Sunday Sound - Computers??? Who needs them???

Merriam Webster: 
 Sound off: to voice one's opinions freely with force;
Synonyms: pipe up, shoot, sound off, speak out, spout (off), talk up 
Related Words:  bawl, bay, bellow, call, cry, holler, roar, shout, sing (out), thunder, vociferate, yell; articulate, enunciate

Welcome to Sunday Sound-Off, a periodic posting about my reading life, my other than reading life, and life in general in Maine. I also encourage you to drop a comment sounding off about your week, your gripes, your reading life, etc.

I should probably call this a rant rather than a sound off.   Last month, hubbie and I hosted a huge family reunion in central California.  We had people from Washington State, Oregon, several cities in California, Virginia, New York,Texas and of course Maine, at the party.  We had them from 4 months old to 95+.  It was a wonderful, wonderful party, and we we thrilled that we had the opportunity to do what everyone should do..get people together when there's not a funeral attached. The next day, there was a wedding, and that was even more fun.  Each event had its own day, we had glorious weather, great food, and an all around good time.

Now comes the rant....  My four-five year old laptop had been acting very squirrely, and I had a 150 count slide show to project on the wall during the reunion with everything from baby pictures to old tintypes from the Azores, etc.  I could NOT afford to have this bomb.  So being proactive, I decided to treat myself to a late birthday present and bought a new laptop the week before we left.  I had four days scheduled at my sister Cheli's in Maryland before we left for California and I figured I'd have plenty of time to transfer the needed files to the new laptop.  RIGHT?  WRONG

Like a complete fool, I got a machine running Windows 8, and didn't realize there was a huge (as in very HUGE) learning curve.  To top things off, I locked myself out of the new machine (don't ask) and had to wait to come home to Maine to grab recovery discs to fix that problem. I did manage to hobble through the trip with the old one, and the slide show was a huge hit.  When I returned to town, not only did I have to configure the new machine, keep the old one hanging on while doing that, but I was faced with a very sick circulation desk computer at our little library.  We switched out the unit with one of our Public Access machines, quickly reconfigured a couple items, and sent the sicko to the shop. When it returned with a new hard drive, I then had to do a bunch of reloading drivers, and more cleanup.  A job that took an entire day.

In the meantime, I'm still learning Windows 8, Office 2013, a new "look" for LibraryThing.com, and a new G-mail configuration.  Why can't the powers that be leave things alone when they're working?  This old lady can certainly learn new tricks, but not all at once!!!   All I can say is that if you're thinking of buying a new computer and are a windows user,  unless you are a social media freak and plan to use your computer for everything except office work, then try to get one without Windows 8!
I've been a windows user since 1990.  I've used every version of Windows since 3.0.  I NEVER had any trouble learning new versions (it sometimes took a couple days) but this new system is SO different, SO exasperating, and SO un-useful, that, if I had the money, I'd take this machine out to the bridge and drop it overboard and then go home and order one with Windows 7 - and pay a bazillion $$$ if I had to.  Obviously, that ain't happening, so I have to be patient, swallow my medicine, and act like a big girl.

OK....rant over.  Weather is gorgeous, we have lots of friends and family in town, the blueberry festival is next week, hubbie's book is selling well ( www.bobbrancoauthor.com ) and except for computers, life is good.  Sunday is going to be a marathon reading day.....I hope to get back to a regular reviewing schedule this coming week, but I have 3 books I want to finish first. I'm at least 1/2 done on all of them.

Have a glorious summer week.