Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Why have the Laptop gods cursed me?

So, because my laptop is broken, I am blogging to you from my “smart phone”. My BlackBerry happens to have the capability to view Word documents, so I’ve typed this on another computer and e-mailed it to myself. I also can’t really update my 365 Project, because even if I take pictures, I have no where to post them or save them. So I haven’t taken any pictures since Friday.

Isn’t technology amazing?

Sometimes. The reason I have to now blog from my phone is because on Friday night, it stopped working. I haven’t dropped it, deleted system requirements, rearranged anything – since I got it about 2 years ago. I remember buying it for myself with gift cards for my birthday in 2007. The only thing that has happened to it is that I spilled a drink on it just over a year ago, and it’s been working fine. My keys have been sticky or stiff at times, but that’s it. I also somehow managed to break my disc drive by closing it too fast around the same time and now it’s off the track and won’t read discs.

But I don’t feel that either of those would have led to my current issue.

I had left my computer on, and Justin wanted to watch a movie that I had downloaded earlier. So I opened the screen and starting getting it ready. I loaded it into the Windows Media player, and realized there was no sound. It’s not unusual for me to mute the computer, so I thought that was it – nope. The mute was off. So I thought maybe the volume on the computer or player was down low? Nope. Perfectly fine. In the time it took me to try these things out to try and get sound, my computer got really slow, and pretty much just freezed – but the movie kept playing. So I couldn’t figure out why the stupid thing wouldn’t play sound. Then I did something I’ve done a million times before. I held the power button down until the computer just turned off. Then I waited a few minutes and pressed the power button again to turn it back on. Past history proved to me that it would just let me know it was turned off improperly and would I like to continue in Safe Mode? That definitely did not happen this time.

This time, a black screen with simple white text asked me that first question. How would I like to continue starting up my computer? I let it select the normal mode, knowing (based on history) that it would be fine. It thinks for a minute, then tells me it cannot perform that function, because something is missing or corrupted. So now I don’t know if something happened to it because I downloaded that movie, or because I held down the power button too long one time too many for the laptop gods. So computer gods – how can I fix this? Oh, just put in my start-up disc and reload? That would be great – if my disc drive worked!!!!!

I’m out of luck. Computer repair is expensive, especially if I have to retrieve every picture I’ve taken since late 2004, and over 2,500 songs. Not to mention all of my programs and settings. And a new disc drive. But if I don’t, I don’t have any of those things anyway. Even if I could afford a new laptop, why wouldn’t I just get the one I have fixed with that money, and the new one wouldn’t have my pictures and music.

I can live without out if I have to, but things like my pictures, my resume, my songs, and other things are on there, and I’m going to want to look at them again at one point.

I’m hoping if I leave my computer alone for a week, that I will go back to it and all of a sudden it will be working again on it’s own. But not if it’s missing something or if something is corrupted. Someone needs to fix it. It will be a few months before that happens.

Friday, August 7, 2009

A Good Cry...

This may seem like a weird post, but I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker of mine this week. She didn’t have a very good weekend, and is looking forward to having a better one this weekend. She mentioned that she just needed a “good cry” to get all the stress out from last week. That got me thinking about what a “good cry” really is…

For those of you who don’t know (mostly men), women don’t always cry randomly, due to a sad commercial, or someone saying or doing something mean to us. Sometimes we deliberately make ourselves sob to act as a release for all of our stress. If you’ve ever watched “Everybody Loves Raymond”, there’s actually an entire episode based around this fact; Debra uses an afternoon where Ray and the kids are out of the house, to sit on the couch and just let it all go, and cry.
He happens to come back for some reason and see her crying, and feels that she’s lying when she tells him she’s crying “just because” – he feels that she can’t cry unless she has a reason, and the funny part is that he feels it was something he did. We don’t always need a reason to cry!!

But we got into a discussion on what movies are our “go-to” movies when we want a “good cry”. Immediately, this co-worker and my boss started naming off movies like “Steel Magnolias”, “The Notebook” and “Of Mice and Men”. I’ve actually never seen any of those, so I couldn’t say I agree with them. But that got me thinking – what are my “go-to” movies?

I like “Love Actually” for a “happy cry”.
That’s the one I’d go to if I just wanted to get a few tears out, but still leave with a happy feeling. If I’m in a good mood, the last thing I’d want is to watch something depressing and walk away more sad than I was to begin with.

For a “sad cry”, if I’m having a bad day or something, I normally pull out Sex and the City.
I can hear people thinking “that’s a sad movie?” If you’ve seen it, and you’re a women (no offense), then you know that yes, it can be heartbreaking at times, and I would say there wasn’t a dry eye in the house during certain scenes when I saw it in the theater. Again, if you’ve seen it, you know what scenes I’m talking about. For the most part, I don’t normally like to keep “sad” movies around because I would much rather watch a comedy, and once you’ve seen it, it doesn’t really have the same impact the next few times. But I can always find myself feeling for the characters in Sex and the City, especially since I understand the story lines due to the tv serires. And I can always count on tearing up – whether it’s for a happy moment, or a heartbreaking moment.

But to end on a high note...below is my picture for the day!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Christmas!


Puppies!!


SPARKLES!!!
Duh!
Totally random, totally senseless blog - It's FRIDAY!!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Where, oh where, has my creativity gone?

I have been feeling nostalgic for a little while, and decided to go through my old blogs. Now, granted, it hasn't been a full year yet, but it's still interesting to look back. I noticed that in my first few months, I was coming up with creative images and thoughtful stories. Even if I didn't have anything too interesting that day, I at least took time to give a little laugh (so I'd hope), with stories about no coffee. I had "creative moments" firing all day.


What happened?


My more recent blogs haven't had anything interesting at all. A co-worker has told me multiple times that I'm a great story teller, and I can make even the simplest stories entertaining and funny. But it hasn't translated into my blog, which is "writing" for me, and I've always taken pride in how I can tell stories in writen form.

So, I vow to make myself proud and to be more creative! I believe part of the way I can bring that around is by reading more, and GOSH DARNIT I will read more!! Justin is going out of town in about 2 more weeks for a whole week this time. I just read my blog from the last time he went on vacation and I had a hard time filling a weekend. So I know for sure that a week will give me plenty of time to catch up on reading - no excuses!!

And in a totally random burst of creativity, and a previous blog post on travel, here's an amazing parting shot. I wish I could be there right now.

Ugh.


8.6.09 - Dishes. Ugh. And that cookie sheet behind the faucet? Oh don't worry about that little guy...it's clean, I promise. It's just old. And I do have others! I normally just put foil over that one before I bake something on it.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Watching the storm roll in...

8.5.09 - Very slow day. Watching the storm roll in over the mountains from my balcony.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Quesadilla Night

8.4.09 - Picking out peppers for Quesadilla Night. So pretty! I never knew they came in orange!

Monday, August 3, 2009

365 Project

A high school friend of mine has been doing a project with pictures on Facebook. It's called the 365 Project and you take a picture a day for 1 year. Over that year, you find yourself taking simple pictures, things you wouldn't normally take pictures of. After looking back, the idea is to remember the little things; things that made you smile, made you cry, small things you may not remember but then that one picture will bring it all back.


I thought it was a great idea! Normally you want to start the project on a "significant" date, like a birthday or New Year's Eve. I couldn't wait! I'm going to be posting the pictures daily on Facebook, and I may either do this on Blogger or post them on a weekly basis.


Here's Day 1:



8.3.09 - Bailey got tired of waiting for me to take the picture so he took a seat on the couch. He thinks I'm going to feed him.