I Have a New Baby at Home

After almost three years of working exclusively on a laptop to the detriment of both my eyesight and my posture I have decided to expand the family.



Meet my new baby, a double wide, super charged, 24" supersized window into my world.

Notice the comparison to my now dwarfed laptop (please forgive the gross fingerprints on the screen ). Now don't get me wrong, I still love my Sony and it has served me very well but it has seriously messed up my eyesight and has caused all of my back muscled to atrophy due to what I call "laptop fatigue". This occurs after years of sitting every day with your laptop on your lap with your body reclined in a cushy office chair and your feet up on your desk. Not the position one should spend 99% of their waking hours in. The extent of my muscle damage and fatigue are making themselves known by the shooting pains I am experiencing from trying to sit upright for the first time in years at the new screen. Hopefully the damage isn't permanent and I will be able to hold my head up on my own again soon! If not, it's a full body brace for me....

I'm in love with the new baby and we are bonding quite nicely. Check out the great picture on this thing! I feel like my eyes are ten years younger. Of course I still can't see the screen without my glasses. The new PC is a total pain in the butt though as it is Windows Vista - now I know what all of the complaining has been about. Why did they screw up the good thing they had going with Windows XP? It seems like it takes twice as long to do or find anything. I'm sure I will eventually get the hang of it but there are only so many new tricks that this old dog can learn.

In the meantime I can still go back to the old system on the laptop as soon as I get it repaired. Remeber that missing screw I mentioned when I posted about replacing my laptop keyboard? Well one of the reasons I had to spring for a new PC is because that loose screw is fouling up the laptop and I have to send it in for repairs. That little do it yourself project ended up costing my about $1000. So much for saving a buck!!!

Here is my new screen saver - one of my new fabric patterns called birds & branches ( great name huh?)
UPDATE -

In a world that is often times devoid of personal service and lacking in corporate accountability I was AMAZED at this email I received today.


Hi Jackie-
My name is Jeff and I work with the Windows Outreach Team. Sorry to hear that your experience with Vista hasn’t been what you had hoped for. I’m not sure if these tips will fix your specific problems, but nonetheless they should help speed up your computer a bit.
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/83ec0ffe-ee04-4d53-8b87-25d1f05c954e1033.mspx
Cheers,
Jeff
Windows Outreach Team


Well my new friend Jeff let me just say that in my few years on this earth and as an author who writes books teaching design professionals how they should provide exemplary customer service to their clients I am blown away by your quick and helpful response. I posted this blog entry last night around midnight west coast time and I received your email sometime between then and 10 am this morning. You were hard at work trying to solve my problem even while I was sleeping!

Now I am new to Vista but I am a die hard PC user (yes, I originally was a MAC but I jumped ship years ago) I am sure that most of the difficulty that I am encountering can be put down to user error and a learning curve. But how splendid to know that Bill Gates is monitoring his web hits regarding potential problems and sending helpful employees like Jeff to solve our problems and put our minds at ease.

My husband is a militant MAC head and thinks my loyalty to the PC is insane, but is Steve Jobs up late at night sending out helpful emails like this - I think not!

Thank you Jeff for your helpful tips and encouragement. I will think of you immediately next time I have a problem - Facebook me!