on "Code White," and the Visitor's Center and Museum are closed until further notice. Our local newspaper reports that the hijacked Boston airplanes flew right over our heads. This is all very creepy. In yesterday's entry, I wondered how I can possibly tell my children everything will be all right. I'm afraid the answer to that question will continue to elude me for a very long time. A friend of mine works on Wall Street. Last night, he sent an email to those of us he knew would be worried about him. His first-hand account of what happened is chilling, sobering, and moving. I will post from it here (with his permission): "Today was like the end of the world in Lower Manhattan. There are so many variables that, if a few were changed, I wouldn't be here typing this email. So many brave and innocent people have died today, died protecting people like me that work in Manhattan - and my brain is still scrambled from deciphering all that I saw, and felt, and choked on today. I was getting a cup of coffee up in the office when the building rumbled and the lights blinked. Being there for the previous WTC bombing, I feared the worst. We looked out the windows, right up at the south Tower and saw all the debris raining down, fire from the sky, from the first attack. We were still standing there when we saw the nose of the second jet explode out the south face of the Tower as the sky exploded in flames. We realized immediately what was going on, and evacuated the office at 2 Rector. Over to the AMEX I ran. At the Exchange, people were sobbing, hurt, but relatively ok. I ran around with my pal, breaking open the first aid stations (they were all big steel cases, locked tight, of course) so we could get the overweight and infirm Exchange folks some oxygen. Most people ran out of the building around 9:15, before the collapse of the towers. We waited and helped the exchange doctor, knowing it wasn't a smart idea to go outside until the buildings at least collapsed. They fell, and both times the AMEX building shook, it was black as night outside, and I swear I thought I was going to see the big fireball come consume me. The Trading Floor was filled with smoke and choking soot. The AMEX staff was herding the few people that were still there into the computer rooms where the air was filtered and clear. But my pal found some hard hats, then I soaked some T-shirts in water to tie around our faces, and out we went into the street, determined to get back home. Outside was black as night. It looked like Hiroshima, or Beirut, with papers blowing by on fire, 8 inches of concrete dust on the streets, shit still falling all around us. The only people outside were firemen and police. And my pal and me. For 5 blocks, anyway... So that is a very quick report of what happened. I thought we were going to die, and was talking to my wife when the second tower collapsed. I didn't want her to hear me buy the farm, so I had to hang up. That was a bizarre feeling. I was convinced either nukes were next, or the tower would topple on top of us. Neither happened, but I'm looking at things a little bit differently now. So many dead firemen, NYPD and rescue people, I feel I have to know at least some of them. This waiting for the other shoe to drop is really sad. I'll get through it; it's the families of the victims that have the real burden to shoulder. One good thing about the tears rolling from my eyes today was that they washed out the soot and grit collected in them and let me see what these fucking animals did to our great people and city and to our country..." In closing, Pete thanked everyone for checking up on him, and assured us he was "relatively intact physically." He suggested we do something positive, like give blood. He sent his love, and added this PS: "In an email from an old H.S. friend, Jeff D. says: �Hug your kids; muster your courage and compassion, seek your own soul's truth in this tragic event.' Amen, brother." And sister. Please also see this Remembrance Link. And this.
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Stephanie - 2006-02-27 06:02:14
Wow! Who was that masked man/woman? Pete? Is that you?? Whoever you are, thanks!
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Krissy - 2006-02-27 08:18:13
The masked friend is your old pal Krissy. ((hugs))
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Stephanie - 2006-02-27 10:42:42
OMG! Where are you? How do I find you?? Hugs to you, too!
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Sunshyn - 2006-02-27 14:33:05
I am so sorry about your journal being "lost." Hopefully you have parts of it. This is why I write my entry in WordPerfect and paste it into the page, though. And because of this crash, I also remembered to back up my entire journal to disk yesterday, instead of just letting it hang out on my hard drive. Looking forward to being on your notify list...
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Shanachie on diary-x - 2006-02-27 19:12:03
I'm so sorry you lost so many entries :( I'm glad I found you through the database...when diary-x crashed, I lost all the links to my diary-x reads cuz I hadn't saved them anywhere else.
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aimee - 2006-02-27 21:09:43
i feel for you. simply because all my memories came crashing down with the DX server. but then i'm not a paying customer so your pain and loss is much more than mine. wishing you all the best in loacting the entries.
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aimee - 2006-02-27 21:10:49
oh, by the way, are you okay with me linking you back? would love to get in touch with previous DX users.
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Cassie/Shanachie - 2006-02-27 23:31:29
Hi again, thanks so much for your comments on Heidi's art! Our website gets spammed so much we're using this new MT system so no comments are posted until we click on them ourselves but sometimes I don't get to approve comments until late in the evening. It's always something, isn't it? :P
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aimee - 2006-02-28 20:44:13
hey, thanks for replying! u're linked, by the way..
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Jim - 2006-02-28 21:13:37
I see Bozoette Mary beat me to it -- she's right, no guarantees, but you should explore the Internet Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org/
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mz. em - 2006-03-07 10:43:23
Although this is a terrible thing, it clues me in that I need to do a back of entries as well. Gak, that something like this should happen to dland.
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