Who sleeps on your computer when you try to use it?

Guess who?

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Irritable and crabby, my middle names.

Having a few days in a row filled with little annoyances. Like, the girl at work who makes all the mouth noises? Well, she's a worrier by nature. We don't tell her anything that might be the least bit scary or she'll have the sky falling in 10 minutes flat. Definitely nothing health related or she'll try to convince us we're dying. Listening to her walking around talking about how her 401K is worth so much less than it was a month ago, yada yada yada - gets really irritating. I go by the philosophy that as long as I'm not looking to sell it, I'm fine. It will go up again. But she has to walk around moaning and whining about something she has absolutely no control over, and something everybody else in the room is trying NOT to worry about. Gr-r-r-r!

That was this week. At the end of last week my brand new slick phone - died. Yeah. Push the button - nothing. I slid the phone into my purse the night before and Friday morning when I got in my car I turned - or tried to turn my phone on and yeah. Dead.

After work I called AT&T and did the little trouble shooting stuff they asked me to do because I'm a customer service reps dream. I'm a good patient too, but that's another story. We came to the conclusion that the phone was .. well .. dead. Like I said. Okay fine, send me a new one, I'll use my old one until the new one arrives. Because I'm laid back that way.

My new phone arrived last night and that was when I discovered that I had almost everything saved to the memory card so that was good. Wasn't sure what I had stored in the phone and what I had saved to the memory card so I was a bit apprehensive at first. But - all I was missing was (were?) my ringtones. I hate searching for ringtones because I get all anal retentive about it and want to find the perfect ringtone for each of several people, and the best general ringtone for whoever else might call. God forbid my phone rings at work or somewhere and my ringtone is really lame. Except of course my "cool" is bound to be somebodies lame so I really shouldn't worry about it. I'm sure there is some aspect of obsessive compulsiveness to it all.

I downloaded about 7 different ringtones about 5 times. I would download them and then find they didn't exist. Made me nuts and irritable, especially since I was trying to IM and read blogs and watch TV at the same time. But - I was finally able to complete the task to my satisfaction. Mostly. Not sure any of that stuff will ever really please me.

Anyway.

It's been rainy and cool here for the last couple of days and driving to work in the morning is frustrating when the pavement has a drop of water on it to say the least. That's when people turn into the worst drivers ever. Except me, of course. This morning was especially annoying since it was only drizzling but the guy in the left lane in front of me insisted on driving 35 mph when the limit is 45 and I usually drive at least 50 along that stretch of road. Needless to say (but of course I will anyway) the guy would not move out of the left lane and I was forced - forced I tell ya - to pass on the right. Walked into work complaining about all the putzes out there on the road.

I need to color my hair and change my diet and exercise more (read - at all) and not sleep so much and on and on. Plus I'm taking a time management course for work which has me seriously thinking about logging what I do with all my time at home. I'm good at work. But home? I get nothing done and never seem to have time for anything. I can see the log for a regular weeknight now:

6:00) Home from work, feed cats, change clothes, sort mail, odds and ends.
6:30) Sit down in front of the TV with my laptop - eat there too.
9:30) Get my lunch ready for the next day, my tea for morning, my meds, etc.
9:45) Back to the computer again - take my makeup off there as well.
11:00) Bed. (okay sometimes it's 12:00 or maybe 1:00am)

Exciting, isn't it? But that's what I do. Somehow recently I did fill 13 bags with clothes, shoes, purses, etc to give away. I straightened my closet and now it looks nice but more importantly, I can find things! I got my daughter's room straightened and vacuumed but I STILL have not finished my bead room.

Maybe I can work on that .. fit it in between say .. 6:00 and 6:30 when I do my other odds and ends? Cause that seems to be the only time I'm willing to be away from my computer unless I'm SLEEPING! That just can't be healthy.

Look, it had knobs!

I was trying to remember when I got my first computer. It was late by a lot of standards. Schools were already requiring kids to do any type of report on a computer which made me angry because we didn’t have one. I couldn’t afford it so my kids were going to the library to do what a good deal of the other kids were doing at home.

My daughter and I were talking the other day about something we saw on TV about cheating, and teachers using websites to verify whether their students work is original or not. I think the one they mentioned was checkitout.com but I haven’t visited it so I’m not sure.

During the discussion I was expressing how I used to copy things out of encyclopedias when I was a kid. I remember doing a report on Finland and talking about gross national product and land mass and all kinds of fun things. But I copied it by hand onto lined notebook paper. We were graded on neatness and spelling and we sure as heck didn’t have spell-check.

So is that the new “when I was a kid I walked a mile to school, barefoot, in the snow…”? I can tell my kids “yeah, when I was your age, we only had 4 TV channels and maybe 3 more if the antenna could pick up the VHS stations.” And “when I was a kid we had to watch TV shows right when they were on, there was no way to record them or choose when we wanted to see them.” And oh the horror – “we had to WALK over to the TV every.single.time. we wanted to change the channel.”

So yeah, I hand wrote that report on Finland. I looked up information from 3 different encyclopedias and wrote it in pen, there was no erasing. No backspacing, no mistakes. And y’know what else? I had to know how to alphabetize because that’s the way the information was arranged in encyclopedias.

We did everything the hard way so-to-speak but there was no easy way for a teacher to tell whether or not we copied our reports word for word.

We had that going for us. And that was good.

A saint, I tell ya!

I have figured out what I did to get those flowers. Well, maybe not but I should certainly get points for patience!

My mother is turning 80 this year. She’s a tiny little thing who has emphysema and falls down a lot. I have talked about her before and our struggles as a family with where she should live and what would be the best situation for her.

She got divorced a few years ago and after a couple of false starts – tried having her live with me, then my sister, now she has settled in with my brother quite well. It seems to be working better for her as she needs to know there is a man in the house. If the water heater goes out, he will know what to do. If she needs something fixed, he will know how to do it. Trouble with her car – my brother being a man – will know how to take care of it. At least that’s what she believes and it is very comforting to her to live with a man, even if it is her son.

He however, is not a computer guy. So she calls me. Today she wanted to set up her profile on Etsy so she can sell some of her artwork. There is more to it then just setting up the profile, the shop announcement and shipping profile. In order to list items you have to have pictures and those pictures cannot be above a certain size. You also really want to have more than 1 picture of any item you are selling.

Two hours on the phone later – Mom had her Etsy profile set up and had resized maybe – oh – 4 pictures using Paint. TWO HOURS. FOUR pictures. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the phone? Yeah. Not to mention the fact that I had to repeat each instruction over each and every time she needed to do something, it seemed as soon as I told her – she would do it - and then forget it.

I really hope my daughter is able to be that patient with me and keep the irritation out of her voice for that long on the phone with me someday, because that’s MY future for sure. Or maybe I’m just going straight to hell right now for even BEING irritated with my elderly mother even though I didn’t let it show.

Right now I think I should sprout wings!

The best of both worlds!

I'm tired today. And I'm cold. It's below zero outside and doesn't feel much warmer in here. My furnace is totally working, but it barely turns off these days. I am afraid to see what my gas bill will be!


My new position at work is kicking my butt, I have been going all day without any time for anything but - well - work! I like to ease into it a bit in the morning, but because the 'team' I'm on now is national, some of my co-workers are on the east coast, some on the west, and I'm right in the middle. I know that some of them on the east coast start work at something like 7:00am which means that by the time I get in at 8:30 some of those people have 2 and a half hours head start on me! So I get to work and hit the ground running.


It's not a race, but there is always competition and the feeling that people are looking at you sideways because look how much they have gotten done before you even get into work!


I am glad to have gotten the new position, happy to learn new things and even if I whine I really would rather be busy, this week has just flown by! Still - there is that lingering sense of not being good enough and needing to prove myself. So, I am working very hard.


Before leaving work I started my car and let it warm up for about 10 minutes, and when I crossed the frozen tundra that is our parking lot - got in the car - it.was.still.cold. Warmer than outside, on it's way to being warm, but even my car's heater has trouble keeping up with this cold. Br-r-r-r.


Stopped on my way home and got my hair cut because we all know it's a great idea to expose our ears to the fullest extent when the temps drop below zero! Seems I tend to do things backwards like that. Get the short haircuts when it's cold out and sweat with the hair on the back of my neck when it's warm.


Feeling all fancy with my new haircut I decided to stop at the drugstore. I have been out of makeup remover wipes, cloths, whatever you want to call them. I love the little plastic box where I can lift the lid and pull out a cloth as easily as a tissue. Realizing I was out a couple nights ago there was something like panic. Okay, mild panic. How will I get my makeup off!?!?!?!? As if I wasn't wearing makeup before these things were invented.


It's amazing how spoiled we are, I know I have easily slipped into the simpler way of doing things. I remember having conversations with my daughter in particular, telling her there were no microwaves when I was a kid. No, there certainly wasn't any Internet because OH MY GOD there weren't even any personal computers back then. Our phones were rotary, cell phones didn't exist, and when they did - they were bolted into your car with a battery the size of a shoe box in the trunk!


I am glad we have all the things that make life easier now, but boy does anyone else get thrown for a loop when some convenience goes haywire, or runs out, or dies? The microwave is broken? Wailing - what will I do-o-o-o??! How will I cook??


Now though, I have a new convenience I am determined to acquire. Whether I can buy it or have to rig it myself, I have to have this. How much time do I spend on my laptop in the evenings? I don't even want to admit how much. So this, this is what I am determined to have. Okay? Even the Mayo Clinic is saying this is a good thing to do!



The object is not to run or even walk fast. The recommended way of doing it is to run the treadmill at a slow walking speed. Slow enough so you can use your laptop effectively, whether for work or for fun, it's 100% better than SITTING behind the computer!




Like I said, I don't know if there is something affordable I can buy, or if I can figure out how to set something up on my own, I have to confess that nothing holds my attention quite like the computer does these days.



This? $6500.00. Yeah, that's not happening anytime soon. At least I think the price includes the treadmill!
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A computer analyst's job is never done.

My Mom was staying at my sister’s house for a while, almost 2 years ago. She was using my sister’s computer or maybe I should say, attempting to. Since my job is in I.T. my Mom would call me with all things computer. Here is just a slice of one of those conversations that caused blood to start shooting out of my eyes.

I love you Mom!

M: The computer keeps going out.

BJ: Going out? What do you mean?

M: It goes black.

BJ: The monitor?

M: Yes, the computer.

BJ: Mom, are you looking at the computer?

M: Yes, where the picture is.

BJ: No Mom, the computer is the box, the tower.

M: Well it doesn't look like a tower to me.

BJ: That's okay Mom, it's where you would put a disk if you had one, or a CD.

M: I don't have a CD.

BJ: I know Mom. What color is the light on the box?

M: The box on top of the computer?

BJ: What box?

M: The one with all the plug ins?

BJ: You mean the power strip?

M: The electrical. I have to turn that on first.

AGH-H-H-H!!!!!!!

I told her she needed to wait until my sister got home.

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