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S/SW blog philosophy -

I credit favorite writers and public opinion makers.

A lifelong Democrat, my comments on Congress, the judiciary and the presidency are regular features.

My observations and commentary are on people and events in politics that affect the USA or the rest of the world, and stand for the interests of peace, security and justice.


Monday, May 24, 2010

When Mondays start badly, reboot.

Bunches of us have been bummed in recent weeks.  BP ruined our Gulf of Mexico.  Relative and friends have been having worrying troubles.  At home, the one dish meal burns when the heat source is too high and dust bunnies are peeping out from under the bed.  One appliance or another goes on the fritz.  Out home temperature is too hot or too cold.  We run out of milk and lose one of our sneakers.

Let me tell you my Monday story, only because it has suddenly become a Good Monday tale of triumph at the keyboard. Such hyperbole is in order because I am an occasionally technology-challenged blogger.  This morning I awoke early, got on the computer and one of my favorite applications would not open.  Which one is not important.

I depend on my favorite applications to work as I have configured them.  They are to remember their places, mere tools at my disposal, not entities with their own agendas that waste my writing time.

When I became stymied I first did my magical thinking bit, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Nothing.  Going online to the home page of the application's website, I explored the technical support section, hoping to find an already prepared simple answer.  Nothing.  Then I downloaded the application and tried to reinstall it. Nothing.  "You already have this updated version installed," it said.  Reading the latest posts in the users forum, I did not find another soul with my same problem.  Nothing there. 
Well, you're up against it I told myself.  The only thing left to do was to send an Email that would languish for days in some far off boiler room, leaving me hanging and frustrated.

Dear Sir:  Help, help.  I love your application.  It is my favorite, I promise.  I just can't get it to open.  Here's the sequence of what has happened over the past few days and what I have done so far.  Etc., etc.  SEND.

And wonder of wonders, I got an immediate response, signed with someone's name.  I was told to uninstall the offending application,  download a fresh one, reinstall it, reboot and start over.  Does that mean I will loose all the work I have done in the past using this app?  I was afraid that would happen.  I reminded myself that I probably had no choice in the matter.  Take the chance, I told myself, which I did.

Voila! Ureka! It worked, after a bit of balkiness.  All my old stuff was still there, as if by magic.  What a relief.  Thank you, thank you.

As I think about it I realize that my problem was probably a standard complaint.  It was perhaps so standard that I received an automated response.  Or perhaps the person at the help desk was very quick to reply to my entreaty.  It does not matter.  It worked and I am back in business.

I was able to make a good Monday out of a really bad Monday start.  Hope the same good fortune happens to everyone who is in the midst of a shaky start.

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