Saturday, January 9, 2010

It's not pretty

My younger daughter, who's majoring in photography, got into digital photography a bit this fall. Which means that when she came home she was SHOCKED and HORRIFIED to see that I am using a positively ANCIENT version of Photoshop. She was SO CONVINCED that this was an anathema that she decided my husband should buy me the latest version of Photoshop for Christmas -- which (of course) doesn't run on my ancient computer, which means (of course) he decided to buy me a new computer.

Now, don't get me wrong: my computer has grown VERY sluggish of late, and it's a pain to have my photo files sort of randomly distributed across three different disk drives because my main one can't hold them all.

But I was COPING, you know? And I knew that once I opened a new computer all sorts of problems would ensue. So I kept putting it off.

Yesterday I opened the box, at last, and set it up (it's lovely, and the screen is huge). And, following the instructions, I hooked up the old machine to the new one and allowed the two of them to spend some 16 hours chatting back and forth and sharing files. But this morning, when I opened the new one up, most of my photo files were marked with a red circle and wouldn't open.

AARGH.

So I am back on my old (and thankfully unaffected) computer and looking at a day or more to be spent on the phone trying to figure out what went wrong and then trying to fix it. Sigh.

These are minor concerns, of course, in the scheme of things, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have at least the hope of more speed and all my files in one place somewhere in my future. But it's hard to miss the parallels between what's happening with the new machine and the lessons I'm learning from the Spirituality and Practice Catalysts for Change course. Just as I'm trying to resolve to eat less, I have this sense that I've bitten off more than I can chew. And just as I'm determined to tackle some of the creeping chaos that's taking over my cupboards and closets, this enormous organizational task looms in front of me on my computer.

Sigh -- we're back in Buckaroo Bonzai land: "wherever you go, there you are." There's no escaping the challenges, and it's not pretty. I'm just going to have to wade into the muck and start throwing stuff around.

Yuck.

4 comments:

Louise Gallagher said...

Oh my Diane. I so love how your journey parallels mine and adds light to my path.

I too received a new computer for Christmas. And I am running both as I haven't quite figured out how to get everything synched. LOL -- I love the new one, it's so fast and it's a laptop, but the old one has value too and before I move it 'all' over I figure I'd best clean up some of the junk I've got stored on it which takes time which means I need to sort and taht means I need to...!

And as to the eating. My goal too.

I'll bit off less if you do too! :)

Hugs

L

Maureen said...

I've never heard that term "Bucharoo Bonzai land". I'll have to remember it.

So, I'm dying to know what you decided for Day 3, organizationally that is. I only listed one small step on my original list. Today, I added a second, which is to give back to myself one hour I give to reading others' posts. Obviously, I've excluded yours, which I wouldn't miss reading.

Did you get a Mac? I switched just before my PC's hard drive crashed and after I'd managed to save the files I needed to a flash drive. I don't think I'd ever go back to a PC now that I've got this Apple all-in-one with the huge screen. The PC had entirely too many invisible cupboards in which to store things I could never find.

Kimberly Mason said...

Oh my, how I sympathize! I am a master at "making do" and when I have to learn a new program, even if I am really excited about all the bells and whistles, I still have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.

Love the funky image, btw, I think it IS pretty. :)

Dianna Woolley said...

I have had a beautiful MAC laptop for two years now and it's great. I'm the one who is not so great. My computer files of sort of all over the place, I do have a backup system (I think, thanks to my brother-in-law) but if this machine crashed I have really no idea what my next move would be.......oh, yes, "wherever I go, there I am" - so agree:)!