Musician’s Widow

I’m ba-ack! I was MIA the end of last week as I set up my new laptop. I am TICKLED with it, and so thankful to have it!

I am almost completely transferred over from the old laptop. I’m already so amazed how I no longer get “Not responding” messages, how I can unplug it and it doesn’t die within five minutes, and I can run multiple programs at the same time with no lag!

There’s only one bad thing.

My Photoshop program is incompatible.

Talk about a sick feeling the two times I tried to load it without success. I think I even broke out into a cold sweat for awhile. I might have even paced. And whined. Perhaps a tear was shed.

My point is: I love Photoshop and will not use an inferior program.

My problem: I don’t have $600.

My solution: Taking it old school. Saving bartending money, etc. bit by bit until I have the needed amount. Until then, I’ve downloaded a trial version of Lightroom, so I can see if it interests me. It does! I like what it does! I’m just so stinkin’ LOST using it. I miss my Photoshop!!

I have a goal of some day saving up to have both Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. But for now, my focus is on getting the money together for Photoshop. I need it. I want it. I WILL HAVE IT.

But in the mean time, I am totally enjoying my new laptop. I’ll do my page design stuff on my (ugh) old laptop. Perhaps if I uninstall some of my other RAM hogging programs it’ll run a little better. We’ll see. I’ll make it work! I am determined… I’m finally upgrading into this decade of technology!

I have only one word for it:

YAY!

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Of course if anyone ever wanted to just give me a copy of Photoshop and/or Lightroom I wouldn’t decline…

  Hey, I had to try!

I consider myself a middle-of-the-road-gadget-upgrader. I don’t rush out to buy the newest technology, but I also don’t hold on to things as long as some people do. I get all kinds of excited about new gadgets, but its only after I’ve weighed the need and the price points. This week, however, I’m getting to upgrade in more than one location.

• New lens filters – I know its fairly minor to most photographers, but I finally got myself two new sets of filters for my lens. I’m pretty darn excited about it! Started playing with them a little bit last night, but I probably won’t give them a good workout before the weekend. Baby steps in the photography world. Baby steps.
• New laptop – Its on its way, and it should be here tomorrow. This laptop I am on… its well loved. I got it in 2007. Many of the letters have been rubbed off and the A, S, D, E, N and space bar all have dents in them from my typing!

  I get constant “Not responding” warnings all over the board these days, and I can’t run Photoshop and any other program at the same time. Frustrating much? Yup. Ending soon? YESSSSS.

I look forward to upgrading cell phones later this year (if we can afford it, lol!) since I’m pretty much over the “Low Disk Space” warnings our phones keep giving us. And I dream of having more lenses and flashes for my camera. But… those will come in time.

Excited about my new gadgets this week! Wheee!! Be prepared for photo evidence in the days to come.

I did it.

I finally did it.

I bought a web cam today. Yesterday’s vlog was so well received that it finally pushed me over the edge I’ve been standing on for about three years.

Help us all, I have a web cam, and I plan to use it.

I decided to go middle of the road, with a slight leaning towards better quality. I’m sure I’ll be happy with it, no matter what. Heck, I’m down right excited!!

It’ll be nice to video chat with hubby when he’s on the road now. Not to mention family in Texas and Oregon! And vlogs! I just might start doing those periodically. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to go crazy with it. It’ll just be nice to be able to add it to my bag of tricks.

But first… time to figure out how to make it work.

Wish me luck.

First step… how do I get the box open…

I had one of those days. One where I considered disposing of all forms of technology and adopting a life of pen and paper and nothing more high tech than a transistor radio.

It all started with my laptop. I have a love/hate relationship with my laptop. I love having it and how it lets me work from anywhere. I hate it because sometimes it seems determined to not let me work at all.

My power cord hasn’t played nice with my laptop in a couple.months, so that’s been an issue. Then it decided to shut off randomly (despite actually be plugged in properly!) on its own without warning. Then it decided not to read CDs. Then it locked up forcing me to hard reboot… three times.

Finally I got it to work, but not before losing hours of work time.

Then my phone failed me.

My husband played the Opry tonight. Since I am out of town for work, I knew I would listen via the Opry Droid App. Worked fantastic last time!

I tuned in about 10 minutes early, getting a little bummed to not be there. My husband’s group took stage and I cranked up the volume. Not even halfway through the first song, my phone peeped low battery and locked up. Music stopped and nothing was bringing it back.

I dashed to my laptop to listen online. I kept clicking “listen live” and nothing happened. Then I noticed I had to choose a player. I didn’t care! Just PLAY. My first player choice didn’t work. The second started, but was so low in volume it wasn’t worth it.

I went back to my phone. Finally it reloaded the app and let me listen… halfway through the second song. I was soooo glad to be listening in again, but I’d missed so much I still wanted to cry.

I heard the last of their set, and as I closed the app, my phone locked up so bad I had to pull the battery out to reboot it!! All while pouting for missing so much of the Opry. It was the last straw.  I am planning to avoid technology for awhile.  Technology hates me today, and, frankly, I hate it right back at the moment. I think we need to take a break for awhile. Don’t call me, I’ll call you kind of thing.

So a break it is…

…for a few hours.