Apple Made Me A Little "On This Day" Film...

Everyday for the past nine, almost ten years, I've sat down with my computer and picked out a photo to post on social media. Tonight, my phone informed me that something happened three years ago today and my phone assumed I would like to see what happened three years ago today.

My phone was right.

I am constantly amazed how incredible the world is in which we live. Especially technology. I know, I know...it's going to one day rise up and destroy us all, but until then, I can't help but be amazed.

The phone showed me a pictures of what happened three years ago. It took a bit, but I finally recognized the photos and videos. On August 18th, 2017 my son and I went to a party thrown by Tobin's Elite Academy of Martial Arts. It was a carnival for the parents and students of the academy. Truth be told, it was a little corny, but also cool.

My son took part in the outside games, then went inside where he practiced his Jedi skills on a balance beam. He did defeat a very young girl, as well as took flight from other opponents. My phone compiled the pictures and videos I took on that day and created a nice memento that I'm now sharing with the world. The phone-created video came with several soundtracks that I could choose, everything from sentimental to dreamy to epic. I went with the default.

I guess we're just supposed to accept all this cool stuff that comes our way, like humans have always had phones that can not only remember what you recorded years ago, but create a video presentation as a reminder--like it's always been this way. No...we live in amazing times.

Waking Up To A Dark Morning...Computer-Wise

This morning I casually opened up my laptop, and...

Nothing.

No lighted screen,

No lighted keyboard,

Nothing.

I use my laptop, as do millions--possibly billions--of people everyday. It's like flipping on the light switch when you enter a room. The fact that lights go on is as normal as breathing. We're so used to it that when the power goes out, you still hit the light switch and expect illumination.

This morning, I expected the Mac to obey my command and fire up. But it didn't. I pushed the Power button several times. Nothing. That's when mild panic set in. This proves I rely too much on technology. I mean, my computer's like my right arm. I need it for this blog, for my writing, for my work with FanX, to post my daily picture...so many things. You hear about computers dying all the time. But all my Macs have been phenomenal--my most recent included. The fact that it didn't start up this morning was as foreign to me as walking into a room and hitting the switch in a home without power.

After it was obvious I couldn't get it started, I logged onto my iPad and scheduled a time to take my laptop to the Apple Store in the afternoon. I tried to figure out what I'd have to do to accomplish all my daily computer duties without my laptop.

Then, I thought I ought to contact Apple Customer Service. I know with PCs, there are tricks to re-start a computer. I thought maybe it's the same with Macs.

Turns out, there is.

The Apple Customer Service was fantastic at helping me re-start my laptop. I pushed--at the same time--the Shift/Control/Alt/Power buttons for ten seconds. That did the trick. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

One day--could be tomorrow, could be in ten years--the computer will die. It's the way of things. I hope if/when it does happen, I'll be more prepared than I was today.

Deleting Stuff...Not So Easy To Do Sometimes

Modern technology is simply amazing, but few talk about the ugly side, the side that's especially bad for a hoarder. I admit that I have a problem, and it has to do with taking digital pictures.

It's not something I'm proud of, but I've learned to live with it.

Then again, maybe I'm just living a lie.

I take a lot of pictures. Of course, not as many as a professional photographer might take. But I'm not making money with my pictures--it's just for fun and to chronicle my life. The ugly side comes when my half a terabyte of laptop memory is all used up and I've got to start deleting.

In the above picture, I took a computer screen shot of what I saw when I selected a large amount of pictures to delete. I picked a date almost two years ago and decided to delete all photos and videos before that date. We were just about to embark on a fantastic vacation to California to see family. I highlighted all the photos I had taken before October 20, 2013 and it turned out to be 10,962 pictures and videos.

I couldn't believe it!

I did not permanently delete them. I've backed them up on several hard drives so I'm not worried about losing them forever. I liked having all those pictures on my computer so I could just pull them up any time and check them out, or use them in blog posts. The problem was, I hardly ever did that and my laptop computer was full. Time to clean house.

I thought it would be easy to drag all 10,962 photos and videos to the trash icon then delete them. It didn't turn out that way. After a couple of hours of trying, I shut down my computer then deleted a more manageable number, like 3,000. That eventually worked out.

So, have I learned my lesson? I doubt it. The future will only bring advancements in both digital photoraphy and data storage options. All this will only enable me to hoard more photos. Everything will be fine, until I'll need to do this all again.