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Now here's a new twist on the old blahg. I'm actually composing this on a laptop in my living room. No, it's not quite what you think. I'm not composing this online using a wireless network. I'm using the poor-mans blog technique of using MS Word and, once complete, I'll cut and paste it into blogger. I've always said I'd write more if I had a laptop, so I guess I'm living the dream; or maybe "dream-lite". Hey, at this point, I'll take what I can get. I figure I'm one step from typing it on a typewriter, scanning it and then doing a cut/paste. Whatever it takes to put pen to paper.
The laptop I'm writing on is actually a happy story. Donna has a friend who was told that it needed a new hard drive. Desperate for any help at all, and wanting simply to save her pictures, she asked Donna if I would look at it. I said sure and figured what is there to lose.
When I started it up on Wed. night, it would freeze instantly after the desktop showed up. It didn't look good even from my perspective.
Now I don't often consider myself a computer guru. I work all day on one and the letters "IS" (Information Systems) are part of my job title, but I just don't often think of myself as technically better than the average Joe.
Donna and others beg to differ. They remind me that when I talk techno-speak to them that they have no idea what I'm talking about. I get a lot of the "deaf nod" as Donna calls it. (i.e. "I hear you talking but I don't know shat you're saying") It always occurs to me the level people are at when I tell them to open windows explorer, and they say "How do I do that?" "Uh-Oh", I think to myself, "this is going to take longer than I thought."
I don't think less of anyone for not being more geek-like. Neither though, do I think of myself as a computer geek…but I think I'm kidding myself. By definition my job requires that I be a geek. It's a little like owning a truck however. Substitute "computer help" for "moving help" in this case though.
Donna and I were talking this morning that I should start up a side business called Last-Ditch Computer Consulting, LLC. My mission statement would be "To help poor technophobes or non-geeks try and salvage their computer when they've no answers for themselves." Like with this laptop, I would offer a "No Guarantees" Guarantee, where I say I'll do my best to restore your files and or get your computer back up and running again.
I would not charge much. Maybe $20.00 or a gift card to Best Buy (read: geek) or something. If I got the computer running, and the person wanted to pay more, hey that's OK. I'd do it more for the challenge. The beauty of it though would be that I would be very honest with the person that if I felt I couldn't fix it, I would let them know and that would be that.
In the case of this laptop, I think the hard disk had a couple of corrupt sectors. Once those were fixed, the thing hummed along pretty good. To be sure, I ran all the spy ware packages and some registry cleanup routines and defrag too, just to make sure it's as clean as it should be. (There's the geek again!)
So my gutters and chimney flashing are on finally. They finished them up yesterday. Lucky for everyone, as it is raining today. A job that is good to have done. There's something about having a good roof over your head.
Tonight we are going to celebrate the safe return of our Guatemalan Mission team. It is at a team member's house in Brookfield. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the women that made the whole trip happen. Donna is busy making 76 quarts of Peppian for the occasion. Can't have enough of that, eh?
Well, I'd better blog off for now.
Jim
The laptop I'm writing on is actually a happy story. Donna has a friend who was told that it needed a new hard drive. Desperate for any help at all, and wanting simply to save her pictures, she asked Donna if I would look at it. I said sure and figured what is there to lose.
When I started it up on Wed. night, it would freeze instantly after the desktop showed up. It didn't look good even from my perspective.
Now I don't often consider myself a computer guru. I work all day on one and the letters "IS" (Information Systems) are part of my job title, but I just don't often think of myself as technically better than the average Joe.
Donna and others beg to differ. They remind me that when I talk techno-speak to them that they have no idea what I'm talking about. I get a lot of the "deaf nod" as Donna calls it. (i.e. "I hear you talking but I don't know shat you're saying") It always occurs to me the level people are at when I tell them to open windows explorer, and they say "How do I do that?" "Uh-Oh", I think to myself, "this is going to take longer than I thought."
I don't think less of anyone for not being more geek-like. Neither though, do I think of myself as a computer geek…but I think I'm kidding myself. By definition my job requires that I be a geek. It's a little like owning a truck however. Substitute "computer help" for "moving help" in this case though.
Donna and I were talking this morning that I should start up a side business called Last-Ditch Computer Consulting, LLC. My mission statement would be "To help poor technophobes or non-geeks try and salvage their computer when they've no answers for themselves." Like with this laptop, I would offer a "No Guarantees" Guarantee, where I say I'll do my best to restore your files and or get your computer back up and running again.
I would not charge much. Maybe $20.00 or a gift card to Best Buy (read: geek) or something. If I got the computer running, and the person wanted to pay more, hey that's OK. I'd do it more for the challenge. The beauty of it though would be that I would be very honest with the person that if I felt I couldn't fix it, I would let them know and that would be that.
In the case of this laptop, I think the hard disk had a couple of corrupt sectors. Once those were fixed, the thing hummed along pretty good. To be sure, I ran all the spy ware packages and some registry cleanup routines and defrag too, just to make sure it's as clean as it should be. (There's the geek again!)
So my gutters and chimney flashing are on finally. They finished them up yesterday. Lucky for everyone, as it is raining today. A job that is good to have done. There's something about having a good roof over your head.
Tonight we are going to celebrate the safe return of our Guatemalan Mission team. It is at a team member's house in Brookfield. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the women that made the whole trip happen. Donna is busy making 76 quarts of Peppian for the occasion. Can't have enough of that, eh?
Well, I'd better blog off for now.
Jim
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