The Death Spiral

My personal computer is dying.

There, I’ve said it.

I’ve known for a while. There have been signs. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been so absent from my regular online haunts, like reading blogs and publishing stuff on my own blog.

I honestly don’t even want to THINK about getting a new computer. I hate having to make decisions about technology, because truly informed decisions take lots of reading, and lots of thought.

And, as soon as you mention needing a new techy thing or other, everyone wants to share advice and opinions. To me, all of that is even MORE overwhelming. Because what is good or works for one person may not be good or work for me.

The latest “sign” is that the network adapter stopped working. So I can’t connect to our home network or the biggest network of all, the Internet. It can probably be fixed. But why bother when I know the thing needs to be replaced. It’s time, really. I have been in denial for MONTHS.

Anyhoo… to change the subject, look at this pretty sunrise.

Pretty Sunrise
Pretty Sunrise

I am a visual person. I really , really love all the colors in nature (like sunrises and sunsets). I’m not usually up early enough to see sunrises and, if I were, I wouldn’t be able to see much of it from my house because I don’t have a very good view of the eastern or western sky.

Recently, due to the oppressive Mid-Atlantic heat and humidity, and the fact that I work from home so have nothing to really force me out of the house, I’d been feeling rather house-bound. Like a cabin fever sort of thing. I got outside, but only in the evenings when walking the dogs. Not only did that feel hot and uncomfortable, it was also LOUD because of the stupid cicadas. They’ve been quite loud and quite incessant for WEEKS. If you’ve never had to live with the darn things and don’t know what I mean, make sure your sound is turned on then follow this link.

So I decided to head to the beach for a few days. Hubby hates the beach and I really wanted to swim in the ocean one more time before beach season ends. I am a remote employee, so I just moved my office and altered my hours for a couple of days. I worked in the early morning and late afternoon/evenings and had midday to hang out on the beach.

It was a refreshing and much-needed break.

While there, since I had to get up early to work anyway, I made sure to enjoy sunrise from the beach. I mean, I had to sit somewhere to drink that all-important morning coffee, right?

I don’t take pictures just for the sake of taking a lot of pictures. I take pictures trying to capture — and share — the beauty (and other stuff) that I see.

I’m always saying, you can’t just take an occasional snapshot here and there and expect to have a bunch of great photos on hand. You have to take a lot of pictures in order to capture a few good ones.

Anyone can push a shutter and capture a moment. I throw away/delete a lot more images than I share. I think most good photographers do. That’s another key to being good, knowing when you have created/captured something that’s not so good. If it’s not good or it’s even really bad, DON’T SHARE IT.

I actually captured quite a few decent sunrise pics, but I think the one I shared above is my favorite.

If you’d like to see some of the “bloopers” watch the video I embedded below. There’s sound, so you may want to adjust your volume before pressing play.

I hope to make more-frequent appearances once I have procured a new personal computer.

17 Replies to “The Death Spiral”

  1. Beautiful video! I take a lot of pics and quite a few make it into the trash. I couldn’t imagine being a photographer, I unfortunately am a photo plonker.

    As for the tech stuff just buying a new phone almost killed me and then I stuck with the status quo iphone because I didn’t want tech stress. Our laptop died about 3 years ago and we have been getting by with iphones and ipads.

    1. Mike and I will be vacationing together soon. I’ll be using his MacBook Air. If I survive, I may go Mac. Like he said, I can either learn Windows 10 or learn the Mac operating system. We’ll see how that goes.

    2. “Plonker”? LOL. I haven’t seen that word before.

      It’s weird to think I may be able to get by with just a tablet, but it could be true.

      By the way, I haven’t watched your videos yet, but will soon!

  2. Beautiful pics, all of them!

    I had to buy a new laptop on last summer’s trip when we squashed the old one in the RV slide. Oops! I got a windows 10 and it didn’t take long at all to love the changes and improvements!

    I tried Mac years ago and we just didn’t mesh. That’s why there’s chocolate and vanilla, and tons of other flavors 😆 Good luck with the transition!

    1. Thanks, Lynne. Like Hubby, I admire the functionality of the iPhone so much, I should give Mac computers a try. This vacation adventure will be a good test.

  3. Nice video and a good choice of music. I like to pretend to be a photographer but I don’t get very much practice. And video, beyond the GoPro stuff, seems beyond me.

    I use both Mac and Windows 10 and definitely prefer OS X. Windows tries to hide things ostensively to protect you from yourself. I just find it annoying. Plus you have to buy a lot of software. The Mac comes with most of what I need. My “carry with me all the time” computer is one of the newer Macbooks. Only 2 lbs. Just a little more than my iPad + keyboard.

    1. Yes, Connie, a support group! LOL! We could all meet regularly, sit around drinking wine, and avoid talking about computers and other techy stuff. 🙂

  4. Or decide if you can do everything you normally do on a Chromebook. Relatively cheap and starting in a couple of months, they will be able to run Android apps which could allow photo and video editing.

  5. Computers…it’s a love/hate thing between them and me. Sadly, I work in the IT field so no getting away from them. I am sure you’ll find a good replacement….

    Nice sunset pics.

  6. Cicadas! I do NOT miss those suckers. I didn’t even need to click on the link to hear them again – that sound kind of gets burned into your brain.

  7. I love all of the pictures you take.

    Regarding a new computer I don’t envy you in looking for a replacement. I cheat, I get the old work iMacs every few years when the boss buys me a new work one.

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