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sunshine jen: The Upgrade
Last week, I upgraded the Sunshine Jen mega computer. Yes, I have finally joined the 2010s. I have moved on from Windows XP.
Even though my eight year old laptop works well (I can even play DVDs on it), it was loading web pages slower than a limping tortoise. Many a time, I spent minutes waiting for Facebook to acknowledge that yes I wanted to post a link to this very blog. Did it work? I don't know. Maybe? Is it? Pleeeeease.
So I skipped a whole bunch of different configurations and ended up with Windows 8 and a touch screen. Eeeek. I can touch the screen and it does things. It's just so cute.
I also have apps (or is it aps?) for all sorts of neato stuff. And! There's even an app that will get me to a traditional windows desktop because I'm an old person (over thirty) who gets a kick out of saving things on a desktop.
As you might have guessed, I'm still in the Microsoftoverse and not in the Apple-eden. However, I will not declare that I am a PC. That's just silly. I might work with a PC, but I do not claim it as my identity.
I've been busy with the new machine. I can do lots of different things at once. But do I want to do lots of different things at once? I just want to write stuff. When I write stuff on the new machine, I feel should be doing more. I should be listening to a radio app or looking at a webcam or reading a blog which links to another blog and another and another.
I guess the best way to deal with all the distractions of the upgrade is to just go old school: pen on paper, type it in. Yep, that might just work.
But I should embrace this technological change. When I started writing, I typed on an electric typewriter (and white-out was in bottles). This new mega computer is just a new way to avoid using white-out.
Why does technology freak me out? Or have I always found these cool new gadgets just a little absurd?
Back in the late 90s, walking down the street in New York City, I noticed people talking to themselves. This did not usually freak me out. Lots of people in New York talked to themselves on the street. I just let them be. However, these new people talking to themselves were different. Their eyes were not wild and crazy. They looked bored and slightly glazed over as if they were talking on the phone. Actually, they were talking on the phone, and I was witnessing the dawn of the handsfree headset.
One evening in Los Angeles in the new millennium, I was hanging with a friend and listening to some tunes.
Jen, someday we won't care about CDs. We'll just have mp3s. Songs won't need to be in a physical package. We can just download a song. My friend said as he showed off his new Mac with ten thousand songs on it.
I was overwhelmed at the possibilities. What would happen to our CD racks? What about cover art? What if I liked that my Achtung Baby CD skips during the line and a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle?
But I sucked it up and soon discovered it was much easier to just have songs right on the computer, so I don't have to get up and change CDs. I believe it might have added a full minute to my work time. I guess that's more efficient.
Not all technology freaks me out. Flush toilets are a great concept. I like that I don't have to type this on a piece of paper. I can just type it in and correct without white-out. This year when the time changed, I was actually able to change the clock in my car without pulling out the owner's manual.
So far for the new machine, I’ve only had to call tech support once. And I think the touch screen is cool. It makes me giggle.
Time to upload.
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