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New Laptop Day

7 May 2024


It has happened again, according to Dear Husband.  I’ve worn out another keyboard.  Actually, it’s the touchpad that’s gone wonky.

 

Yesterday, I tried to edit an essay for June, and the cursor went bonkers.  It not only deleted the file, and the folder containing the file.  The entire folder entitled:

 

2024 POSTS

 

flew away!

 

The entire screen went blooo-eey.  As in blue highlighting on every square inch, or centimeter.

 

My dear Webmaster was out walking Jolene at the time.  I informed him via the Other Device about what had happened.  He assured me he’d find the voluminous material, somewhere, somehow, someway.


Some day????


I suggested we eat breakfast first, which we did.  The folder had slid into my Bettina Blouse file.  I’m working on creating my own version.


At that point, I okayed, commissioned, commandeered and consented to purchasing a new MacBook Pro.  It’s due here today, 2-day delivery UPS.  The brown truck just pulled up, outside.  The package does not contain the device, but a cashmere-blend turtleneck, on sale, from a company who has re-earned my cautious clicks.


Dear Husband says that I am going to hate the new operating system.  I don’t know what this one is called.  Last year, I boldly updated my ancient operating system to Monterey, and panic ensued. Three days later, my files were restored, along with the translation of THE DAWN into L’AUBE.

 

It’s not so much what gets updated with the new whiz-bang system, as what gets removed — and you really don’t know the particulars until it’s too late.

 

In a world where Informed Consent for a potentially lethal jabba has become a sentence in micro-script on a BigPharma leaflet, the odds of knowing just what comprises the New Operating System are some to none.  I’m reminded of one of the more brilliant statements made by the hideous Speaker of the House as she assisted in getting Obamacare passed at ramming speed in 2009, or 2010, or whenever the botched bill got shoved into law:

 

“We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it.”

 

We have to install the new OS to know what’s there, and what’s not there.

 

I shall be able to forego the irksome sight of the # 3 [updates not done] on the System Preference gear at the bottom of my laptop screen.  And I’ll no doubt be able to navigate the Internet a whole lot faster.  I’ll still have my VPN which, on certain retail websites, indicates that I’m in Bulgaria.  They assure me they ship to Bulgaria, but the prices of the women’s clothes are through the roof!


Going back to Bulgaria, as advised by Rick Blaine/Humphrey Bogart in the classic film Casablanca, is not recommended — under any circumstance!

 

On e-Bay, my location is somewhere in Japan, or Taiwan.  Makes for interesting logographic kanji.


The main point here is for me to be able to do my work.  And my work takes more time than I’d like it to take when the local cell tower is being taxed, overtaxed, and relentlessly burdened by the demands of the Bay Area commuters, driving on I-80 West to return to their digital dens.

 

Just as they reach these hinterlands of civilization, they cell-phone call to friends&family to complain about the lack of connectivity and amenities — thereby worsening the situation.


I can set my cuckoo-clock on the time frame when the weekend exodus from the Sierra Nevada mountains begins on Sunday, at about 2 p.m.  It ends about 6 p.m.  There are times, however, during the dreadful heat of the summer, when the clogging up of the computer signals extends till 8 or 9 of the evening clock.


As for me, I’m learning to use the Mouse, again, after 20 years!  I do not recall having ever mastered the Mouse.  I mean, just look at what happens when you let a Mouse rule a supposedly Magic Kingdom!


For a person who has a hard enough time telling Left from Right, the Mouse is not preferable to the Touchpad Lioness!



As for any OS update, all I want is for the Bookman Old Style typeface and all of its fonts to be included in the new OS.  There’s always the third-party Dafont for downloads of those no-longer relevant typographies.


The current crew is making a job out of desecrating Steve Jobs.

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