Everyday is a Winding Road....and sometimes you Crash.

Ever since I've been driving down the technology road with the computer that YOU probably helped give to me,
I've been lucky enough to evade a crash.

Since that first iMac, I have driven 4 computers and have passed thousands of photos and hundreds of thousands of video edits thru the road and world of 1's and 0's ("cause it's all one and zeros," right Joshua)?

Fortunately, I have always flipped or traded away the machines, before they gave out on me and left me stranded by the roadside.

That was until this last one.

me, holding my tongue just right...

I knew that it was time to give its engine either an overhaul or a parting out, but I kept driving it despite the noises of a dying fan (you can ask Susie what that sounded like) and a screen that would only work right when plugged into an external monitor OR if you held your tongue just right and pressed on the battery just right while starting it up.

I had started shopping, but I didn't get it replaced in time before I had to take it on one last trip where I would be driving it long distances, over hard winding roads to get this year's family Christmas video done.
It plowed thru and got me to that destination and then, while we were at the border between 2012 and 2013, it decided that it had done enough traveling and on a very simple stretch of road (sending an email) it turned down an unmarked road, maybe even a dead end and....crashed.
Yep, in the wee hours of the morning of December 31, it ran out of gas and seems to have blown a gasket. It never actually crashed, it just slipped into neutral. I had to do a hard shut down and when I turned it back on, the engine was separated from the body. They are both still working and running, they just can't seem to find each other.

I've tried to walk away from the crash unharmed...
and believe me it could have been much worse...
This memory keeper has preached to you about driving safely and wearing your seat belts by backing up your pictures and precious cargo. Fortunately, I think I have practiced what I preached and had most everything backed up.
Well, sort of...
somewhere along the road, I never seemed to get my music backed up...
but most of that is still on my ipod.
There are some documents that didn't make it into the garage of the external hard drive...
and there is this folder named "stuff to file..." that is sort of a rest stop. I put stuff there until I'm done with it or figure out where to park it and that folder is haunting me. I keep telling myself, if I can't remember what was in there that I may need, do I really need it? Or, more likely, I will only remember what was in there, when I need it and don't have it. (much like that stupid insurance card and or current registration that never seems to be in the right place when someone important is standing next to your car asking for it).

So the wondering was making me crazy, so I took it to the Mac Mechanics...
but, much like many mechanics that I've met (especially in Carmel), they don't want to fix it 'cause "it's too old...and not worth fixing." Or don't want to do the work that it would take to recover the information and if they did, it would very expensive. hmmm.

So, I'm following my DIY Dad and brothers and seeing if I can do it myself.
I've put the old macbook pro up on blocks and I'm currently running a program on the crashed computer that "might" be able to recover "some" files.
I started it last Friday nite and it has been running non-stop for 120 hours and is currently 87% done
scanning the hard drive that the Pros said was dead. Of course this is only step 1 of 3 steps.
We shall see if it will give anything up.

During all of this, I was computer-less, but not completely out of luck. Thank God for my Brothers and Sisters, who must have been able to see into the future, as they gave me an ipad mini for Christmas and it got me thru the transition time.

If you follow Apple and their latest problems of making announcements, but not being able to keep up with the demand of said announcements, you will know, of course, it was the worst time to buy a iMac.
I had decided that I wanted to go back to a desktop and use the ipad for on the go. I wanted the gorgeous 27" screen version, but the new ones were out of stock...which drove the older ones, the version I actually wanted, up in price.

After much ebay stalking, I ended up deciding to stick with a laptop and maybe will spring for that display later.

So what have I learned?
Check the oil and water.
If you hear a noise, don't ignore it.
and, if you are overheating, don't keep driving!
And that Crashes are painful.

But most of all, it has been a real eye opener to see how intricately woven this thing called technology is in my/our lives.

The ipad was great, but it looked different, had a learning curve and did not have all my info and pics loaded onto it.

I had no idea how rewired my mind had become and how much it involved using my computer for thinking about and getting things done.

Everything from googling stuff, communicating, moving money around, googling stuff, story telling, socializing, googling stuff, cooking, writing, googling stuff, working, selling stuff, buying stuff, googling stuff, remembering stuff, making stuff, googling stuff, researching, giving gifts, googling stuff, listening to music, watching stuff and google, google, googling stuff.

I felt like I was on a road with no landmarks, no maps, no mile markers, nothing.



Most of you know what I mean.
You all know I'm a little behind the curve when it comes to using a "Big Girl Phone."
I'm just not there, yet.
But if you replaced "your phone" in the above scenario...meaning how you are when you lose your phone or it crashes. Yep. That's how I've been since the computer crash.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this.
I hate to be so dependent on a "thing."

But...

Technology is amazing.
It's changed our lives.
I can remember mom sitting at the kitchen table listening to us talk about this new thing called email.
She laughed at the lingo...we were using. When we told her the computer says "you've got mail, " she said "what, does it put a little flag up...like on a mailbox?"

Oh, Mom...what would you think of Facebook?
Or what would you think of this:

I know she would love it, because it puts all her children in touch with each other : )

It really has changed our lives. The way we get stuff done. The way we think. The way we remember.
For example, it has totally rewired the way I remember events...
When wondering when something happened, I mentally going thru my iphoto library (just ask Sandy...when I say..."2005...definitely, 2005"...it's because I can close my eyes and see the pictures lined up in chronological order in iphoto).

However, it was a little alarming to see just how much I'm addicted to the Internet and how much I really need to use a calculator to do simple math : /

And how much I can't remember, by just using my memory alone.

But, it is here to stay.
In the world of phones that never leave our hand, flash drives that are bigger than our first computer,

 laptops, desktops, ipads and 4 year olds that can navigate an  ipod touch even before they can read....

it's not gonna slow down or turn back.
I wonder what these kids are going to be telling us around the kitchen table in 20 years!


At any rate, I have a new computer...
It's shiny and near new, but there have already been some bumps in the road.
Where the old computer was too old to use newer software...
This one is too new to use the older hardware....
It's a catch 22.

But it is what it is....

...and everyday is a winding road and I can't imagine traveling down this road without it!


Directions to here:

Now, go back up your photos!