Life WC = Without Computer

The day after Easter Sunday my computer stopped working. I would turn it on, it would sing a few bars of its merry wakeup tune, then it would turn itself off. Not good. After about the forth or fifth time it did that, I decided something was really wrong, and called the MAC Genius. I was told to bring the machine in, as it sounded like it was the power board that had gone out. So, I unplugged everything and off to the MAC Genius I went.

After a week and a half of trial and error he finally figured out what was wrong, but it took the following process for that to happen: Power board = nope, hard drive = nope, memory board = nope, and finally, RAM board = shazzam! Apparently it took so long to figure it out, because if one of the RAM boards (I had three) goes out, a little beep sounds when you turn on the machine. Mine didn't beep, hence that was the last place he looked for a problem. So, he pulled out the bad board and everything was good to go. He also did an upgrade, so I am now running the current MAC program, called Yosemite, since they have moved away from naming the programs after big cats, and have now moved to Scenic Places in California.

While the computer was gone I discover something important. But it took me three or four days to realize it. At day one, I was in withdrawals. At day two, I was getting used to the idea that it was gone. By day three, I was actually glad it was gone. Strange, I know! I told my husband I felt free. I no longer felt compelled to fire it up first thing in the morning, troll through FB to see what everyone else was doing, get lost for hours on Pinterest, or check blog sites—my own included. I compare it to a drug addict going through withdrawals. Once past the worst of it, I realized I didn't need it. I didn't have the angst of making sure I stayed "in the loop" on FB, or felt hurt if no one commented on something I posted. By day four, I almost wished it would go away permanently.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy social media as much as the next girl, but it was refreshing to realize that I could get along without it. Instead of looking at kewl stuff on Pinterest, I was busy making kewl stuff instead. Rather than trolling FB, which is mostly people ranting about politics, religion, or posting dumb memes, or pictures of their pets, I was out working in my garden. Out in the real world!

Granted, I am not, nor was I ever, a "sit in front of the computer all day" kind of person, but I came to realize that I could spend even less time on it than I was, and get WAY more things done. Since I got the computer back, yes, I check FB, blogs, and keep informed about the clubs I belong to which have FB pages. I check in with the friends I really care about, who post things I am interested in. But all that has been cut back to a minimum.

Would I ever give up the computer completely? No. I love the fact that I can google search anything and get an answer. If I need resource material or pictures, I can find them. There are two blog sites that I follow, both by artists, that I would not want to be without. And even though it can be a grossly addicting time warp, I do like to troll Pinterest, and would not want to be without my own board on that site. I guess it all boils down to dosage. Less time spent, make it quality time, and then bail out.

So, there really is life WC—or at least LC = Less Computer.

Hair Ornaments and Hairballs

Hair Ornaments

I finally got my poor Etsy site back up and running (there is a link in my header), and that was an ordeal. It takes forever to upload the photos, write the descriptions, decide on a price, etc, etc. Once that was all done, I then went back and pinned each item to my Pinterest account, hoping for a bit more exposure and sales. It basically took me most of yesterday. Partly because I still had some photographs to take, which takes time to set up and get right. I still don't have a light box (my bad), but I set up something in the garage where the light is better, and that seemed to work okay...for now.

The big decision with the Etsy thing was to keep the prices as low as possible, which means I probably won't post earrings any longer. If I make a ten dollar pair of earrings, it's going to cost me three dollars to mail it, or more if out of the US. Not worth it. So there will be nothing on the site under fifteen dollars, but hopefully no more than twenty-five dollars. No postage charged unless out of the US. We'll see how things go. Here are a few of the new hair ornaments.

Hairball

For the last two days I have been cussing at my Firefox browser. For some inexplicable reason, it dumped all but ten of my bookmarks. One night I had 25-30, the next morning they were gone but for the first ten. Now, I would have been a lot more upset over that if I hadn't been wanting to purge a lot of them anyway. Many were ones I no longer had any interest in. But, when I added back a few of my favorites that had been deleted, when I turned on Mr. Computer this morning, I found that Firefox had dumped the new additions and defaulted back to the ten. This I found very annoying, especially since I have no idea why it is doing it.

I have had several people recommend I upload a new browser...like Chrome. I hate doing that, because invariable when you upload anything new, it affects something else, usually in weird ways. I am giving this little Firefox hairball time to unravel itself before I do anything else. And since computers I not my forte, I am usually loath to do anything that might go pear-shaped, because I won't know how to fix it.

Why is it the oh-so-handy "Owners Manual" on things went out of favor? You know, that wonderful guide to tell you how to work things, and full of nice trouble shooting hints. No computer comes with an owners manual. Oh no, you have to go online to get that information. Well, what if you can't get to the web? What if your browser is going bonkers? What if your computer gives you a blank screen where before you had easy to click into graphics of places you had been and would get you there again (I did, now I don't, which is another part of the hairball)? Where is my bloody owners manual to tell me what all of that means?

As you can see, I have a low frustration threshold when it comes to electronics. I think I'll go have a cup of tea...maybe with some rum in it.