Wednesday 17 February 2010

Technology: The love/hate relationship

Today was the day. I was going to prove to him that it wasn't me. I had arrived early for my tutorial in Educational Computing to ensure there weren't many around. I knew my lecturer would be in the computer room. I dropped to the floor and quietly did the army ground crawl into the room.

"Hello Kerin," my lecturer said, without looking up from the cumbersome computer screen (it was 1992).

"How did you know it was me?" I asked, knowing he had not seen me. He was up the back of the room with lots of desks and computers blocking his view.

"The screen went funny!"

That my friends was my introduction to computing. If anything could go wrong it would go wrong and it would be on my computer.

Previously I worked for a Bank in the back office inputting data. Dr Watson (for those who know microsoft errors) became a fixture in my day to day work. The computers were so old that to log out and back in again and open all the programs meant a good 25 minutes of doing nothing. This was not good when Dr Watson visited between 3-5 times a day.

Eventually we got new computers (second had from head office) and a new system. Gone was Dr Watson but hello Blue Screen of Death (imagine that being said in a deep base voice that echos). That is what IT called it anyway. In two years my computer had to be rebuilt 3 times.

Now I work for a different company but we use the same software. I am blaming the software and not me. Yesterday I logged on and within half an hour : Blue Screen of Death (deep base voice yadda yadda). To cut a long story short my computer is still not fixed. I was lucky to use someone else's yesterday afternoon because there are no spares. I am able to get onto my own today but it has crashed a couple of times.

IT has likened my computer to an episode of House: you investigate, think you found the problem, run the fix, and hey presto another issue possibly caused by the fix or because it just doesn't like Dr House.

So here I am knowing full well it can crash at any moment. I which case you will not get to read this post but I am sure you will hear about it on the news when I throw the computer out the window and it lands on car driving by causing a massive pileup and a blocked road for hours, so here goes, fingers crossed, publish post.

Monday 15 February 2010

Speed of Life Ramblings

When I went to school life tended to plod along so slowly. It was like life itself was wearing over sized gumboots and trying to walk through a really mushy mud pit. Except of course on the holidays when life whizzed past so fast you barely knew you had had one. Maybe that is the little grass mound in the middle of the mud pit.

It has come to my attention over the last few years (I refuse to say decades) that now, post school, life is just too fast and instead of wishing it to speed up I want it to slow down so I can stop, get off and have a breather.

I turned 37 at the end of January. I have just seen a photograph of an old friend from Uni who I would not have recognised at all due to the grey hair. My new photograph on my drivers licence also shows up the amount of grey I have. Dare I resist going back for a touch up to the colour and find out exactly how much grey is under there. Honestly I looked like Morticia Adams!

What has got me thinking this all of a sudden you ask, and no it's not because I have just aged another year. I have been going through all my craft stuff lately and reorganising my studio. Yes this is a mammoth task and it has taken me quite a few weeks so far. I have been brutal in what i have decided to give away. Things I bought when I first started in the hopes I would use them one day. They are still very nice but I have had some for 10 years and never used them (hence the OMG where has the time gone).

My new Dr has also told me my cholesterol is up and to lose weight. If only he knew the struggle I go through. People look at me and think I am just another fat person who can't stop eating and eats a lot of junk food. On the contrary I am not a big eater at all. I eat foods that fill quickly so I can get on with other things. I used to exercise 2 hours a night 5 nights a week and was able to maintain a nice weight then. That of course was back when I had time. I mentioned this to my Dr and he asked me if I had time for a Stroke. Of course I said no, "good," he says, "you have time to exercise then!"

So in closing I am old enough for cholesterol problems, young enough to do something about it but somehow still old enough to have enough responsibilities to only find 30 mins. That will not shift even a kg off this ol' bod. In fact I am currently on an elimination diet of no sugar, wheat, or dairy and somehow managed to put on weight. Go figure!