OK. I have weathered MANY storms in my life and in the end, this one will be no different. However, this storm (unfortunately) is, on one hand, not new to me...but on the other hand, so new I HATE it. You must be wondering what I am talking about. Let me clear it all up for you.
The storm that is all too familiar to me is the one where my electronics crap out. It doesn't matter if it is a phone, a calculator, my computer, my DSLR or 35mm camera....they just have things that happen. Yes, sometimes it is me who causes the storm. But other times, like with my Nikon D80 right now, they just simply crap out. I went to take pictures one day and the camera displayed an error. I took out the handy dandy user manual and did what it told me to do in order that the camera be reset. Nothing. Read on. Of course, the manual said "if this does not correct the problem, please contact a certified Nikon repair representative to have the camera repaired"...UGH. This was three weeks ago...camera still out for repair (wondering what this might cost since the camera body alone was a thousand dollars when I got it). It has also been the computer...might I be so bold as to add NEW computer. It has had problems since it's hookup at Christmas. I finally got rid of the wireless set up with mouse and keyboard because I was sick and tired of them deciding to "not recognize" each other and having to reboot my system. No problem - the fix...wires. However, that isn't the end of it. My computer, for the last two months, will periodically not allow me to log onto the Net. It has gotten worse. In the beginning it would sometimes not allow it, but eventually allow me on. Now it is consistent. It usually takes three attempt to get on the internet, but if, on the third attempt, I don't get on, my system locks up in cyber space and I have to reboot. But I found the fix (which I will try in the next week and hopefully won't have to blog about). I am going to restore the system to a date back in January to get rid of whatever has gotten in here...and YES for anyone who is thinking "why doesn't she just run virus/firewall protection"...I DO!!!! As if this isn't enough with the computer, I go to load Photoshop 7.0 professional yesterday and find that it isn't compatible with Vista...($500 program)...take Photoshop Elements (consumer version - only $100 program) and it isn't compatible with Vista...dare I go on to list the other scrapping and digital programs I have sitting next to me that are NOT ABLE TO BE LOADED ON THIS PIECE OF %$$#@#$$ COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...Boy did I get off track here. This blog isn't even about the computer...back to basics. That's right - my electronics crapping out on their own. Well this particular storm was DEFINATELY user error, much to my shame. But in order for it to have a full impact on the reader, I need to go back just about a year to preface this story with one thing that happened...
I got my first blackberry a couple of years ago (actually almost 4 I believe) and knowing my track record with electronics, I advised Eric to insure it..."We aren't spending $5 a month to insure the phone". OK. It was cool. I finally was able to get rid of my paper phone books and consolidate everything to one place. I got to explore the new phone and figure it all out and had a blast spending the entire 2 weeks to do it. It was about 3 weeks in when I had the phone plugged into a charger on the kitchen countertop to charge overnight. In the middle of the night some noise woke me up and I told Eric it sounded like something hit or fell into Willie's water dish (Willie was our dog at the time). "No, you are out of your mind - go back to sleep". Hhhmmm I thought. He was probably right. That was ridiculous - Willie was with me in my room. What could possibly have fallen into the water dish. The next morning Eric was downstairs in his office working. I came into the office and asked him to turn around. At which point he saw me holding up the not quite a month old Blackberry phone dripping with water..."Honey, something DID fall into the dog's water bowl last night - it WAS MY PHONE!". Apparently I had it set on vibrate and every time I got an email, the phone vibrated its way across the kitchen counter and dropped right into the water bowl. Now if you know my kitchen you would calculate that the chances of this happening are slim to none due to the infinite counter space I have, but honest to Pete, it really happened. That was my first lesson in several things...First, I'm always right and I am convinced someday Eric will just admit it. Second, electronic devices NEVER survive a complete soaking and should ALWAYS be insured when placed in my hands and Third, read the manual first or don't throw away your paper trail once you think you are done. I went to the Verizon store, told them what happened, spent ANOTHER $500. I asked them to copy one phone to the other (what do I know) and they told me they couldn't cause the "Sim" card was spent...BUT, they advised, IF I had 'synced' the device to my computer, all I have to do is plug the new phone into the computer and it will copy for me...."Sync?" I asked. "What does that mean". Well, I can now tell you what SYNC means cause it literally took about 2 months to resurrect all my old phone numbers and addresses. So, Eric said he would have his tech guy do something to my phone so it would automatically back up to his system at work...or something like that. All I know is that it never happened again and I didn't need to worry if it did cause Eric fixed the problem....or did he....
So, fast forward to last Friday. Now, I am on my third blackberry. I had (notice the past tense there) a Blackberry Curve. Loved it. Well, Friday I was getting out of my car with a few things in my hands and saw the hydrangea bushes with beautiful blooms on them and decided that they would look lovely in my kitchen, so I pitstopped at the garage to get scissors to cut some. I went and did my thing and sure enough they did look lovely. However, Friday night it POURED like I have never seen it pour. I went to leave Saturday and realized my phone was not where I usually leave it and I just figured I left it in the car. On my way to the car, I went to check on the hydrangea bushes, wondering what the storm had done to them and lo and behold, right on the bench in the garden was my Blackberry Curve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I laid it down when I started to cut the blooms and forgot it....UGH! So, once again, I walked into Eric's office with yet another blackberry dripping with water and he turned around and said something like "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.......(at which point I stopped listening)". I told him not to worry cause he insured this one. We both agreed the last time that we just need to insure things with me. "No, R, I didn't insure it" he advises me....Now this happens ALL THE TIME with us. Evidently I have conversations with some alien that just looks like Eric because I am SURE we agreed to insure phones the next time around. But I guess it wasn't really Eric I was talking to because he looks like a deer staring at headlights right about now. "Ok, well, we will have to suck up the cost, but at least we can recover all the stuff in it because it automatically backs up to your LAN network at work". Now if I thought he was looking lost and stupid before, you have NO idea what he looks like at this point. Almost like I was the alien. "R, I don't know what you are talking about". "Eric, I am absolutely sure you did this. You had the phone for two days and Tony did something to it to have it back up automatically. Remember, you assigned me an email address at ARS so my AOL account goes thru your company to back up???!!!" At this point, I am ready to reach across the desk and throttle him. Man oh man. I swear. ALL THE TIME this happens. It is like I make stuff up, or maybe I dream it, but it seems that I am the only one who remembers conversations that we have. "No, R. I don't think that is possible". So, in a last ditch effort to remain planted on earth and not orbit right into space, I turned around, walked out and said "I'm off to the verizon store". I get there and he was wrong, it WAS insured but I decided to upgrade for $50 to the Blackberry storm....touchscreen everything.
We have finally come full circle. I HATE THE BB STORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HATE IT. It is like it is possessed or something. It has a mind of it's own. At times, it just does random, odd things...like keyboard not showing up when you need it, or camera firing up in the middle of me texting someone, or odd sounds starting and stopping in the middle of phone calls. SO, suffice it to say, I am NOT WEATHERING THE STORM. Nor did my Blackberry weather the storm. But like I said in the beginning, this too shall pass.
Until next time...
(oh by the way, Eric's tech guy is in today (he lives in TX) for some work and Eric took the bb storm to him to try to see if, in fact, he did set it up to back up automatically....from now on, I think I will take matters into my own hands and just sync to my computer)
The storm that is all too familiar to me is the one where my electronics crap out. It doesn't matter if it is a phone, a calculator, my computer, my DSLR or 35mm camera....they just have things that happen. Yes, sometimes it is me who causes the storm. But other times, like with my Nikon D80 right now, they just simply crap out. I went to take pictures one day and the camera displayed an error. I took out the handy dandy user manual and did what it told me to do in order that the camera be reset. Nothing. Read on. Of course, the manual said "if this does not correct the problem, please contact a certified Nikon repair representative to have the camera repaired"...UGH. This was three weeks ago...camera still out for repair (wondering what this might cost since the camera body alone was a thousand dollars when I got it). It has also been the computer...might I be so bold as to add NEW computer. It has had problems since it's hookup at Christmas. I finally got rid of the wireless set up with mouse and keyboard because I was sick and tired of them deciding to "not recognize" each other and having to reboot my system. No problem - the fix...wires. However, that isn't the end of it. My computer, for the last two months, will periodically not allow me to log onto the Net. It has gotten worse. In the beginning it would sometimes not allow it, but eventually allow me on. Now it is consistent. It usually takes three attempt to get on the internet, but if, on the third attempt, I don't get on, my system locks up in cyber space and I have to reboot. But I found the fix (which I will try in the next week and hopefully won't have to blog about). I am going to restore the system to a date back in January to get rid of whatever has gotten in here...and YES for anyone who is thinking "why doesn't she just run virus/firewall protection"...I DO!!!! As if this isn't enough with the computer, I go to load Photoshop 7.0 professional yesterday and find that it isn't compatible with Vista...($500 program)...take Photoshop Elements (consumer version - only $100 program) and it isn't compatible with Vista...dare I go on to list the other scrapping and digital programs I have sitting next to me that are NOT ABLE TO BE LOADED ON THIS PIECE OF %$$#@#$$ COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...Boy did I get off track here. This blog isn't even about the computer...back to basics. That's right - my electronics crapping out on their own. Well this particular storm was DEFINATELY user error, much to my shame. But in order for it to have a full impact on the reader, I need to go back just about a year to preface this story with one thing that happened...
I got my first blackberry a couple of years ago (actually almost 4 I believe) and knowing my track record with electronics, I advised Eric to insure it..."We aren't spending $5 a month to insure the phone". OK. It was cool. I finally was able to get rid of my paper phone books and consolidate everything to one place. I got to explore the new phone and figure it all out and had a blast spending the entire 2 weeks to do it. It was about 3 weeks in when I had the phone plugged into a charger on the kitchen countertop to charge overnight. In the middle of the night some noise woke me up and I told Eric it sounded like something hit or fell into Willie's water dish (Willie was our dog at the time). "No, you are out of your mind - go back to sleep". Hhhmmm I thought. He was probably right. That was ridiculous - Willie was with me in my room. What could possibly have fallen into the water dish. The next morning Eric was downstairs in his office working. I came into the office and asked him to turn around. At which point he saw me holding up the not quite a month old Blackberry phone dripping with water..."Honey, something DID fall into the dog's water bowl last night - it WAS MY PHONE!". Apparently I had it set on vibrate and every time I got an email, the phone vibrated its way across the kitchen counter and dropped right into the water bowl. Now if you know my kitchen you would calculate that the chances of this happening are slim to none due to the infinite counter space I have, but honest to Pete, it really happened. That was my first lesson in several things...First, I'm always right and I am convinced someday Eric will just admit it. Second, electronic devices NEVER survive a complete soaking and should ALWAYS be insured when placed in my hands and Third, read the manual first or don't throw away your paper trail once you think you are done. I went to the Verizon store, told them what happened, spent ANOTHER $500. I asked them to copy one phone to the other (what do I know) and they told me they couldn't cause the "Sim" card was spent...BUT, they advised, IF I had 'synced' the device to my computer, all I have to do is plug the new phone into the computer and it will copy for me...."Sync?" I asked. "What does that mean". Well, I can now tell you what SYNC means cause it literally took about 2 months to resurrect all my old phone numbers and addresses. So, Eric said he would have his tech guy do something to my phone so it would automatically back up to his system at work...or something like that. All I know is that it never happened again and I didn't need to worry if it did cause Eric fixed the problem....or did he....
So, fast forward to last Friday. Now, I am on my third blackberry. I had (notice the past tense there) a Blackberry Curve. Loved it. Well, Friday I was getting out of my car with a few things in my hands and saw the hydrangea bushes with beautiful blooms on them and decided that they would look lovely in my kitchen, so I pitstopped at the garage to get scissors to cut some. I went and did my thing and sure enough they did look lovely. However, Friday night it POURED like I have never seen it pour. I went to leave Saturday and realized my phone was not where I usually leave it and I just figured I left it in the car. On my way to the car, I went to check on the hydrangea bushes, wondering what the storm had done to them and lo and behold, right on the bench in the garden was my Blackberry Curve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I laid it down when I started to cut the blooms and forgot it....UGH! So, once again, I walked into Eric's office with yet another blackberry dripping with water and he turned around and said something like "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.......(at which point I stopped listening)". I told him not to worry cause he insured this one. We both agreed the last time that we just need to insure things with me. "No, R, I didn't insure it" he advises me....Now this happens ALL THE TIME with us. Evidently I have conversations with some alien that just looks like Eric because I am SURE we agreed to insure phones the next time around. But I guess it wasn't really Eric I was talking to because he looks like a deer staring at headlights right about now. "Ok, well, we will have to suck up the cost, but at least we can recover all the stuff in it because it automatically backs up to your LAN network at work". Now if I thought he was looking lost and stupid before, you have NO idea what he looks like at this point. Almost like I was the alien. "R, I don't know what you are talking about". "Eric, I am absolutely sure you did this. You had the phone for two days and Tony did something to it to have it back up automatically. Remember, you assigned me an email address at ARS so my AOL account goes thru your company to back up???!!!" At this point, I am ready to reach across the desk and throttle him. Man oh man. I swear. ALL THE TIME this happens. It is like I make stuff up, or maybe I dream it, but it seems that I am the only one who remembers conversations that we have. "No, R. I don't think that is possible". So, in a last ditch effort to remain planted on earth and not orbit right into space, I turned around, walked out and said "I'm off to the verizon store". I get there and he was wrong, it WAS insured but I decided to upgrade for $50 to the Blackberry storm....touchscreen everything.
We have finally come full circle. I HATE THE BB STORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HATE IT. It is like it is possessed or something. It has a mind of it's own. At times, it just does random, odd things...like keyboard not showing up when you need it, or camera firing up in the middle of me texting someone, or odd sounds starting and stopping in the middle of phone calls. SO, suffice it to say, I am NOT WEATHERING THE STORM. Nor did my Blackberry weather the storm. But like I said in the beginning, this too shall pass.
Until next time...
(oh by the way, Eric's tech guy is in today (he lives in TX) for some work and Eric took the bb storm to him to try to see if, in fact, he did set it up to back up automatically....from now on, I think I will take matters into my own hands and just sync to my computer)
