Just A Paddler: Technology has not been my friend lately

I have suffered some technology set backs lately. My pc began acting strangely at about the same moment that I realized I loath my Mac laptop so much that I'd rather be doing anything other than sitting down to edit photos on it.

I know, I know, Mac is this wonderful shining example of ease-of-use and it-just-works, and I'm sure a handful of other what-evers. I can't stand it myself, it just makes me tired. And when I think of how much I spent on it I want to crawl into a deep dark hole and hold my checkbook while it weeps. I will never be talked into such idiocy again. I just might be able to sell it for half what I paid. Retch.

Note to self: never let someone 15 years younger give you advice on operating platforms. It's funny, I picked up the Android operating system fairly easily but Mac was just a lot of work. Also, it doesn't communicate with meetup.com well at all. Uploading photos and events was a hassle. Back to the drawing board there.

Meantime my pc began to speak in tongues and otherwise blow up. So a complete re-install dumped all the work I had in play. At least I didn't lose anything...that I know of...But I am blogging on it today so you know it has recovered from its nasty little burp. I thought maybe it had a virus or other DTD (data transmitted disease). What else could make my pc suddenly spew rude things in Tagalog & French? Actually turned out it was the download of the Amazon Cloud Player that went wrong and just kept right on going wronger (I don't think that's actually a word there). But whatever. It's cured and I am just now getting the software back on to it. Everything in its place.

So I get a new shiny laptop picked out, after much jousting and wrangling of the checkbook. It was a nasty little fight and it left the house with me wailing. My son hunts down the best, most current, juiciest machine he can find in my budget. I buy it, struggle predictably with Windows 8, and promptly discover it has no card slot. My son looks at me blankly: "what do you need a card reader for?" Um, maybe for all these cameras littering my desk, and their SD cards, hmm? Yes, I need A CARD READER to GET THESE PHOTOS OFF MY CAMERAS!!! AHHH!!!!

He truly gave me a blank look. "Just plug them in using a usb cable." Oh, child, if it were only that easy. But no, you see each camera manufacturer wants you to install their proprietary software on your pc in order to read the camera's memory when it's plugged in. And I won't be party to that. I am not a joiner. So the laptop sits, much as the Mac did, waiting for me to get a card reader. Sigh.

Would you be interested in seeing more pictures? Sure you would: