Movin on Up

It’s been electronic upgrade time for me. First I got a new laptop. My old one had gotten so slow, I ‘d turn it on and go do something for a while and hope it had booted up when I came back.

The new one has a bigger screen and a camera so I can watch myself as I write. Yikes, I don’t really look that old, do I? It has the new version of Windows. So far so good with that. The amazing part was that after the rebates, the new computer costs less than half the price of the old one.

Now I just have to move over all the files from my old laptop. I alreadt put in WordPerfect and Word. Though Word caused me to have a minor meltdown. I ended up with the 2007 version which I keep hearing is different, but not better. Those were my sentiments, too. I’m much happier now that I have Word 2003 as well – as happy as I can be with Word after my I hate Word rant a few weeks ago.

And I finally got a BlackBerry. It’s a hand-me-down from my son and still has all of his phone numbers and his calendar. So far I’ve accidentally called at least one of his friends by pushing something at the wrong time. I’m also getting prompts about a Dodger game, his dentist appointment, his trip to Las Vegas. Eventually I’ll get his stuff out and my stuff in.

I have watched my husband and son endlessly twirling the roller ball as they scroll through their emails when we’re out somewhere. I swear I won’t be doing that. I’d rather be where I am when I’m there. But after spending too much time waiting for them to finish just one more email before we leave a restaurant, I did have to laugh when I was typing an email as I followed my son around the nursery department of Lowe’s and he got annoyed because I wasn’t paying attention to some cactus he wanted to show me.

It makes no sense. It’s much easier just to call somebody, but I found myself sending emails instead. There is something about typing on the tiny keyboard that is so appealing. And I kept joking about all the abbreviations like lol and r for are, but it is so much easier and why bother with capital letters or punctuation. I will not keep the BlackBerry next to my bed like some people I know who check emails in the middle of the night. It will only be my BlackBerry, not my CrackBerry.

Before my son gave it to me, he added a new ring. Well, ring isn’t the right word. Instead of ringing, it plays some song and my son’s voice says Betty Hechtman’s phone is ringing. I’ve been know to miss a few phone calls. Hard to miss that. Also hard to pretend it’s not my phone when it rings in the middle of someplace where you’re supposed to have turned off your cell phone. Another thing I need to learn - how to turn the phone function off.

I’m in the midst of writing the fifth crochet mystery. It’s going to be a holiday book coming out next November, so for now I’m calling it Hooky Holidays. I think Molly is going to be getting a BlackBerry. Why not blend real life and fiction?

I Want to Scream

This isn’t what I planned to write my blog about, but circumstances changed everything. I always said I wouldn't say anything negative in my blog, but -- I hate Word. I hate Word. I hate Word. I just lost my whole days work because of the stupid program. I have always used WordPerfect from my first computer in the 80s. I am only using Word now because of that is what the copy edited version of A Stitch in Crime came to me in. It is the downside of electronic editing.

In WordPerfect, if you hit save, the very top line will show the trail of drive, folders and file you are in and then say unmodified. So you know for sure you’ve saved it. Word doesn’t do that. If you hit save, it makes some stupid lines that disappear. And yes, it tells you the name of the file you are in, but by not giving the complete location such as the tree of directory names and the drive it’s on, it can get very confusing. As in if you have a copy on your C drive and a back up copy with the same name, you can’t tell which one is open.

My copy edit is due next Thursday. I went through fifty pages today. Somehow in the process of saving it and then using save as to save to my backup copy, everything got confused. All I know is, both copies don’t have my work from today. I would like to scream. I would scream, but as soon as I finish this, I’m going back to try to go through the same pages while it is fresh in my mind.

On a positive note. Last week I mentioned wanting a dress form to use as a model for my crochet projects. Linda from the knit and crochet group I belong to emailed me and offered me “Gloria,” a dress form living in her closet. Gloria has moved to my house and is standing with her hip cocked waiting to take on her new job as crochet model. Thank you, Linda.

I had to add this. I couldn't go to sleep until I went back over the pages. The changes were fresh in my mind and I didn't have to read every word the way I did the first time. It took a lot less time the second time around. This time I gave the back up file a new name so there will hopefully be no more confusion. But I still don't like Word.

Me Organized?

This isn't the best time for me to be writing about organization. I can hear my husband laughing about the idea. I can't say I blame him. He's wearing a kelly green muscle shirt and red floppy basketball shorts - a sure sign he's at the end of the clean clothes. Luckily, he has a home office.

This past week I've been doing the revisions for A Stitch in Crime and laundry, dinner, even crocheting have all been put on hold. My single focus has been on my manuscript. Well, I did go to the gym almost every day. As far as I'm concerned exercise is a necessity. I think anyone around me would agree. If I don't go for a few days, I get cranky. And I sent in bills that were due.

I always have the intention of being organized. I think about stopping working and then straightening everything up, so it will be ready for the next day. Except I work until I'm bleary eyed, which means I'm also too tired to do all that straightening. And I have a high tolerance for messy papers.

I'm a big nap person, and I'll just push aside all the books, magazines, crorhet stuff and whatever else is on the couch with me and curl around all of it. Maybe getting organized is hopeless for me.

The end of the revision is in sight. Even with the time crunch, it has been intereting since it is my first time using the track markup or whatever its called. I expected to have problems with it, but I ended up liking it. There was another bonus. I have been using WorkPerfect since my firt computer in the 80s and heard that Word was icky. But I had to use Word for the revision. I discovered I like Word and think I might switch to it. I said the end was in sight for the revision, but it's not done so....back to work.