I won\u2019t say that my PC is functional and is all set \u2013 no indeed;\nI\u2019ve learned that lesson all too well. I feel comfortable with the restoration;\nnew hard drive, a fresh version of the latest and greatest Windows 10, and data\nmostly back. As I think I mentioned, I use two online backup servers, actually\nthree if you count iCloud. Unfortunately do to the rapid and successive events\nthat befell this PC, the backups turned out to be imperfect; this mostly because\neach time you install a new operating system the \u201cidentity\u201d of the PC is different\nand the online servers think it is a different PC, even though it is not and\nthe data hasn\u2019t changed. So ultimately, I got back almost everything \u2013 around 700GB\nof \u201cstuff\u201d. In fact, oddly, it seems only one file is missing, a spreadsheet I\ncreated and used for finances. I cannot seem to find a copy of that anywhere\u2026.odd.\nI can\u2019t imagine how that happened! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I found astounding out of all of this was how far technology has progressed. As I mentioned my data was around 700GB, almost 750. And it was all backed up and kept current through nearly invisible data streams between the PC and the online server. And when I needed it, it arrived within a couple of days neatly stored on a 1TB password protected USB external hard drive. And it took less than an hour or so to move all that data back over to the new hard drive. That is mind boggling to me, especially to when I remember the stack of 20 or more 3.5\u201d floppy discs needed to install MS-DOS and Windows some 25 or 30 years ago. I think it was over 46,000 photos, nearly 2,000 songs, a number of videos, and countless other files. That alone is staggering to me<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of a hard drive and Windows, I created a bootable USB\nstick with a spare PC that held all the Windows 10 install data, so once the\nhard drive was replaced (about a 5 minute job), it was as simple as plugging in\nthe USB drive and hitting the power button \u2013 fresh new copy installed in less\nthan 15 minutes I think (although it needed time after that to go get all the latest\nupdates, but the PC was functional at that point). Remarkable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will admit it was disruptive and disconcerting to me; my PC\nis a crucial piece of my life: shopping, banking, email, other social items,\nand of course this blog\u2026.oh \u2013 and games too! Thankfully my grandson graciously offered\nme his laptop (my old XPS14) to use while I worked on mine, researched how to\nfix it, and ordered all that I needed to do so. It was a life saver. And out of\nthat I returned it to him cleaned up with some file maintenance, a new less\nobtrusive virus protection, and installed a new copy of Windows 10 for him (it\nwas running Windows 7 which loses support next month). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But PC issues or not, the holiday has been fast approaching\nso there was all that shopping and wrapping to be dealt with as well. And that helped\nprovide a distraction; the very real threat of losing almost your entire\nelectronic life is a heavy feeling until you have actually restored the data\nand know that it is back and safe. For the geeks wondering, I installed a 1TB\nSATA physical hard drive along with a 32MB SSD drive. I chose it despite the\nobvious flaws with a physical drive \u2013 read\/write delays and the ever present\nrisk of damaging the platter. They can hold a lot of data though. But a SSD\ndrive can vanish with seemingly only the slightest electronic disturbance, all\nthe data held in some form of cyber-storage and unrecoverable upon a failure\n(online backup notwithstanding of course). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the holiday shopping is nearly complete, if indeed not\nfully complete at this point. I wrapped as things arrived so there is little\nwrapping to be done as well. And that is nice given the shorter period this\nyear between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hard to believe the Christmas is\ntomorrow! And this is my first Christmas with no dark mass associated with work\nhanging above my head; no obligations other than celebrate the holiday. Last\nyear still casts a shadow over my memories, this due to an unforgivable violation\nof trust by a couple of people who worked in my organization. That issue\ncreated a huge chasm of distrust and scrutiny of the whole group and was indescribably\npainful and unpleasant for all of us, but especially me. I had always managed\nas the sole person responsible for it all \u2013 no matter how big or small, if\nsomething went wrong and something bad occurred \u2013 it was my fault. I either\nfailed to properly train my folks or failed to provide them the proper\nresources or allowed them to to go to work with flawed procedures or inadequate\noversight. But regardless of the mode of failure, it was my fault. And the one\nfrom last Christmas left a permanent scar on me. And the group is still feeling\nthe impact even now a year later. It was not a pleasant way to end my career,\nbut by the time I did leave, I am confident that they had everything they\nneeded to ensure lasting future success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of work, a small group went out to celebrate the\nholidays and extended an invitation to me to join them. It was nice to see them\nall again, but it also quickly reminded me of the toll that the stress of\nresponsibility brings to those in management. They were all smiling and\nlaughing and having a great time, but when talk would turn again to work, you\ncould hear it in their voices and see it in their brows: the frustration, the\npressure, and the stress. Not surprisingly, they are all handling it marvelously;\nI hired a lot of them and promoted every one of them several times. They will\nbe successful but it is a long battle and rarely is a moment of peace found while\nbattling. While I missed them all tremendously it reminded me of the that I do\nnot miss the stress and pressure of the job. Life is far more pleasant on this\nside of the employment line!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And time, of course, has not slowed or stopped just because my\nPC went on hiatus and here we are today at Christmas Eve. While mine is warm\nand comfortable and filled with joy, I have a number of friends that are\nstruggling on this holiday; some have lost a mom or a dad, some have lost their\njob, and some are deep in the vile mud of divorce and are spending Christmas\nEve and Christmas Day alone without spouse or children for the first time in\nyears, while other are celebrating Christmas alone having lost their spouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas is a present to us \u2013 a gift of friends and family\nand celebration of love. Yes, I know well that it is a religious holiday and\ncelebrates the birth of Jesus \u2013 that is not lost on me at all. But as all great\nthings do, the holiday has grown and has become more than the sum of its parts.\nWhile for Christians it is still very much about its original intent. But for\nthose who are not practicing Christians or are either non-believers or other\nbelievers, Christmas still creeps into their lives and infuses them with the\nspirit and love that this holiday brings with it. It is steeped in tradition,\nbundled with warmth, and wrapped with loving scenes of snow gently falling upon\ntrees decked with lights. The sights, the smells, and even the tastes of the\nholiday lift all of us into the Christmas spirit at one time or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the wonderful gift of Christmas is different every year\nfor each of us and some years are less pleasant than others; some years are difficult\nand some\u2026.some are outright impossible to find joy within. That is the reality\nand the duality of life. And if you, dear reader, are one of those mired in the\ndepths of loss and sorrow, I can only offer you my sympathy and these meager\nwords to comfort you. Loss is permanent; there is no such thing as coming back\nfrom the final departure. But the sorrow, the pain, and the longing is not\npermanent \u2013 at least not in the extreme sharp and cutting levels that pierce\nour hearts at first. It settles back into an ache and occasional pangs, and\nthen after some years it becomes more of a soft and warm comfortable shirt which\nhas a hole in it or a stain on it: damaged and not for public display, but\nwonderful to wrap yourself in when home alone. Moments and memories overcome and\nsupplant the grief. Know this and please trust that whatever pin you are\nfeeling now will subside, will abate, and will leave you to provide space for\nthose memories to flourish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wherever you are, whoever you are my dear readers, I wish you\na Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a wonderful Kwanza, or whatever else you\nchoose to label this time of year. And beyond that I wish you warmth and love\nand peace. And for those for whom grief has locked out that gift of Christmas,\nI wish you a speedy journey through the dark and please hold close the words\nthat this too shall pass. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I won\u2019t say that my PC is functional and is all set \u2013 no indeed; I\u2019ve learned that lesson all too well. I feel comfortable with the restoration; new hard drive, a fresh version of the latest and greatest Windows 10, and data mostly back. As I think I mentioned, I use two online backup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n