I realize that this shout-out will go unreceived, but I suspect that if she could see the screen, she would think it was a fine idea and then ask why I'm doing it in the first place. Always a cross between enthusiasm and practicality, is my grandmother. Now that she is embarking on her second century, I think the slack that we should cut the woman is fairly enormous. The slack, that is (read carefully).
Okay this isn't going well. I meant to tell you about her party on Saturday, not a big bunch of hoo-ha, but still and all a fine time was had. My grandmother's secret energy pill is her great-grandkids, who flocked around her for about as long as you could reasonably expect and then went on about their business. She drops about forty years when she's watching them, beaming silently like a glowing Italian Buddha. I hope if I ever get to that age I can keep the cynicism down to such a practically invisible level and still find a reason to wake up every morning with gratitude for being given another day. Macular degeneration, hearing nearly gone, peripheral neuropathy in her fingers -- and she "thanks God for every day." And means it. And that's pretty cool.
Enough with the soulless consumerism already.
So day two of the weekend was spent trying to coax Windoze XP to full functionality. Dad picked up another PC, and if you believe the hype on the front of this thing you would think you were in for a whirwind time of blazing speed and multimedia wizardry. And you would be wrong. A 1.7gHz processor on this thing and it ambled along like its diaper was full. Don't quite understand it, myself. And I have to say, since Bill first started making a career of poorly mimicking the MAC OS he has never come so close or fallen so far short. Much has been written about XP and my three hours with it does not a reasoned sampling make. I know that. On the plus side, it's a visually appealing interface. That and a back slap will give you a pleasant tingly feeling for about five minutes. In the few hours I spent with this bear, I noticed a) completely counterintuitive menus (and no attempt to simplify the user's transition from previous versions to this one); b) shitty backward compatibility -- I mean, two of five pieces of software we attempted to load crapped out on us and caused system faults that necessitated restarting the damned thing, and they still won't load properly; and c) commercials everywhere.
There is a theme here. I can't be sure if I am becoming overly sensitized or there is something afoot here (maybe the latest entry on my ever-growing evidence pile in favor of the apocalypse NOW). The radio plays music in between twenty-minute spans of advertising; I met someone recently who doesn't watch television because of the pervasive promotional gimmicry. I can deal. It doesn't make me happy, but I'm good at ignoring things. But the PC business...this really boils my blood. This is a major purchase! Don't put shortcuts on the desktop to things I don't actually have access to without going on line! Don't try to sell me upgrades to a program I haven't even launched yet! And no, you sinister bastards, I will not register this puppy online because I have enough crap in my spambox to keep me amused for several hours every day! At what point do we reach critical mass on these things? Can't we just stop the insanity?
Not one of my more articulate rants, I know. Probably because my blood didn't really boil, just kind of came to a tepid simmery sort of place. It does bug the hell out of me, but it wouldn't keep me from using the adware in the first place. So maybe I'm part of the problem, with my pseudo-zen acceptability of this slow and irrevocable sell-out to the corporate masters. Sigh. Trying hard to feel cranky about it, but I'm feeling too good today. Got Mozart on my mind for some reason...And I'm heading downtown shortly for an evening group and then three days of teaching, so things could be a lot worse.
Plus it isn't my computer....which helps with the tepid.
I'll try to get worked up about something later on...
ClothMother_old