Thanks for everyone's suggestions on how to backup! I need to consult Byron and figure out what would be the best plan.

He was able to resuscitate my laptop last night, but it's still unclear what is causing it to shut down. It may be overheating, it may be the hardware or software, it may just be time for a new laptop...I used it a little bit this morning but was always nervous that it would shut down at any moment, so I've temporarily switched to the good, old-fashioned pen and paper for my revisions.

God is so faithful--I look back and am sooo thankful that I was able to make a backup cd of my files before my computer got all goofy again.