I’ve been having laptop troubles and Word troubles and then my laptop developed a major glitch and after trying to fix it for two days and not having anything to type on, I bought a new laptop and had it overnighted to me. The relief was overwhelming: I could type again. I type, therefore I am. And since it was new, all the other troubles went away, too, including the Word glitch that was making me insane. I don’t actually know if there’s a New Computer Smell, but it there is, it’s better than roses. Why? Because I can type again!
What good thing do you want to type about today?
74 Responses
Yes, typing on my computer. It’s strange how much has moved off laptops and is strictly cellphone operated now: in my case, it’s Instant Messenger. We chat with our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter (who live in Poland) every Sunday. We used to use Skype, but that’s dead. Then we switched to Instant Messenger, but that has changed so we can’t do a group video chat on the laptop. Now we use TEAMS. Also, I’m up to 1464 days on Duolingo, but the program is essentially only on cellphone; the version on the computer hasn’t been updated in a long time. If I’m going to see the world through electronics, I prefer the laptop. But the world is limiting things to pad or phone size. (Obviously, this is all anecdotal.)
Being far from friends and family is hard! I use Zoom to talk to friends and family–that way I can use my laptop.
Our family call and texts moved to WhatsApp when it turned out that sms would drop the non Apple phones sometimes (very confusing). And I use zoom a lot especially when I need mom to show me documents she’s trying to fill out or my sister needs help figuring out her finances.
I’m all about Zoom. I can use it on my laptop.
Impressive Duolingo streak! I hit 700 today.
We use Signal to do family video calls and one of my writing groups uses Discord for video calls.
Oh goody. Someone else with a laptop problem. I’ve been holding off from watching the last episode of Outlander till I was ready for it. I am now ready only that I can’t hear it. The sound is so slight that even with my hearing aids it’s impossible to listen to it. My son who is my computer go to guy is currently not talking to me. I’m going to have to give him some time to get over his snit, but not too much. I can only hold off on sobbing at the ending for so long.
On a side note, isn’t it ironic that a certain person in DC is sending a message thanking the Secret Service when the Capitol police were ignored for their efforts.
I’m sorry about your family and laptop troubles.
The person you’re referring to has no moral compass.
FWIW, I use a small speaker with my laptop for streaming stuff so I can hear it more clearly. Bluetooth speakers are incredibly cheap these days. This is the one I got, although there’s probably a more recent model: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Soundcore-Bluetooth-Exclusive-Water-Resistant/dp/B01MTB55WH
I needed it for audiobooks on my Kindle, but it’s come in handy for sound on my laptop too. I think it would work with my phone too, although I haven’t tried that.
It’s not quite as convenient as using the sound directly from the device, but it’s not complicated — find it, turn it on and tell it to connect if it doesn’t happen automatically.
Thanks Gin, this is well worth looking into and I did, after all 150,000 reviews can’t be wrong. That’s the most I’ve ever seen on a product. I think I would have had to wait a couple of months before the library would get a copy of the video and I know me. I could hold out that long. And then again, there are other videos and news and entertainment programs I’d like to hear.
I finished my current WIP and put it up on pre-order. Typing in the final words and uploading was sublime.
Congratulations!!
So glad you can type again!
A friend of mine talked about how wonderful it was to go on vacation without her laptop and I couldn’t relate. One of the things I love about getting away from home is having *more* time to type.
I miss having a laptop in some ways. The phone is too small for a lot of things. But in other ways, I don’t miss it.
I have a desktop for things like the blog and emails and shopping, and my phone for lots of other things, but all the writing is done on the laptop. (As are online classes and podcast interviews–anything that needs to be done via Zoom.) My Word has been glitchy since the laptop before this. My computer guy says it tends to be wonky anyway, and since we’re copying old programs onto the newer computers, it likely makes it worse. I’ve just learned to live with it, but it does drive me crazy.
I’m back from vacation, and after taking the better part of a week to play catch up, and try to deal with a depressing new medical diagnosis, I’m back to writing. I was worried I might have lost the groove (which it took me ages to find in the first place) because I took a break, but yesterday I wrote almost 1,300 words. Anything over 1K is a gift, so I’m happy about that.
Still missing a chunk of the book at about the 2/3rd mark, so I’m about to reach out to pal Donna Andrews to ask her to read the 51K I’ve got so far so we can brainstorm. In the meantime, the book is out on submission, but I want to keep going and finish it, so I’m going to work on the ending, which I know in detail, and hope for the best.
Congrats on the new laptop!
Bummer about the new diagnosis and my sympathies.
And of course sending many pocket hugs.
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Sorry about the new diagnosis.
I was told a few weeks ago that I had osteoporosis (after a bone density scan). Not a big surprise at 66. The surprise came when my follow-up doctor appointment, 3 hours before I left town for vacation (NEVER do this) gave me the news that I had severe osteo–the worst numbers my doctor had ever seen. Yay for overachieving? I can’t do anything else until I see an endocrinologist, probably in October and out of town, since no local ones are taking new patients. Then we get to discuss the possible med, all of which have dreadful side-effects (and I get side-effects to the drugs most people tolerate well) and many of which are counter-indicated by other conditions I have. Basically, my doctor told me the odds were that I’d end up in a nursing home or dead. I intend to prove her wrong. Doctors, bah.
Oh no! I am so sorry.
I will offer a little unsolicited advice. Ask them to check your blood calcium and parathyroid hormone levels.
If one of your parathyroids is malfunctioning it draws calcium out of your bones and the good news is that if they remove the malfunctioning parathyroid then your bones will recalcify. A year after my surgery my osteoporesis was completely gone.
Never give up Deb! I had a massage patient years ago. He had a stroke & the Drs told him he would never walk again. He had his wife take him to the park & dump him out of his wheelchair everyday until he could walk again. He was walking just fine as my client.
Don’t listen to non-endocrinologists on DXA scans! Or anyone who says you’ve got a terrible and unchangeable prognosis!
Seriously, everyone thinks DXA scans are simple to understand and provide more information than they do, but it’s not true. (I had an opportunity to chat with a widely recognized expert on bone metabolism and the reading DXAs a few years ago, and it was enlightening.) I fight my primary every single appointment, because she wants me to do a DXA for osteoporosis, and I refuse, because for complicated reasons (rare bone metabolism disorder), DXA scans aren’t useful for understanding my bones.
Anyway, just saying, wait until you talk to the endo, and make sure it’s someone who specializes in bone metabolism. There are subtleties to DXA scans that go far beyond pure numbers, and there are options you can try before the monoclonal antibodies. And, as someone else noted, there can be causes other than aging for calcium to be leaching from your bones, so you need to investigate those possibilities (which an endo will presumably suggest checking). The body’s process for balancing blood calcium (by putting it into bones or taking it out of them) is complicated (my bone disorder is what happens when that process goes wrong), with several places where things can go wrong. I would expect the endo to order a complete blood workup to go with the DXA scans, and not rely on them alone.
Also I think arthritis can make scans useless—certainly was true for my hip that later needed replacement.
Go for it, Deborah!
So sorry you have to go through depressing medical news, sending blessings .
I’m inching closer to acquiring a new laptop (the last one was retired in 2020, when we got the word about all being remoted, and I needed a more robust home computer with which to access the firm’s Citrix-based VPN (they have since upgraded. we all have firm laptops now)). When I’m not on my HP Envy, I’ve been using a Chromebook acquired in … 2018? On which, on vacation, I wrote my first NaNoWriMo project. I compose in Google Docs, then when I’m signed back on to the real computer, move the day’s production. But let’s face it, this thing is old, and it’s not good for much else. My sibling recommends a MacBook Neo as a fairly-priced device that will run all my Microsoft programs without giving me any shit about it. So … not today, but probably by the end of this year.
Otherwise, the good is: RAIN!!!! Lots of it. Much needed. Fingers crossed the balance of rain to sun will be a bit more normal the rest of the year.
Also, finished first draft of the latest novelette and have gotten through chapter 20 of the GeoIV project. I keep getting sidetracked by revitalized interest in the history, only carefully measured doses of which need to be on my pages. 🙂
I’m visiting my parents in Ohio and brought my laptop, but have barely used it, even though I allegedly have all this free time. Maybe for the rest of the week?
My mom got a mac laptop instead of her desktop Mac and now only has to come down the stairs to wash clothes (her old desk is down here).
Anyway, I’m happy to be getting a second round of late spring rain and cool temps.
And to spend time with my family.
The good thing I want to write about today is that my nephew graduated from law school on Thursday. My brother and former sister-in-law flew in from Vancouver and then with the other nephew who lives with us we travelled to Kingston, which is about three hours away from Toronto and he graduated. It was an enormously moving moment for me and my heart is bursting with pride. The high point of the ceremony was when the chancellor, Shelagh Rogers, said “live long and prosper”…. in Vulcan. Gotta love it. So that is the first nephew off the family payroll, and now onto the rest of the niephlings, some of whom are also threatening to do postgraduate work. Gawd.
That’s wonderful. One of my nieces graduated from the same law
School as her dad last weekend and they had him give her the diploma.
Feelings.
Her sister graduated from college the day before.
Only two more college graduations to go but I think probably four or five post grad degrees, possibly six.
Feelings indeed!
I refer to my nieces and nephews as nibblings. 😄
And they kinda are.
My son graduates law this spring too, as does his girlfriend! Moving to a different city and I am traumatized but only 3 hour car ride away.
No joke to do law school – a seven year haul – so congratulations to them.
So glad to hear about higher education graduations. Congratulations to all!
Specially in this strange moment when there is disparaging commentary about learning and college, ugh.
Daughter in law is starting her PHD this fall. Yeah. Very proud Mama here.
I use my laptop to access banking and read and send documents. I read books on my tablet. I use my phone for almost everything else, including watching movies and video. Phone is bluetoothed to my hearing aids, which means I can hear what’s being said, without rupturing anyone’s else’s ear drums. Other devices are too old to connect the hearing aids and my hearing is so poor that I can’t hear well with ear phones.
I worked 2 days on the flower farm. We’re prepping flower beds and putting in plants. My spare time is pretty much taken up with gardening. I’ve run out of room in my little interior green house so have started moving plants outdoors to harden them off. Because of the cool weather, my tulips have been blooming slowly and lasting for several days. I’m working on converting my back yard to native plants but I’ll always have tulips – they’re so bright and cheerful in the early grey days of spring.
My laptop is being a little strange—I seem to have to log back in more often than usual at the moment—but otherwise it’s working fine (knock on wood!) and letting me bang through my many rounds of edits. I think the book will be in reasonable shape to go to the editor on the 7th.
Did I say we bought a teardrop trailer? We have it now, and I spent a ton of time cleaning it and ordering things for it this week, and got a hitch installed on my car. It turned out there WAS water damage—from the sink in the galley. Which I think is better than a leak from the exterior. But still, I pulled out all the mattresses (there were two, plus a substantial mattress topper, stacked on each other) and was chagrinned to find black mold. I really doubt the people we bought it from knew, since they apparently thought throwing a mattress topper onto the stack of other mattresses was change aplenty. Like, they left the mattress protector from the original owners in situ. And left their mattress protector and fitted sheet for us. All of which I find kind of gross and baffling. Anyway. I’ve cleaned and bleached and ordered a new piece of memory foam. And I made curtains for the trailer out of a shower curtain that had mildew spots at the bottom but was still looking fresh and clean at the top. They’re cute! That project led me to discover that the stitch dial on my sewing machine is broken, though, so adding getting it fixed to my to-do list.
J took me on my Mother’s Day trip to go kayaking at Elkhorn Slough yesterday and we had a fabulous time! He paddled and I photographed—which he claims is an equitable division of labor, which is why he’s the best. I got tons of amazing photos of birds, sea otters, and seals. And did not drop my nice camera in the water. Man, it’s rough out there in nature, though. With my terrible eyes, I thought I was taking pictures of a sea otter playing with its pup at one point, only to get home and realize it was, um, playing with its food in a truly gruesome manner. Delete. I only want photos of NICE sea otters, thank you. The ones who only eat shellfish in very cute ways.
Got six new bird species to add to my lifer list!
Wow! A 6-lifer day!!! My birding buddy and I do a lifer dance whenever we add one to our list — you’d have been dancing all day! What a thrill!
What I need to type about is proofing data tables.
What I want to type about somewhat obsessively is the ongoing court proceedings in NY. Today I learned that rules of evidence can be waived for cause in this proceeding which might be that the dad can’t testify himself due to dementia so a lot of what we know through him may be admissible. Yay!
But instead I’m going to a Memorial Day weekend barbecue and bringing German Strawberry wine punch. Which I hope will be a fun time and distract me. Because I am having trouble focusing on other things and of course we give a lot of info but get almost nothing back since there are privacy laws about it.
I can’t remember if I said here that when we spoke with the evaluator and I started explaining why I had tried to get a special needs trust she immediately got it? Then I sent her the emails between mom and me about it. Well, later I found out this is one of the evaluator’s legal specialties. And then I realized that the mom’s emails trashed the highly respected special needs trust lawyer we had gotten an opinion from and mentioned the lawyer she had used —and even mentioned the lawyer’s truly absurd position that a young woman who is bedbound and only has a high school degree would somehow be found not disabled. I had not said that since I don’t know if that is covered by a British court confidentiality order. Now I don’t need to! This evaluator will probably know them! This evaluator will be appalled ! Much excitement! Many exclamation marks!
Ok I’m sorry about the rant.
Today my (not new) laptop is making me happy. My desktop is being used by eldest son and I have pictures to download and don’t want to bump him off as he is working… This morning I was up at dawn to go see if the Fork Tailed Flycatcher seen yesterday was still around, and to my joy he was! This bird is way off course and hasn’t been seen in this area before. This breed migrates from Southern South America and usually doesn’t go beyond Venezuela and Mexico — though occasionally they show up in Texas and southern Florida. No way to know how he went so spectacularly off course but it was very exciting to see him and to be able to take pictures of him! Specially as it was a dark, wet morning with lowering skies and really bad light — I was worried about being able to see him at all much less about being able to take pictures of him! Even though I don’t expect NatGeo-worthy shots, I am most eager to download the photos and am so happy to have my laptop available!
What an exciting birding day!
I’m thinking about getting a spare Chromebook, since I’ve been reading about plans to make the next iteration into one that shoves AI down the user’s throat, no way to disable it.
I really love my Chromebook, and I was happy with most Google products before they started enshittifying them all. My plan for tomorrow is to test the non-Google search engine Kagi (and possibly some alternatives, although I’m currently inclined toward Kagi) and install whatever alternative I like best. I’ve already disabled AI from Google searches, but it sounds like the next iteration of google search won’t let me do that, and I can turn off AI in Kagi (and also in Duck Duck Go, for anyone who’s looking into this issue).
In good, non-computer stuff, I got my second raised garden (two feet high!) installed, and filled with dirt and compost and tomato plants in time for a nice, soaking rain today and tomorrow. And I harvested my first “salad” from the container garden on my deck, which you can see here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYsRSIFmLsp/?img_index=2
I tend to use Chrome and Safari—can you turn AI off in them ?
At present, you can turn off the AI results in Chrome (don’t know about Safari), but it’s a little complicated, and in any event, Google is about to introduce a new (mandatory) search engine that is, from what I’ve read, all AI, all the time (and more sponsored results), no way to turn it off, and will make actually going to the primary sources (or as primary as it gets on the web) inconvenient to encourage you to stay inside the AI ecosystem.
Do. Not. Want.
I’ve installed Kagi on my desktop (but still need to do it on my phone). It’s basically just a Chrome extension that makes Kagi the default search engine instead of Google search. I’ve heard good things about Duck Duck Go too, but ultimately I chose to install Kagi. I’ve only played with it a few times so far, but oh my, it’s nice to get a clean, ad-free listing instead of the garbage that Google search throws up even without AI results. I’m in the trial period for Kagi, but will probably opt for the paid version soon. Just can’t decide whether I do enough searches to get the unlimited plan ($10/mo) or the limited plan ($5/mo). Either one seems like a good investment to avoid the AI garbage.
I like DuckDuckGo as a search engine instead of Google. You can turn off the AI.
I like Duck Duck Go. It’s easy to turn off the AI.
This was a bad news followed by encouraging news week. My agent has been shopping the book I got the rights back on. Bad news was a rejection. They liked the story but had bought several that were similar so they passed. Encouraging news was from another publisher that asked if I had other stories. They wanted more than just one story. I sent two more proposals to my agent and am now waiting to hear.
Congrats on the new laptop, Jenny!
Ooh, that does sound encouraging! Fingers crossed for you!
Whoo hoo! Fingers crossed.
Friday, the flooring guy, Javier, was here for over 9 hours, and did a good job. He cut some of the laminate boards so that there wouldn’t be a straight line across the floor. I really like the light sand color and the way it looks. It’s called “Golden Road”. In the book, Breaking Dawn, last in the Twilight series, the vampire family has renovated a cottage in the woods for the newly married couple, and the bedroom looks out a large sliding glass door to a blue pond, while the flooring is the color of ocean sand, to remind them of the Island near Rio, where they honeymooned. I took my inspiration for the flooring from that. It looks like desert sand, however, and my bedroom looks out to the courtyard. It’s so much nicer than the dark brown in the rest of the house.
Yesterday, I shuffled a 4 1/2 foot tall pile of bagged clothing into the walk-in closet. Most of it is winter stuff that I can/will give away when it gets closer to that time. I joyed in looking at the piece of living room floor that had been liberated. My son and DIL took me to a big box store to get the baseboards, and I found some ground cover for the courtyard area that had been covered with a gross fake grass pad. Then my son painted the baseboards, and will install them, maybe tonight, so I can move into that room.
I took everybody to our favorite restaurant to celebrate, and had some really good food. It was a nice day.
I hope the new laptop has a long and happy life, Jenny.
A good thing is you can find books currently free on Amazon by typing free and category of book at Amazon.com. If you type Free Kindle Romance, Amazon will show you currently free romance novels.
Thanks, Mary!
I had a look at amazon.de and it’s working.
It’s also depressing how many books have obviously AI generated cover illustrations.
Am I the only one who can’t help but suspect that when the cover is AI and the pen name very strange that the whole product is artificial as well?
The flood of titles, many of which seem weird, must make it really hard to reak through as a new author….
Had a good appointment at my local hospital with a geriatrician & her team who were recommended to me for ongoing support with my Parkinson’s. Such a relief – the neurologist who diagnosed me in August, while pleasant, didn’t offer any follow-up and was also difficult to understand, especially over the phone.
Went to Liverpool for the day on my birthday, since the forecast was too dire for garden visiting – did that on Friday instead. This birthday is the most extended celebration ever, since friends from school, university, etc, are also making a big deal of turning 70. I’m having a fun spring & summer!
A belated Happy Birthday, Jane!
Congrats on the doctor and the celebrations !
Happy Birthday!! I think that you should carry on the tradition of extended birthday celebrations to next year even if it isn’t a “significant” year. These days, surviving for another year is a bigger accomplishment than usual.
I am especially happy that you’ve found a better support system for your Parkinson’s care. I just started working with a lower GI specialist who wants me to send him progress reports every week, instead of my internist who, knowing about the frequency of my symptoms, told me that there was no need to see him again for another 12 months. The first thing we really need from our health care is for them to pay attention so that they can recognize when things have changed. And I am delighted to hear that you seem to have found a place where you can get that.
Oh Aunt Snack that’s wonderful. I hope he can get a handle on it.
Happy birthday, JaneB!!
An ectended celebration sounds fabulous!!
We also celebrated a birthday yesterday (24-05), my kid’s 21st. In great weather.
Thanks, everyone!
A helpful doctor is a gift from the gods.
The Good is new voting machines with a much more efficient system for our county. Adjudication that used to take the better part of 2 1/2 weeks will probably take a bit over one. (Unless I’ve just jinxed it.) That, of course, mean more time for me to work out in the yard.
We’re getting rain here but Pixie’s managing to walk between raindrops so all is well.
Kind of scary that we are getting new voting machines at this time in this political climate.
Another good thing is that after a few days of being unable to access the internet, I can finally do it tonight. I’m not sure whether the problem was my computer or my internet provider, but I’m happy that it is over. The part that gets me is that my sister’s family uses the same provider, but doesn’t have any of these problems.
I spent last week away from my computer, which was lovely. Although, when I went to turn it on yesterday, it would not boot up. So my MacBook Pro may be dead. It actually belongs to work so I will find out on Tuesday.
I was able to do some quilting Monday through Wednesday. I traveled on Thursday to Wisconsin and saw my family as we buried my uncle’s remains on Friday. Came back to Michigan on Saturday and spent Sunday putting stuff away.
Wear the lilac. Carry the towel.
Another good thing. My son tells me that in the Peter Thiel and steroid company sponsored “enhanced games” where they had athletes on steroids (and maybe other drugs?) compete against clean athletes—the clean athletes won. Every time.
“The doping was pretty clearly countereffective for the swimmers.
The more doped swimmers were bulkier and dragged more and also were sinking in the water more and it was pretty obvious. The swimmer who was advertised as juicing the most and expected to break the world record came in last place.”
So the steroid companies ended up paying to prove their stuff doesn’t work.
That is fantastic!
I have a fun thing planned for tomorrow – Tuesday. My mom & 3 of her sisters are visiting & we are going to have an afternoon tea party. I am hosting at my house. It is fun & nerve-wracking at the same time.
That sounds like a hoot. May you all have a wonderful time.
Have a lovely time. I have done these a few times and really should do another soon.
I have just handed in the final assignment for my university unit. All done and dusted! I have decided that I won’t re-enrol next semester; I’m really glad I did it and learnt all that interesting stuff and got my brain working in different ways, but now I want to get back to writing novels. The guinea pigs of creativity are snuffling loudly in the basement, demanding to be heard. I shall take a few days off, then let them out and see what they have to say.
Woo Hoo! I wish any class I’d ever taken had inspired me that much.
Ever wonder why Jenny gets “the girls” in her basement and you get guinea pigs? Maybe it is a hemispheric difference?
Aunt Snack, I wasn’t even sure whether it was a good class to take or not, but it ended up being brilliant. As for the guinea pigs, definitely a hemispheric difference! But I’m pretty sure the idea is the same.