Blessing and Curses, Curses and Blessings: Part III

I have had serious problems with my computer, and Nancy Watson had recommended a gentleman to me who she believed could repair it. (Nancy, if you are reading this, the problems went way beyond a browser button that wouldn't click by the time I sought help.) Jose Cortez (09-556-1077)came to my place, took a look at my new laptop, which was bought specifically for my trip to Cuenca. To make a long story short, Jose took the computer with him, made all the corrections necessary, which included cleaning up viruses. Before Jose brought the computer back the next day, he needed a couple of extra hours to complete his repairs. Since I did not have a phone, Jose sent a friend by, so I could talk with Jose on the phone to verify that he would be a couple of hours late from the time that he thought he would drop off my computer.

When Jose returned the computer; he sat for two hours with me and showed me everything that he had cleaned-up and corrected, new programs he had downloaded on my computer and how they worked, and how to download photos from my camera to the blog site. A miracle may happen, and who knows, you just may see some photos yet before I leave Cuenca--no promises though. Jose's prices were very reasonable, and yes, this is an advertisement. If you need a computer repair hombre in Cuenca, Jose Cortez is your man--high quality, excellent service, and reasonable pricing.

Of course, that wasn't the end of my computer problems. After the computer was returned, parts of text were jumping around while I was typing emails, posts, and Office Word. Jose immediately identified the problem. I needed a mouse. The built-in device used to navigate in these laptops was too sensitive to my wrist and finger motions, so for less than ten dollars, I was able to purchase a cordless mouse--problem more than solved. Well no, not quite yet. No more than all my computer problems were rectified, then the cable connection stopped working for the better part of two days. For reasons beyond my understanding--maybe less traffic on the weekend--but by Friday evening and all day today the cable has just been working fine. Go figure! So when I couldn't use my computer, it has given me more time to study my Spanish. Oh, learning all these conjunctions and word orders is going to be so much fun.

Blessings and Curses, Curses and Blessings: Part II

Well, on Tuesday, Nancy Watson of the awarding winning blog, "Nancy and Chuck in Ecuador" graciously stopped by to show me how to download photos from my camera to the blog. Things were going smoothly, until we came to the part where we had to click on "browse". The "browse" would not click into action, and that's as far as we got. So some of you who have been emailing me to see some photos of Cuenca, as I said in my earlier post, consider yourself lucky if I just get the blog posts up on a regular basis. I lucked out by renting an apartment with broadband connection. Who knows how this would have gone with my unfamiliarity with WIFI combined with my first use of a laptop. Nancy recommended a computer gentleman to me. If he responds, and is able to fix my new laptop; or more likely, show me what I'm doing or failing to do, to do what I want the computer to do, when I want it to do it; then I will be up and running and be able to do what you and I both want it to do, which is display some photos of Cuenca. Oh, the insanity of it all!

I like my new camera, which is a Fuji. Nancy managed to get what was currently on my camera displayed on a site, and from the quick glimpse I managed to take, the quality of the color and clarity from the photos looked good. Nonetheless, I was spoiled by my old 35mm Nikon, with telephoto and wide-angled lenses. I don't miss carting around all the equipment, but that telephoto allowed me to take photos of portions of buildings, close-ups of statues, and close-ups of people. I discretely could from a distance, for example, snap photos of people in native dress. Now, I would have to be very close to them, or ask their permission to take close-up photos. The close-ups can oftentimes be the most telling and intriguing.

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Blessings and Curses, Curses and Blessings!

I had such an easy time (well, easy time for me) formatting my blog that I deluded myself into thinking this blog posting is going to be a piece of cake. Wrong! I never learn. Nothing new for me on a computer ever comes easy. While some of you have wondered; "Jim, where's the blog you promised?" "Jim, did you forget to email me with the link to your post site?" I just wasn't ready to post beyond the first posting, until I learned how to download photos. I hear you snickering, "Oh that's easy." It's always some simple step I fail to see, or when I apply someone's written directions they just don't work the same way for me. After spending three hours Monday evening, another two hours Wednesday evening after my son, Marc, demonstrated to me what to do, and another hour Thursday afternoon attempting to follow my son's email instructions; I still can't download the photos from Photobucket to my blog.

I finally had lunch with Marc today before he travels to Maryland, so we could go over my transferring photos from my camera to my laptop, and so we could see what my problem is with downloading photos from the computer. Well, as you can see, I managed to get two photos posted. Neither of them is the same size. But this is the closest I'm going to come to a victory. I lost a third photo into cyberspace, which is probably lost forever. I ran out of time to post the fourth photo of Marc. Unless another miracle happens, maybe I'll get a photo of you, Marc, posted as well when I'm in Cuenca. I've worked on those photos for six hours today, since Marc and I parted. I guess I'm stubborn as a mule, because I should have been packing for Monday's trip.

Quite frankly, I have little experience with wifi and laptops. If I have connectivity problems in Cuenca, this may be the last post you'll see until I return. If this obstacle infuriates me beyond my breaking point, I may also steam-roll the computer into a permanent part of the road pavement.

I have little patience with all this technology, but a great deal of perseverance. It never fails that after I struggle with some software, someone will then come along and lickity-split, "That's all you had to do, Jim." I love computers when they function as they should, which means not expecting me to do anything more than what I already know how to do. Marc soothingly says, "Dad, the computer is not your enemy, it is your friend." "Don't let it get to you." Yea sure, coming from the computer whiz kid. I know growth often requires trials and tribulation. However, it gets frustrating when there is no gain for the pain, until someone instantaneously shows me what to do. Blessings and curses, curses and blessings.