Ooooh, boy, this has been one stressful month! And it's not even at the halfway point, yet - that scares me a little. There have been house stresses and kid stresses and writing stresses. You know, the usual life stuff. And I'm pretty good at (or immune to) rolling along with those stresses. But it's the technology stresses that wipe me out!
I'm blaming Mercury. The planet, not the element. Mercury went into retrograde on August 3. Now, please don't think me a fatalist who hands my world over to my horoscope, or someone who plans my life around the traveling of the stars. I don't. Usually things like this barely make a bleep on my radar. But this month... oh boy!
First my daughter's laptop went klaboom. It'd been on it's last legs for awhile and I'd tried various repairs, but it was beyond help at this point. Because we use the laptop for homeschool (most of our curriculum is computer based) her having a computer is mandatory. And I don't share mine, so it had to be either a new laptop, or giving her mine. I figured, hey, I use the iPad more than the laptop these days - mostly it's become a glorified backup for documents and photos. So I wiped the harddrive, loaded her school software and handed it over.
Then my computer started glitching. It would freeze. It would lose information. I began writing with the thumbdrive in the usb slot, backing up every couple of paragraphs... just in case. Needless to say this didn't do much for my writing production. My PC is 6 years old. Not aged by any means, but given the usage and the fact that I never turn it off (hey, it might not turn back on!) I figured I'd check with geeks smarter than I for advice. The advice? Start looking for a new computer.
That was another adventure. I finally decided on a laptop instead of a PC, but to get a docking station. This will, in theory, streamline my computing and make life easier and faster and better. We will see. Because the laptop is backordered and I won't have it until the end of the month.
sigh.
Then my website crashed. Bigtime crashed. It was having minor issues anyway, and my host
suggested upgrading. Sure-go for it. Except the upgrade resulted in 2 weeks of stress and lack of website love. It's almost fixed. Or, at least, it's loading again which is a major improvement (and a credit to my awesome webchick, not to me or Mercury).
Okay. So, again, I'm not blaming the planet's retrograde for all my woes. Not really. But I am waiting to sign my new contract until after Mercury goes direct. No point in tempting fate, right?
So... whats your take on the sneaky influence of the planets? Do you check your horoscope? Is it ever right? And how about Mercury? Do you believe in the influence of a retrograde? And have you had any technological woes in the last 2 weeks??? It can't be just me!
38 comments:
I've noticed that your blog was down. I don't know much about the influence of planets. I hardly check my horoscope any more. I do hear that people go crazy when there's a full moon, but that's all I know.
Oy, Tawny--sounds like a crazy busy month for you, and not in the best ways! :( I'm not so sure about Mercury, but I wouldn't entirely rule it out ;) Hope things are looking up SOON!
Have fun with the GR, Jane! What's he say about Mercury?
Hi Tawny,
Technological woes, i am rite in that boat with you. At the end of last month my laptop gave up on me. Unfortunately i hadn't backed my files up. ouch! Fortunately my brother is a whiz at computers so he was able to retrieve my files but told me to get a new laptop. Phew! at least my files were safe.
As for believing in horoscopes, i don't believe in them at all because mine never tell me the right thing.
Hope your technological woes are soon over!!
Hi Jane and congrats on the Rooster nabbing *g* Ugh that my blog/website woes were noticeable. I hate that.
LOL on the craziness of the full moon. It's full tonight (it's Sat as I type this) so who knows how crazy I might get over all this stress!!!
Then again, I just finished watching Rango and eating popcorn with my daughter, so I'm feeling pretty mellow :-)
Well done Jane have fun with him
Tawny
Not a good month for you our PC is working fine at the moment fingers crossed I often think if I talk about it will go kaboom as well and I do so hate it when I don't have touch with the internet world.
I don't follow the stars much or the planets sorry, I do hope that everything is getting back to normal now though.
I have just got back home from a fantastic weekend away with some great romance reader friends we couldn't get to RWA in Melbourne this year so we had a Romance Reader Retreat in The Southern Highlands beautiful area about and hour from where I live and we had a ball going to lunches and dinners and sitting by an open fire having romance trivia night so much fun I even found the GR in Bowral I put a photo of him on facebook LOL.
Have Fun
Helen
Thanks, Fedora. It was definitely not a month to remember fondly ;-) But, hey - it's gotta improve, right?
And the upside has been that I've been so frustrated trying to get the computers to work, I keep walking away and scrapbooking instead. Nothing techie about that. Just paper and tape and ink. Ahhh, the simpler fun :-D
Hi Sonali :-)
Commiserating hugs on the blown laptop. That's so great that your brother was able to retrieve your files. Did you already get the new laptop or are you still going through the fun and joy of shopping for one?
LOL on the horoscopes never being correct. My understanding of them is that our sun sign only shows a small picture -often 1/12 of our life. Unless we have multiple planets in the same sign, then it'll be a little more accurate. But still, I'm pretty sure someone just sits there making up random stuff for those newspaper horoscopes!
I hope your techie woes are over soon, too :-D May we both have a smooth rest of the year!!!
Helen!!! What a fabulous weekend that sounds like. Oh man, I love it. The idea of romance trivia is so fun, and to be rewarded with a Golden Rooster sighting? Ahhh, perfection :-D
Thanks for the tech woes sympathy :-) This month has made me very aware of how dependent I am on technology, that's for sure :-)
Wow, my computer, the one the other computers at work are connected to, has been down since two Thursdays ago. It's now back at Office Depot with the techs who are trying to get it to work (they got it working for a while but then it crashed again a day later). I've been running everything off a laptop. At least I finally got the emails forwarded.
Ahh, Sheree, you have my sympathy. And just like I'm not saying Mercury's retrograde has anything to do with my laptop, PC and website all having major major issues, I won't suggest it has anything to do with yours, either *ggg*
I hope the techs can get a handle on whatever is wrong. We've become so dependent on our techie lifestyle, haven't we?
Hey, Tawny, I haven't had problems with the home computer lately, but when it does something it shouldn't, I tell the DH and he is able to fix it. I have a laptop at school and I don't like it. I know, I'm the only one on the planet that doesn't....I use a mouse from my eMac because I seem to be finger-challenged.
Anywhoooo----one piece of technology that is scaring me to death is the Interactive White Board. I know how to turn it on and know how to use the games it provides, but don't know how or understand how to apply it specifically to what I teach. And, gulp, I need to know because this is my evaluation year and I've been told I will have to use IWB 2 out of the 3 times during an eval. Like, for real? Well, yes, I guess. I bought 2 books about it the other day (bleh) and a friend promised to help me.
I don't believe in horoscopes. It's fun to read them once in awhile, but I don't believe in them or the people who write them. Now, dreams, well, sometimes it's weird how a dream can almost be a premonition. I can tell you some time about the dream I had 3 or 4 weeks ago that ended up coming true on Friday.
Tawny, I'll blame Mercury retro!
My son's laptop went on the fritz and now the replacement hard drive shipment has been delayed week after week. And my son leaves for college in 5 days! He could still use his laptop, it just didn't "move" very fast. Well, last night he came upstairs, laptop in hand, and told me it was frozen and wouldn't work at all. AACK! Guess we'll be shopping for a new laptop ASAP.
Whatever you do, Jane, don't let the GR near any technology! He tends to go a bit nuts.
Isn't technology grand, Tawny? Except when it ISN'T !!! I have a like/hate relationship with technology. Love doesn't enter into it very often.
When my first desktop crashed and burned I was rather new to the computer world. My entire first novel was on that computer and I had not backed it up. My brothers have never let me forget it! Fortunately a friend's hubby is a computer geek and he rescued my files.
Just a few days ago, I knocked a glass of tea over and apparently some splashed onto my laptop keyboard. Suddenly I was typing in gibberish! Fortunately only the keyboard was stricken. So now I have a stand-alone keyboard plugged into my laptop. I know there is a new laptop in my future, but I am putting it off as long as I can!
Morning Tawny and All!
So sorry to hear about your technology woes. :-P As Louisa says, Technology is GREAT except when it isn't... like when it's NOT workling.
I was born with Mercury was in retrograde, so this is suppose to be a lucky time for me! ;-) So far, I've had no 'puter problems (laptop or desktop) so maybe it's true?!?!
Congrats on the GR, Jane! I hope the full moon didn't cause him to be even wilder than usual.
AC
I sometimes check my horoscope and for the most part it seems accurate. As for technological problems, I had to fix one today lol. I don't know if it has anything to do with the horoscope, since the problem was with my mother's laptop. Which is a common occurrence....
Ah, timely post, Tawny. The woes of technology, internet, and laptops are horrendous. I've been miraculously free from them this month (knock on wood), but have had my share.
Back in the day when I didn't backup my writing, I dropped my laptop on the kitchen floor (underneath is concrete) and destroyed my hard drive. I was beside myself until a very nice tech guy came and restored everything.
Uh, I leave Mercury alone. Along with all the other planets.
Tawny, sorry you're having such a crazy month!
I'm really afraid to say I haven't had any technology issues during the month. Hopefully, I won't be jinxed. Considering I'm scanning a whole bunch of kids pictures onto my laptop, I don't need any tech issues.
I don't really check the horoscope much.
Well joy of joys, I woke up to the blue screen this morning. Yikes this is not my month!!! I was able to reboot and recover, but am having conniptions. Just thought I'd share that :-D
Wow, Deb. I don't even know what an Interactive White Board is, but it sounds really intimidating.
I actually am fascinated with astrology- when you get into the real deep kind. Not the 'Sunday paper, who wrote this?' kind *g* But it involves intense amounts of math, which means I know next to nothing about it *ggg*
How totally AWESOME about your precog dream. I hope it was a good one, especially as it came true!! Does that happen for you often?
Ahh, Gannon, I feel your pain! I'm so sorry for you and your son. As much as I love technology, I seriously hate shopping for it. I always feel like it's a test and I haven't studied and don't know enough to pass it.
I hope you find something he loves, though!!! and YAY him for heading off for all the school fun :-)
Yikes, Louisa! I lost my first manuscript that way, too. I have it on hard copy (at least I'd printed it out) but believe me, it's not worth typing up again LOL. Still, the frustration is great.
My daughter was in the same position - using an external keyboard with a laptop, there towards the end. Its so hard to travel that way :-)
You have my laptop shopping sympathy :-(
and I love that saying -Love and hate, with not a lot of love *ggg*
Hey Tawny!
Like you, I'm not a slave to the spheres, but when you have a week like you've had? Uh, yeah. I'd blame Mercury too. :>
Jane, I always know when there's a full moon, even when I don't look at the daily charts or anything. It just "feels" different. :>
And BTW, big {{{HUGS}}} on the computuer woes. Can live with them, can't blow them up with a shotgun.
Grrrr.
Jeanne said, "...Can live with them, can't blow them up with a shotgun."
LOL, Duchesse! Actually you CAN, but what a mess to clean up! ;-)
AC
Tawny - Hugs
I'm so dependent on technology and I probably don't back up half as much as I should. The aggravating thing for me is that when I finally do get around to replacing a piece of equipment - the new piece doesn't operate exactly the same as the other. I have to change my routine! Invariably the new item has many advantages that eventually I'll learn to recognize and love - but in the meantime, it drives me nuts.
I think mercury in retrograde would work well in a book.
Auntie Cindy, I have heard that being born under the Mercury retrograde is good luck :-) And it sounds like it's working out well for you!
I don't usually notice any techno issues during the Mercury retrograde. Heck, mostly I never realize it's going on unless someone tells me. But this month? Oh man... bigtime yikes!
Artemis, I haven't seen too many of those 'day you were born' things so I don't know if they are accurate at all. If they are only taking into account your sun sign, then it's probably not worth it. If they are looking at your sun, moon, rising and planetory signs, then I've seen those as incredibly accurate for understanding things about a person. But for the day to day horoscope? Not so much *g*
Yikes on the computer going kaboom. I always blame husbands, too *g* so I think that's a safe bet that it's because of his search that you had issues LOL. I hope you get something new soon??? Or get yours fixed.
YAY - another Rango watcher. Wasn't it fabulous. My husband hadn't seen it at the theater with us so he watched last night, too and loved it. So fab!!
And, nope :-) No more plums. After all that canning, I can't say I'm bummed, though. I did harvest a small basket of potatoes today, though. And one cucumber LOL.
Jane, congrats on the bird!
Tawny, I can't keep up with the planets. My life runs me in circles enough. *g* I know I'm a Taurus, and I admit to rare and always justified stubbornness. :-)
As Jane notes, the full moon does trigger weird and violent behavior, and I think police and ER reports bear that out.
Antonia, my mom's computer always has problems, too. I have no idea why- it's weird, huh? I hope you got yours fixed all better!!
Thats fab that your horoscope tends to be accurate :-) I do think that when people have more than one planet in their sun sign, the horoscopes are a lot more useful. It sounds like you probably do.
Oh, Jo. I'm actually cringing at the image of a laptop hitting the floor like that. You must have cried!! I would have.
YAY for a techno-stress free month!!! I'm envious *g* I guess we all have the techno stress, I just wish I hadn't got so much at once *ggg*
Hi Christie and thanks for the sympathy :-D
WOW what a huge job to scan pix to the laptop. I dumped a project like that on my daughter a few years back, it was so time intensive. Are you having to do a lot? Or not so much? Are you creating digital albums?
LOL Jeanne, I'm willing to blame anything I can. Its just been way too much this week!!!
And like you, I always feel the difference around the full moon. Everything is just a little more intense feeling :-)
Jeanne said: Can live with them, can't blow them up with a shotgun.
LOL - well, actually....
My husband did take a sledgehammer to one once. He's saving his blown laptop to take up to the mountains and shoot, too.
Oh Donna, I hear ya!!!
When I bought my last laptop (the one my child now has *sniff*) I even paid extra to have Windows XP installed instead of the then common Vista. I hated Vista with a passion. This round, I get no choice at all. So I have to learn the new operating system :-(
And as an Office addict (Outlook, Word and One Note are my lifelines) I had to give in and get the 2010 version instead of my beloved 2007. Whaaah.... I don't want to learn new things!!!
But... you say we learn to love it, eventually? I'm going to hold on to that LOL.
YES - a Mercury retrograde book would be fun, wouldn't it?!
Nancy, I've seen a lot of studies like what you mention, proving that the full moon has a definite effect on the emotions and triggering wide swings.
LOL about the circling life :-) and about the rare but justified stubbornness. I figure as long as its justified, it's a gift!!!
Hey- stubbornness is what keeps us writing, isn't it?
Tawny, big hugs on all the technological problems! I have had trouble with facebook, which keeps freezing on me, and my son's hard drive died, so I suppose that retrograde thing could account for it! Such a pain when it happens. We are reminded how ridiculously dependent we are on technology.
Tawny, alas, I don't have many dreams that end up being true. This one wasn't good. Long story short: my husband has been waiting approval for surgery for the last 19 weeks and I dreamed that he would end up having it on the first day of school(with students). AND...that is exactly what is happening. I can't be there for surgery because I cannot miss the first day with students. But, my MIL is here from TX, bless her heart...
Definitely not just you, Tawny!
Granddaughter Ashley's laptop began
going south approximately two weeks
ago. Not good news at all because
she leaves for college the end of
this week and most of her class work
is recorded on computer. Repair
attempts didn't take care of the problem so Grandpa Honey and his credit card came to the rescue! Grandma is happy because we visit
with our girl on her laptop. She also
"attends" family gatherings via the
laptop's web camera. LOL
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