As if our lives were not complicated enough – Apple gave us the spinning color wheel of death. For you Mac users, you know what I’m talking about … Just as you’ve completed a large document, you go to change one last word and BAM! The color wheel. You are screwed. You can’t get out and you can’t save. You can’t do anything except utter some expletives or throw the computer out the window! At this point you’ve lost your document and your mind.
This happened to me yesterday. I got up at 4:45 a.m. to get some work done. I make my tea and my oatmeal (moved off waffles, for now) and started working. I get to 6:15 a.m. and I realize that I really should start the laundry. I want to move one last paragraph, save it and run downstairs. I move my cursor, highlight the paragraph, right-click, cut, and then I get it – the wheel. I have a stomach ache. I realize that this is it. All my work from the morning … gone. Why didn’t I just go to yoga, for a run, anything? What made me think I could be efficient by getting work done before working out? Won’t I ever learn the ways of the world?
So yesterday, when the color wheel popped up in its oh-so-negative way (making it a rainbow color wheel does not make it nicer!), I found myself talking to my computer. Look, I’ll be honest here … it’s not just the color wheel that frustrates me about my computer. It’s not being able to get a document to print or get it saved, or even get it on the internet! These things can be upsetting!
Yesterday, I found myself arguing, threatening and even calling my computer names. Maybe I am one of those people who thinks that talking to an inanimate object will result in it obeying. I heard myself asking it to compromise —- “give me the document and I’ll promise to save it every 32 seconds.” What’s happened to me??? Still, you must admit there’s something satisfying about yelling “What do you mean ‘cannot locate printer!?’ It’s right there!”
Finally, after getting no response but that d%$# color wheel, decided I needed a do-over for my day ( it’s only 7:00 am at this point). Seemed like a better idea than smashing my computer (which I really wanted to do!). So, I went to the health club.
Try, just try, to avoid your computer today!
theyearof50 