Patti O'Shea's Very Bad Day

I have been using the same laptop since 2016. That's right, eight and a half years. I used to either kill my laptops with all the typing I did or they'd start running so slowly, I had to replace them or lose my mind.

But this laptop? It was still running at a fast enough speed that I didn't see any reason to buy a new one yet. Plus, I customize everything and it's all setup the way I like it.

You can imagine my horror when I walked back in my office after doing something else for about an hour and finding a big blue screen. This is not the Big Blue Screen of Death. This was a different blue screen. A more ominous blue screen.

I pulled up a search engine and immediately looked up the error message. The first thing mentioned?

Hard drive problem.

There were other possibilities, too, but it mentioned something about the computer running hot. Which is a problem I'd been dealing with and I kept putting the laptop to sleep to let it cool down.

I ran through the troubleshooting process the computer had, but the drive had died.

Unrecoverable died.

I'm unhappy, but not devastated. I subscribe to a service that automatically backs up everything on my computer plus I pay for a cloud service to save nearly all my files on my hard drive and online. I'm confident that I have everything and did not lose any data.

The part where I'm less happy? I wasn't planning on buying a new laptop right now. I opted for the same brand that lasted 8.5 years, but I bought a smaller screen size since I usually leave it plugged into the docking station in my office. I also got a convertible laptop. I'm not sure I'll use the tablet function or not, but I like having the option.

I will talk about the laptop once I receive it and get it setup.

Usually, I have a backup laptop on hand, but because the one that died was so old, the previous laptops are antique and basically unusable. Luckily for me, I have a MacBook Pro that I use for some writing applications that do not run on Windows. I did have to spend a few hours setting everything up, but I'm up and running and able to do what I need to do at a laptop, including write Oz and Ayla.

The MacBook plugs into my docking station, so I'm able to use my big monitors and the big bonus is I can write really long text messages to my friends because I have a keyboard. I hate doing a lot of typing on my phone. Even doing the keyboard finger drag thing is annoying.

There's a slight delay typing on the keyboard and I'm assuming it's a docking station issue because I'm using a dongle to connect to it. My MacBook doesn't have a USB A port and my docking station doesn't have a USB C cord.

More to come.

Crazy Computer Day

It all started so innocently.

It was a Sunday night. I was winding down for the day and planning to head to bed in a couple of hours. I was scrolling through Facebook on my phone and saw something about my password manager and how there had been a breach and users should move to a different one.

No problem, I thought. My anti-virus program comes with a free password manager. I'll move over there.

But my browser wouldn't show the icon for the extension even though it said it had installed it and the program kept showing a popup, insisting it was not installed.

I'd noticed a few other extensions I'd added recently also didn't have icons. I did some online searches to troubleshoot and nothing worked for me.

I kept trying. I found more instructions. This wiped out all my extension icons including the ones that had been present and working for me. Trying to uninstall and reinstall the extensions did nothing.

Frustrated, I gave up on the anti-virus password manager and tried 1Password. It insisted that I didn't have some Java thing installed and refused to move forward. I did some online searches on that and I did have it installed. 1Password insisted otherwise.

I went back to the anti-virus password manager briefly, but the same issue remained. I tried a third password manager. This one worked.

My browser, though, is still an issue. All my extension icons are gone and I rely on them. I can't figure out how to fix this and it's getting later and later and my alarm clock goes off early.

I'd heard about a browser recently that was recommended for privacy. Might as well try that, I thought. I loaded all my favorite extensions on there and I have icons and it works as expected. It would almost be good except it has a couple little quirks that are making me crazy. No bookmarks menu, which means to access favorite websites, I need to click into the settings and maneuver from there. Also, there is no way to pin websites to the new tab when you open one.

My solution? I'm using both browsers. Sigh.

Icon Scramble

Today, for no reason I can discern, Windows decided to rearrange all my desktop icons. All of them.

To say I wasn't happy is an understatement.

There are some icons on my desktop that I want in one particular location. The shortcut to my Word Count Tracker? I want that on the far lower left so that it's never covered up by a Word document.

My shortcut to my Spelling Bee (it's a New York Times word game) spreadsheet is on the lower right. This leaves it visible when I have my browser window up, but hidden if I'm writing.

I also have shortcuts to programs I use on the left hand side of the icons and shortcuts to writing templates on the right hand side.

And nothing was where it belonged when I opened my computer. Argh!

Of course, there are a fair number of icons that I really don't care where they are because I rarely use them and don't have their spot memorized.

But I spent time today fixing my desktop, returning it back to the way I like it. I was irritated while I did it, but I did have a bunch of shortcuts on the desktop that I never use. Why am I keeping something on the desktop, cluttering up my space, if I never go into those folders that way? I deleted them. The folders are still there, just the shortcuts are gone.

I also discovered some documents I'd downloaded to my desktop and never put away into a folder that gets backed up, so I took care of that, too.

So as annoying as it was to have Windows rearrange everything, I guess it wasn't a big deal and it gave me the opportunity to lose a row of icons. The cleaner and less cluttered my computer desktop is, the better.

My Favorite Laptop

In 2016, I abandoned my favorite laptop because the keyboard was shot. Keys missing, keys not working when you tapped them, and the laptop was six years old. I replaced it. Unfortunately, Sony had sold off their Vaio brand and I had to buy a different manufacturer.

Recently, though, I got to thinking. The keyboard was a problem when I was using the laptop by itself. I have this nifty setup now where I hook my laptop into a docking station, have a real ergonomic keyboard and two large monitors. I could use this laptop again! All I need to do is a few upgrades and software updates.

So I plugged it in, turned it on, and started working on getting it usable. Yeah.

It's slow. I didn't expect that big a degradation because I always buy the very top of the line so that I can use it for years and years before it needs to be replaced. I didn't remember it being slow when I replaced it.

It's loud. The fan is working overtime to keep up with the heat. I'd forgotten that, but as it hummed and blew, it immediately came back to me. I hated all that noise.

On the plus side, I have some pretty cool software on there that I wasn't able to transfer to the new laptop. I'd purchased them when it was a set cost for a license. Now that software has gone to monthly fees and I'm not willing to pay that much a year when I already bought a license. Changing midstream without grandfathering former users in stinks. Although, at least one of the programs is pretty much unusable now because it's too far out of date.

I also found some files on there that I'd never transferred over. Like graphics on how to use Lie-Lay, Affect-Effect, and where the em dash goes in dialogue. Most of my stuff had moved over because I backup to the cloud and I just downloaded it to the new computer, but I've mentioned my propensity to save to the desktop before.

Anyway, my favorite laptop really isn't my favorite any longer. It's too frustrating now to wait when I have a newer, faster, and (most importantly) quieter laptop, but it's nice to have it available in case of an emergency. I'm kind of sad, though, that it wasn't everything I thought it was.

Desktop Dumping Ground

I have a bad habit when it comes to my computer files. If it's something that I'm not sure where to file it or if it's something I think I'll look at again relatively soon, I'll save it to my desktop.

(The image to the left is an Apple iMac. The laptop I'm blogging about is a Windows computer. I just liked the color of the picture.)

The reason dumping the files to the desktop is a problem for me is 1) my files are only being backed up in one location instead of two. I have Dropbox and Carbonite. If I save to Dropbox, those files are also backed up by Carbonite. If I save to the desktop, it's only Carbonite. While I'm sure one backup copy offsite is more than enough, I'd rather err on the side of caution and have multiple backups going on. Yes, I really am that obsessive.

Issue 2 was that the desktop had become cluttered with row after row of icons. That totally defeated the purpose of saving things here to begin with since I couldn't pick them out quickly or easily anyway.

I started to go through some of the files and folders. Knitting patterns for projects I'd finished and projects I'd started, but wasn't currently working on. A folder full of stuff for my dad and a folder for me...and most of the items could go in other folders. Menu plan worksheets, my folder full of helpful writer information (like when to use lie vs lay) and recipes. It was a mess!

It took about half an hour, maybe less, but I sorted everything where it should go. The things I still wanted on my desktop, well, I created shortcuts to them, but there weren't many. The vast, vast majority of files and folders didn't need to be there.

I'm going to try to remember to take three extra seconds and file my items appropriately. Also, someday, I need to clean out my computer files. Sigh.

The struggle continues.

Behind the Curve

When I was setting up my home office and shopping for monitors, I immediately rejected the curved models. What would I need a curved monitor for?

Because of the dual monitors I had at work, I was pretty set on what size I wanted and I shopped until I found monitors with good reviews and a decent price. I unpacked them, hooked everything up, attached my laptop to the docking station and discovered why I needed curved monitors.

My desk at work is short, but it's deep. The monitors were farther back from me and I was able to see all sides of the screens well. Not so much at home.

The narrower desk means I have to turn my head to see the edges of the screens. It's mostly on the right side since I tend not to sit in the middle of my desk. I'm not sure why I do this or why I decided to sit far over on the left, but I do. To alleviate some of the head swiveling, I had to turn my right monitor at a harder angle than the left. This aggravates my OCD. :-)

Since I ordered my current monitors online, there was no way I was going to return them and they're good monitors. I like the quality and they're working well. But if I had to do it over again, I'd definitely go with the curved ones.

No Screens

The health care plan I have from work has an app called Rally where you have different missions or challenges that you assign yourself to complete. I have mixed feelings on whether or not it really helps, but it doesn't take much time, so why not?

Recently, I signed up for a new challenge--no screens for one hour. This means no phone, no computer, and no television. An hour is nothing, I thought. How hard can it be?

It's actually pretty amazing how long an hour actually is.

I started out on the first day--Saturday--by saying I'll just knit for an hour. No problem. After about 10-15 minutes, I realized that I'm used to knitting a few rounds and picking up my phone. Knitting a few more rounds, phone. Knit, phone, knit, phone. It was torturous to not touch the phone.

I tried to think of what I could do that wouldn't involve a screen or an activity where I'd be using the phone or TV. This was harder than it should be.

Can't write. That's computer. Lunch? Well, I hang on my phone while I eat (and yes, I know I shouldn't do this). I wonder how many steps I've taken today and how close I am to 10,000. No, I can't check that yet. Must wait.

I ended up working on my weekly schedule in my planner. I am a paper planner because I can and do completely ignore electronic reminders. Paper works better for me. So I sat down and did a punch list of things I wanted to get done this month. I worked on each individual day of the week. And when I was done, I still had another twenty minutes to go. ::sobs:: I knit some more and counted the seconds down until that hour was up.

It didn't get any easier on day 2. At some point, it's got to get better. I hope.

Where Did You Attend Grade School?

A lot of websites want you to answer security questions before you can login to their site from a new location. New location means same old computer on a different browser too, which is a pain. But the security questions are even a bigger pain.

I had one recently where before it would accept my login, I had to answer this question: Who is your favorite actress?

Hmm. I don't have a favorite actress and I certainly don't remember choosing one as an answer to a security question. I thought long and hard. It must be Jennifer Lawrence. I typed in her name. Incorrect answer. I tried just her last name. Incorrect answer. I thought about some more actresses, but I'm really not into this fame thing at all and couldn't come up with another answer. I refreshed the page. Who is your favorite actress? Gah!

I did eventually gain access to this site because after I refreshed the screen again, I received a security question that I could answer, but really? Why was this question considered a good one? Don't people change their minds all the time about who their favorite actors or actresses are?

Most security questions are just plain problematic. What's your favorite pet's name? That means I can't ever blog about or talk about any of my pets. Same thing for What was the make and model of your first car? What was the first concert you saw? Where did you attend grade school? Where were you born?

I've yet to see something as a security question that isn't either impossible to remember (i.e. who's your favorite actress) or difficult to remember to never talk about online (i.e. the list in the paragraph above.)

It seems to me that a much smarter way to handle this would be two factor authentication rather than stupid security questions. Even if I'm wrong about two-factor, there just plain has to be a better way than these questions.

The Glacial Software

For reasons I can't understand, it's cheaper to buy a new version of my anti-virus software every year than it is to renew. We're not talking a small difference either. It's $30 cheaper for me to buy it new. That's a lot of money! It's also a PITA.

If it were the same price, or at least close, I would prefer to do the renewal. It's a lot more work to uninstall the old software, buy the new one, and do an install.

And this time it was hellish to say the least.

After I loaded and initialized the anti-virus software, my internet slowed to a crawl. Not all of it. Gmail came up as quick as always, but every other site sat and spun, including Facebook. It wasn't only one browser either. Both the browsers I use reacted the same way.

An online search showed I wasn't the only person who'd had this problem, but I didn't see a clear-cut answer on how to fix it. I basically uninstalled and reinstalled it twice. Right now it seems to be working, but the real test will be tomorrow morning. If only everyone was honest and trustworthy and there was no need to worry about viruses or malware or ransomware, then I could ditch the anti-virus software. Sigh.

It seems as if it's always something that takes a lot more time than it should. Add new anti-virus software to that list.

Scanning Stuff

Paper is a challenge. I don't think I'm alone on this. There's stuff I want to keep, but I really don't need to have a paper copy of it. Like the sheet of paper the lawn guys leave every time they spray for weeds.

You might think why do I want to hang on to the weed information. Why don't I just get rid of it right away? Sadly, I have a home owners association and they regularly patrol. And yes, they will right you up for weeds and there, in the mailbox, will be a love letter from them about lawn care. Never mind that I'm across from the retention pond and the HOA never gets that treated for weeds. Anyway, if I get another note, I want to be able to send them every damn lawn care sheet I have.

With the paper getting unmanageable, I decided a new tactic was needed. A page feed scanner. This way I could scan all these documents I want to keep into PDF format and store them electronically rather than physically.

I finally bought the scanner I'd been eyeing and began scanning. I learned a few things as I went along. Like to only scan what I wanted in a single document in one fell swoop. I spent a little too much time separating out the documents later. I also needed to create file folders for each of the categories. That didn't end up being too bad, but I wish I'd thought of it before I started.

I still have file drawers full of stuff to scan as well as three-ring binders. I'd also like to scan in my old manuscripts. Not the notes I might refer back to if I write in one of those worlds again, but the actual manuscript itself. I used to print those out.

Overall, I think this is going to be a fantastic solution. The real pain, though, is going to come as I scan in years worth of paper. I made it about two hours on Saturday and didn't accomplish even a fraction of what I'd hoped to do. I think I'm going to have to plan on spending an hour or two every weekend until I get caught up.

Adventures With Microsoft

One evening as I was working on my laptop, I look down and notice a strange icon. I hover over it and discover it's my invitation to download Windows 10. While I might decide to buy a Windows 10 laptop at some point, I have no intention of upgrading my current Windows 7 computer. I love Windows 7 and 10 is still an unknown commodity.

But that annoying icon has to go. I right click on it, but I'm not given an option to delete it. This doesn't make me happy.

I begin searching online to find out how to get rid of it. All the instructions called out this one Windows patch that was released only I can't find that name in my list of installs. Maybe that's not the number they used for Windows 7. I keep searching, but everything points to that same patch. I look through the list again.

This time I find it. I uninstall it, reboot as required, and then wait for Microsoft to search all the available updates because I have to turn it off otherwise it'll just reload. This search by Windows Update took forever!

As I'm waiting for it to pull up the available patches, I discover Microsoft has a second patch that does the same thing for Windows 7. Now I have to uninstall that one and turn it off, too. And oh, BTW, Microsoft might have sent all the files for Windows 10 to my computer even though I never requested them. Great.

Now I go searching through my computer for the files mentioned. I couldn't find anything, so maybe I caught this before Microsoft could download them.Thanks a lot, Microsoft. Major fail.

Adventures In Updating

For a while now, my Mac laptop has been suggesting I upgrade my operating system to Yosemite. I've been resisting because I really don't like the flat graphic look of the new system and it's not as if any of the features were things I was dying to use. However, when I found out there was a security hole and it wasn't patched in my current OS, I felt I had no choice. I upgraded.

The download went quickly. This is going to be painless, I thought. And then the installation began.

Apple put a little meter to show how far along the installation was. About 1/3 of the way into the install, the bar seemed stuck. It didn't move for more than an hour. Okay, I thought, maybe it will jump forward by leaps and bounds in a bit. I went and did something else.

The progress meter didn't budge.

I touched the laptop and it was burning hot. The bottom of the laptop was even hotter than the top. I grabbed a chill pad and plugged the Mac into it. That cooled down the underside, but the top remained scary hot.

And still the progress bar didn't move. I begin Googling to find out what's going on. I read about people having issues because of some programs they've loaded, but I don't have any of them. In fact, my Mac pretty much only has the software it came with and the programs I use for writing. Some of the posts had links and I clicked through, but nothing helped.

Hard reboot? I wondered. Some people did it successfully. Other people lost their OS and had to boot in recovery mode. Gah! Okay, no hard reboot.

But after more than five hours without anything happening, I decided I had to try it and hope for the best. I held down the power button until the laptop turned off. With some trepidation, I turned it on again. And it immediately booted into the new operating system.

So apparently while it was sitting there, appearing to do nothing, it had finished doing all the installation. I don't know why the progress bar didn't move, but fortunately everything worked great. This was a huge relief because the last thing I felt like doing was messing around, trying to get my Mac Book to work again.

Warning: File Organization In Progress

Last week I blogged about an organizational epiphany. I started implementing it over the weekend and discovered why I couldn't find anything. OMG, files are everywhere. I mean I knew I had some of that, but I didn't know it was this bad.

Let me back up and start toward the beginning. I decided to plunge into the file organization even though I still haven't finished the article that got me thinking about this project. (I probably should.) To avoid having to redo things multiple times, I decided I needed a plan for which folders I wanted and what the hierarchy should be for nesting the folders. I found free mind mapping software, downloaded it, and began to work out my plan. It quickly became clear that the writing folders were going to be the most extensive.

When my plan was in place, I began to move folders and files. This is when I discovered I had files squirreled away in not just two places, but sometimes three, four, or even five places for the same book. It also quickly became clear that I was going to need to group files together and fine tune from there. I also discovered I had multiple copies of the same file. Mostly it was two, but there were also a couple of triplicates in there.

I knew the project would be a little time consuming, but it's turning out to be much worse than I expected. I'm still in the whacking away phase and fine tuning seems a long way off. :-( This is proof of how poor my file organization was. No wonder finding anything was a time-consuming challenge.

What I've learned?

• I should have organized my files in a more logical manner a long, long time ago. It would have been easier. If you're procrastinating on this, I'd rethink that.
• Planning out the folders and sub-folders ahead of time was vitally important.
• Even with the plan, accept that some of it won't work and folders will need to be deleted, added, or revised.
• It's time consuming and boring, so plan on doing it over a period of time rather than in one sitting.
• The transition period is hard with files not yet in their exact and permanent location. 

I think that in the end I'm really going to love this new filing system. I can already see some of the benefits in this early part of the process, but it's going to be painful reaching the end state.

Can We Avoid a Digital Dark Age?

Microsoft Must Want Me To Be Late To Work

Microsoft Windows has this little thing it does which makes me nuts. It takes forever to download and install patches. Forever!

I have my Windows 7 laptop setup to auto download and install mostly because I got so sick of the nagging about how my system would be safer if I changed my settings. This caused one instance where an update bricked my computer--as in it would not boot up until I uninstalled the patch causing the problem. This is annoying, but it doesn't make me nuts.

What does? Microsoft's insistence on installing the updates early on a weekday morning. As in I'm logging off my laptop to go to my day job and I get a message not to power off my computer because Microsoft is installing 1 of 19 updates. Or 1 of 13, 1 of 21, 1 of 11. You know.

Do they not understand that I'm pressing hard against the clock and that their early morning updates could make me miss my van pool? Why don't they push the updates in the afternoon when it doesn't matter how long it takes updates to install?

But no.

I've had installations take so long that I've had to leave the computer on to leave for work and I hate doing that. I want everything powered down before I walk out the door.

Why do they not understand the concept that people are using the computer before work and that they can't wait 45 minutes for patches to install? Why do they make patches that take so long to install? My Apple computer manages to install updates in a fraction of the time, so clearly it can be done.

So Microsoft, get this figured out or at least give me the option of having no installations done first thing in the morning.

Adventures With Computers

I really wish I didn't have this topic to blog about. Unfortunately, my iMac had a major meltdown this week. It didn't seem like a big deal, not at first, but it sure ended up being an ordeal. As I'm typing this, I'm erasing my hard drive.

Yes, all my programs, all my files, everything is being wiped out. When the erasing is finished, I'll reload my operating system and keep my fingers crossed that everything works when I'm done. This is my last hurrah, my final stand before I'll be forced to bring it in to someone to fix for me. I've tried every other suggestion I could find for the problem the computer developed, but when none of them fixed the issue, I had to resort to drastic measures.

The irony is that I bought my iMac desktop because I wanted a computer that just worked. I was tired of the hassle I had with my desktop PC, and when I was shopping, Vista was the operating system available. I didn't want that.

Right now, Vista is looking better.

Wiping the hard drive is a pain, but it's not as horrible as it could be because I have an automatic backup service and plan to reinstall all my files from there. There are only a couple of programs that I downloaded online that I want to keep, so that shouldn't be too much of a hassle either. If this desperate measure works...

Okay, erasing the drive and reinstalling worked! And it is a PITA to reload my programs, especially since I don't remember the names of a couple of the utilities I really liked. I'll worry about that later. Right now, Carbonite is restoring all my files. I'm feeling especially grateful that I paid for off-site backup.

Fighting the Dragon Part 2

Previously, I posted about Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) refusing to learn the F word no matter how many times I trained it. It was a frustrating experience that solidified my belief that this wouldn't be a good tool for writing actual books. There are other reasons, too, of course, but this kind of put the idea to rest permanently. I did think, though, that this would be a great tool for transcribing my writing notes since I don't swear in those. :-)

I was wrong.

I have one full notebook and I've started another. I probably have notes on five or six ideas all mixed together. Some are ideas I plan to work on soon, some are for proposals I've finished, but haven't sold yet, and some are for ideas that I won't be looking at in the near future. This actually works for me, especially when I Post-it flagged each story in different colors so I can flip right to it.

But I thought it would be awesome to transcribe them and add the information to Liquid Story Binder, writing software that I use/like. I figured I'd open multiple Word windows, and flip between them as I hit notes for different stories. Simple and much quicker than typing it myself. Or so I believed. At first.

Things got off on the wrong foot right from the start. I opened DNS and it told me I didn't have privileges for the user "Patti." Um, there is no other user on this laptop and I'm set up as the Admin, why can't I use the original training I did?

I ended up needing to create a new user ID. It refused to accept "Patti" because there was already a profile with that name. This also meant that I had to redo training again (basically reading an excerpt from a book into the system.) It's not hard, but it is time consuming. ::banging head against the wall::

Then my frustration reached new limits. DNS did not recognize my heroes' names. It didn't matter how many times I attempted to train the program. Tane = tame or Taine. Mick = Nick (always) and Royce = Roy's. Sigh.

And then it got worse. Heroine. It's a word I use a lot in my notes. DNS refused to type this. I tried everything, but it still insisted that on heroin. What? Do users really need to reference an illegal drug more than they would a character? Really?

I finally went into the program's dictionary and deleted the word heroin. There was no other way to get DNS to stop using it.

I didn't make it too much farther than this. The name issue continued to be a huge problem to the point that I was dropping the F bomb (and Dragon would type folk, which frustrated me even more!).

When I realized it would be faster for me to type in my notes rather than speak them into DNS, I surrendered. I've heard that there are writers who like this damn program, but I don't know why. I heard them say it's easy to train Dragon, and that once through that process, it's smooth. My experience has been different. As far as I've seen, DNS is unable to be trained to get any word even slightly out of the ordinary correct.

I fought the Dragon and it won. Again.

Addition: I commented on Twitter about how frustrated this program has left me and someone from Dragon replied. I sent an email with my issues to the rep. I haven't heard back yet, but I'm hoping she can help me get this program to play nice.

Windows 7 and Word 2010

It's a good thing yesterday wasn't a blogging day or y'all would have been subjected to another rant about authors who can't handle the simplest computer thing. Come on, people, you'd expect your surgeon to keep up with the tools of his trade and not use a scalpel if he could perform a laser surgery instead, right? So why don't you learn to use the tools that go with your job? Um, stopping here because this is becoming a rant already. Since I don't want to do this, I will review the elements on my computer that pertain to writing either directly or indirectly.

Windows 7 Operating System (OS): Awesome! Yes, authors, it is different than XP, but give it a chance. Buying a new computer and loading XP because you're afraid of Win7 is not a good idea. Either roll with the technology wave or the ocean will move past you and you'll be left alone in the desert. Win7 is much easier to use than XP. Really. It's also more intuitive. IMO, it's the best Windows OS yet and I've used most of them.

I could understand loading XP to avoid Vista, but not Win7. BTW, while I'm not a Vista fan, I never had any problems with it and I just turned off the things that annoyed me. But then I'm a power user and not afraid of getting into areas that novice users and technophobe authors should avoid. :-)

So what is awesome about Win7 aside from how it looks? (And it is pretty.) I love that I can pin the files I use all the time to the program. That means all I have to do is right click the program pinned to my bottom bar and the files I've chosen to pin are there. (Pinning a file is as easy as clicking your mouse. Not at all difficult to do.) I frequently have WordPerfect files for projects I'm not actively working on at the moment, but that having quick access to would be nice and now I do. I just pin them. No more clicking down list levels to find the story I began six months ago and dropped to work on something else.

I also love how easy it is to add a folder. I am a folder whore because I don't want to scan through fifty million files to find the one I want. It's also more organized to have folders. For example: Writing-->WordPerfect-->Light Warriors-->Darkest Night-->Synopsis All my synopsis attempts are in this folder and I can instantly find any version I want because they're all together. Windows 7 offers the "Create Folder" option right at the top of Windows Explorer. This is fab.

What I don't love about Win7? I absolutely loathe the thumbnail feature. With this feature, if you put your cursor over an open program on the bottom bar, it will show you a thumbnail of all the open files in this program. I hate this with the fire of a thousand suns. It's solely related to how I use my computer. I don't want to see the cursor when I'm working in a program, so I've always dragged it down to the bottom bar to keep it off whatever I was looking at. When I do it now, those stupid thumbnails show up.

I never, ever want to see the thumbnail and there's no way to turn this off. I checked. I did, however, go into my registry (Novice users do not do this.) and adjust it to take about 10 minutes to trigger. It's not perfect, but it's better. I wish Microsoft would give me a way to turn this off. It's annoying that they don't.

This is a minor annoyance in an otherwise good OS. If you're getting a new computer, get Win7 and do not load XP instead. Once you get used to it, you'll love it.

Word 2010: Yes, I upgraded because I had an offer through work. I have the entire Office suite, but I haven't used any program extensively except Word since I put it on, so can't really review them, but of all the Words I've been forced to work in, 2010 is about the best. Again, 2007 and 2010 are different than 2003 and earlier, but once I got used to it, I liked it.

Visually, 2007 is more appealing to me than 2010. I also find Outlook 2010 even more frustrating than Outlook 2007, and I wasn't fond of Outlook 2007, but this is about Word, not my email troubles. :-)

What do I like so much about Word 2010? It's much, much, much easier to convert my WordPerfect files before I submit my projects than in any other version of Word. :-) Yes, it's all about me. WordPerfect is still far superior to any version of Word, but unfortunately most of the world is locked into Microsoft Office and so I'm forced to use it, too. Before someone suggests it's only the fact that I'm unfamiliar with Word that makes me dislike it so, let me mention that I routinely work in Office at my day job, and not only have I had classes for Word, I work in it all the time. The only thing Word does better than WordPerfect is labels. Truly.

But I digress. Again. Word 2007 and 2010 are so different from the previous versions that sometimes it's not easy for me to find the way to do the things I'd like to do, but the help function is actually, believe it or not, helpful! I know! It shocked me, too. But it's extremely easy to learn how to do something and I made liberal use of it yesterday when I couldn't find what I was looking for.

It's kind of a pain to click around to the different tabs on the ribbon, but I'm used to tabbed internet browsing, so even though I get frustrated when I'm on the wrong tab for what I want to do, I can deal with it. Yesterday, I needed to convert a WordPerfect file into Word and it did it. Without messing up my formatting! This was awesome. Now if Microsoft would just give me the option of creating my own cover page, it would have been even better. I could only find templates to drop in and Create Your Own wasn't one of them. If there is a way to do this, please let me know.

Anyway, I can recommend 2010 for an upgrade. I like it better than 2007, which was better than all the previous versions of Word IMO.

I've already geeked out about how much I love OneNote, but I haven't had a chance to play with this yet in 2010 (I just upgraded 2 weeks ago). It's supposed to have some cool new features, so as I research my next project, I'm going to explore it more fully.

To sum up: Microsoft is making some real progress in its core programs and the latest in OS and Word are big steps forward. This is all my opinion, and believe me, I'm not a huge Microsoft fan, so I'm not shilling for them. Besides, clinging to old systems (Word 2000? Really? That was like the worst version I've used) isn't helpful. Not upgrading because of cost is one thing, but to buy a new computer and load old, old software on it because you're afraid of new stuff.... Well, this is why I get so frustrated with some authors. Technology is changing. If you don't keep up with it, you'll be left behind. End of mini-rant.

Watch It Online?

I downloaded a preview for a PBS series called Carrier. There'd been other shows on aircraft carriers that I'd seen, but those were an hour long and this one is ten hours and follows members of the crew from the moment they're deployed until they come home. The preview was fascinating and I knew I wanted to watch the series. It looks like a good resource for someone who writes military heroes and/or heroines or paramilitary characters.

Unfortunately, the preview had come out in April and a search of the PBS website said that it wasn't going to be replayed in my area within the 2 week search parameter. Maybe they'll replay it later, but I couldn't bet on that. PBS did have all the episodes available on their website. Great, I thought, I'll download them to my iPod and watch when I have a few minutes here or there.

As it turned out that wasn't going to work. The episodes are not downloadable and I wanted to watch them I'd have to sit at my computer. The other alternative was to buy the series and I figured I'd just do that sometime and watch it at my leisure--although I'll confess that I wasn't real keen on spending the money for that.

Then it dawned on me. Netflix! I don't know why I was so slow to think about it. Maybe because I've had my last movie on top of the entertainment center since like, well, July. Sure enough Netflix had it available, but I could also watch the episodes on my computer from their website.

Okay, is it just me? I don't want to watch television or movies online. For one thing, I'm usually on my computer doing something while I have the TV on. If I'm writing, I'm watching something with the sound muted and if I'm not writing, I'm probably researching online as I watch or catching up on notes or searching for a picture of one of my characters. I'm multitasking which I can't really do online if I'm also streaming a movie or show.

For another, even if by some odd chance I'm not using the computer for something else, I don't want to watch online because--frankly--I spend enough time staring at the screen and if I actually have turned off life support (AKA my laptop), I don't want to turn it back on again. I'm on the computer all day at the Evil Day Job and I'm on the laptop when I get home to write. If I'm taking a break from it, there's usually a reason.

I'm beginning to feel alone, though. I know there are a lot of people who don't mind staring at the screen for an extra couple of hours. It's not as if my screens are small either--my desktop has a 24" monitor and my laptop is a 15.4" wide screen--I just don't want to do it.

And to be totally weird, I have no problems watching shows on my iPod and it's got an itty bitty screen. I think the difference is that the iPod makes me mobile. I can watch while I'm in line for license tabs or while I'm waiting to see the dentist. The iPod is about convenience, but watching on the computer just feels onerous to me. Am I the only one who's resisting the online streaming thing?

Adventures in iPhoto

My original plan for the blog was to do a slide show of my flower pictures. I have a bunch of shots that I've taken in the last few days and some of them turned out really cool. I ran into a small problem, though. I wanted to do it quick and easy on my iMac without having to login to my Windows virtual machine to access the software I normally use. It's kind of a pain and iPhoto should do everything, right?

Well, maybe if I knew what the heck I was doing. I imported the pictures off the camera okay, but trying to save them was a nightmare. I finally managed to save a picture. That would be singular. One photo. And tried to figure out how to save the others. Somehow instead of getting my pictures in the folder, I imported chat icons. How? I have no clue, but they're there and I can't get rid of them. Or at least I gave up trying to get rid of them and returned to moving photos to the folder. It can't be hard, right? This is a Mac!

My woes continued. Because I accidentally somehow imported the chat icons, my flower pictures were gone because they had been under the Last Imported section. Now the icons were there. I finally managed to locate the edited pictures under the imported in the last year area. Sigh. I went with the drag and drop philosophy and managed to get all my pictures in the folder at last.

Now I thought, let's resize them all to 400 pixels wide so that they don't get so big that it's impossible for people to watch the show. Um, I couldn't figure out how to resize them at all. I finally clicked on crop and tried the custom feature, but putting 400 in the box made the picture bigger, not smaller, and to make things even better, it doesn't automatically put in the height for me. What? I just know I want it 400 wide, the program needs to tell me what size the height should be to maintain the proper aspect ratio. Grrr.

I decided to try to create a slide show anyway--for me if no one else. I thought I'd do it in iMovie. I know, but in Windows Movie Maker, it lets me add still photos as well as movie clips and I figured the Mac would let me do the same thing. I want to be able to do that, dang it, because in my spare time (if I ever have any again in my life), I want to play with making book videos for my old books. I had them professionally done for my last three titles and they're cool! But I can't justify spending money on the old books. Now, of course, that plan is shot because it appears iMovie will only work with movie clips. If I'm wrong, please tell me where to find out how to add stills.

So I return to iPhoto. Yes, I can make slide shows there. I try to select my pictures as mentioned in the help directions and it doesn't work. Yep, my photos won't stay highlighted.

At this point, I gave up and logged into the Windows side of my Mac and did all the cropping and then uploaded the shots to Webshots. I looked at the time, thought about how tired I feel right now and how much other stuff I have left to do yet tonight and thought, the hell with it. I'll shoot for the next blog posting.

What I wanted to do tonight was research an idea I have for the story that's in pre-book. Every day the story gels more and more in my mind, but I need to learn a little bit more about one aspect that came to me so I can decide whether or not it's going to pan out. Didn't get to that. I also really want to find a picture of my heroine. She's proving elusive. Thank goodness, Kel is Logan's identical twin and I can just use the pictures of Logan that I had for the last book, but I've already spent two nights looking for his heroine and have come up empty.

Maybe tomorrow.