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RIP computer, welcome new computer
I'd hoped that the Dell laptop computer would make it until tax time but that proved not quite possible! So I went shopping for my third laptop last Sunday and came home with a Lenovo in silver, reasonably pleased with the price - some sort of sale - and was further stunned when I was able to get it operational without much trouble. Only difficulty was with the WiFi key, which I thought I had noted correctly. Turns out yes, I had, but that doesn't help if one then does a typo, making one think it was the wrong code. But once I worked that out, we were away.
It does, of course, have Microsoft 365, Windows 11 and a bewildering array of selections, with everything not where I'm used to finding it. Microsoft makes it as difficult as possible to work out that you don't actually need to pay them anything if you are not a business requiring the full suite of applications. Anything beyond the laptop itself, of course. And despite saving all my documents to the cloud frequently, I hadn't done it within the last few weeks so will need to rewrite some of a current fanfic that I've already done. At least I remember the changes I wanted to make. And though I'm missing about a month of my journal, that time is pretty well covered by DW entries, so not much harm done.
Feels amazing to be able to use it without plugging it in all the time, plus the constant messages that the battery has failed and the sudden dives into darkness when the comp ran out of puff.
It's only a few more weeks till tax return time AND my lending rights payments, which authors get annually for books published in Australia and sold to libraries/schools. Be a bit lean till then but we'll make it. I'll also be able to access some of my superannuation without taxation once I hit my 60th birthday. I would have thought it most unlikely, only a few years ago, that I would ever look forward to that event but here we are. I talked to a financial guy with my super fund and we'll be going through the numbers in August. It's not precisely what I'd thought I'd be doing. Original plan was to use some of it to drop hours at work, now it'll be to stay at my current level and help standard of living in general.
It's as much for mental health reasons as age that I don't want to work more than three days a week. Even when things are calm, just being in the office is a stressor, as is interacting with Management.
I caught up with From episodes and now have to wait a week for each one just as though it was television! The characters are great, reminding me of playing RPGs with their constant talents for confusing and worsening any situation. They're not over the top, though, and there's no unrealistic 'redemption' of nasty or plain clueless people. One of my favourites is the tech geek with no social skills, who at one point is trying to comfort the bus driver who is blaming herself for bringing all her passengers into the trap of the From town. He tells her it's not her fault and then adds, "And they were riding a bus. Their lives can't have been that great anyway."
I started watching another Stan show called Dr Death - imagine a sociopath/possible serial killer who's also a doctor, based on a true story! Do not watch this if you're possibly facing a visit to hospital. Ever. It's very good but it scared the bejesus out of me and that does not happen very often. I remember Sherlock Holmes said something once about how when a medical man goes bad he's among the most dangerous of villains or something like that.
It does, of course, have Microsoft 365, Windows 11 and a bewildering array of selections, with everything not where I'm used to finding it. Microsoft makes it as difficult as possible to work out that you don't actually need to pay them anything if you are not a business requiring the full suite of applications. Anything beyond the laptop itself, of course. And despite saving all my documents to the cloud frequently, I hadn't done it within the last few weeks so will need to rewrite some of a current fanfic that I've already done. At least I remember the changes I wanted to make. And though I'm missing about a month of my journal, that time is pretty well covered by DW entries, so not much harm done.
Feels amazing to be able to use it without plugging it in all the time, plus the constant messages that the battery has failed and the sudden dives into darkness when the comp ran out of puff.
It's only a few more weeks till tax return time AND my lending rights payments, which authors get annually for books published in Australia and sold to libraries/schools. Be a bit lean till then but we'll make it. I'll also be able to access some of my superannuation without taxation once I hit my 60th birthday. I would have thought it most unlikely, only a few years ago, that I would ever look forward to that event but here we are. I talked to a financial guy with my super fund and we'll be going through the numbers in August. It's not precisely what I'd thought I'd be doing. Original plan was to use some of it to drop hours at work, now it'll be to stay at my current level and help standard of living in general.
It's as much for mental health reasons as age that I don't want to work more than three days a week. Even when things are calm, just being in the office is a stressor, as is interacting with Management.
I caught up with From episodes and now have to wait a week for each one just as though it was television! The characters are great, reminding me of playing RPGs with their constant talents for confusing and worsening any situation. They're not over the top, though, and there's no unrealistic 'redemption' of nasty or plain clueless people. One of my favourites is the tech geek with no social skills, who at one point is trying to comfort the bus driver who is blaming herself for bringing all her passengers into the trap of the From town. He tells her it's not her fault and then adds, "And they were riding a bus. Their lives can't have been that great anyway."
I started watching another Stan show called Dr Death - imagine a sociopath/possible serial killer who's also a doctor, based on a true story! Do not watch this if you're possibly facing a visit to hospital. Ever. It's very good but it scared the bejesus out of me and that does not happen very often. I remember Sherlock Holmes said something once about how when a medical man goes bad he's among the most dangerous of villains or something like that.