Portable Hard Drives

Which of the above photos is my external hard drive????

I have Four External Hard drives.  2 of the little black one, 1 of the big silver one PLUS BOB my hubby. Keep this in mind.... I can't see a thing without my glasses, and need help when wearing glasses, he has 20/20 with no glasses. My memory is a thing of the past, his is excellent. I can hear a cricket chirp in the back yard, he can't hear thunder right over our heads.

Driving to the YMCA Tuesday morning I tried to tell Bob about something I saw yesterday while out and about. I could not remember where I saw it.

I said "Where did I go yesterday?"

He promptly answered, to Publix for prescriptions and the river to take photos.

I said OMW, You are my portable memory hard drive"

He said "I'm 81 and soon will not be able to get around, I will be your hard drive and you can be my walker/driver.

I replied "I can drive us to the store, you can point out where I should turn and things that I might run over. I can push you around the store, you can tell me what to put in the basket.

He said You can be my ears and I will be your eyes...

We went on for 10 minutes in that vein, until we got out of the car.

There is much more to tell you but I can't remember it.... BE Right Back, I have to go ask my Human Hard Drive what I left out of this post..... heh heh heh

Learning New Stuff

 

Yesterday I told you I de-constructed my laptop to remove the hard drive. It required 3 screw drivers and the internet on my phone to 

A. get it open  ( NINE screws open, and the big screw driver to pry it open)

B. figure out what the hard drive looked like. (a sensible person would have looked that up before she struggled with 6 screws and removed the big white square thing in top left, which when it was in my hand, turned out to be the DVD drawer, a few words later, I found a photo of the hard drive and removed 9 screws to get it out, the REAL hard drive is in the photo with the screw drivers)

It was a learning experience!

I learned to look through a drawer full of drivers to FIND THE TINY one, then another one because not all the screws were the same Philips head. It was trial by error, just try each one until it works.

See the yellow one above? See the 4 tiny magnets on it? 

I knew not that the silly thing was magnetized and the first 2 teeny screws rode on the tip and disappeared into thin air.

 No, really, they did.

disappeared into thin air, gone, never found

I learned to carefully pull each one off and put in a cup.

This is the best of all thing I learned.

I said to Bob, pointing to the 4 magnets, is that what makes this magnetized?

No, he said, pull them off and try picking up a screw!

It worked.

I got so excited he said, try the big screw driver on a screw. Nope will not pick up a screw!

Bob said, take one of the magnet and run it down the metal 3 time, the same way each time, not back and forth.

NOW the big screw driver was magnetized and would pick up metal.

He said now rub the magnet the opposite way 3 times and it demagnetized it.

He explained he stores those magnets on that little one, for easy access to magnetize all his screw drivers when/if needed.

WOW! I said, you do know I got C's and D's in Science. Why didn't they teach like this?

Please do not bust my bubble by all of you saying you knew this!

OH YES SHE DID!

 

Oh Yes I did, take more photos of the Moss Rose Saturday morning. 

Also on Saturday morning, I smashed my big Toe. All Bob's fault. When I bring groceries in, I place the  refrigerated stuff by the fridge and the rest goes in the cabinet stuff under said cabinet.

Each week he sits the cans by the fridge and the meat and cheese on the opposite side of the kitchen. Saturday morning I picked up the sack of canned goods to move to the proper place and the can fell out of the bottom and of course my big toe took a DIRECT HIT of the EDGE of the can, swelling quickly and turning blue because of the words coming out of my mouth.

Bob says, that can fell out in the car when I picked it up, I put it back and if you left it where I sat it, it would not have fallen out on our toe. NEED I SAY MORE?

Comment questions from yesterday post

Two questions above. The hard drive was not broken, I removed it to destroy it because even when wiped clean the info is still there for anyone who knows how to find it. Bob will drill holes in it to destroy the data.

We will take the computer I destroyed to the recycle place, minus the hard drive.. 

some of you may remember from a Prior Post,  the Mad Man I am Married to, just this past January,  took a hatchet to the hard drive from the old desk top...

Again! NEED I SAY MORE?

Itty Bitty Chromebook

 

I missed you guys yesterday. I took the day off because of this.

My laptop and Samsung Tablet chose to bite the dust at the same time, I bought them at the same time, 6 years ago. As they staggered along I looked at Chromebooks, that were a combo of laptop and tablet, either or.... I had the above Acer Spin 311 in my Amazon Wish list for a month.

The morning of June 21, email came with FLASH SALE, only for 48 hours.

Hi Sandra LOOK AT THIS... you can see the DEAL it was

and NOW

It lives with me and I love it! I sat it in front of the Asus to show how small it is

11.6 inches wide 294.64 mm tiny and powerful and FAST... 

Above is as laptop, below shows the icons like on a tablet. 

Best of both worlds.

I was off yesterday, reading the 32 page manual and learning my way around it. It was 5 minute set up, but I always want to KNOW what it does.

I spent 1 hour removing the hard drive from my Asus Laptop.

see below and use your imagination... I had to look up a hard drive image to figure out what to remove.

this is the mess I made.

I removed 23 screws, TINY screws needing a Tiny screw driver and

PATIENCE.. HA

I was shocked, I say I WAS SHOCKED to see all this STUFF inside

Days Off from blogging 2

 

The reason I had to go into toss it all out mode, is all the Covid-19 storage space.

My closets have always had empty spaces. 

Now there are cleaning supplies and TP.

Extra Food

Above  photo is looking down into 3 drawers, that are under the NOOK

The last photo below is the cabinet under the nook.

The problem is, that bottom shelf and 2 on the top shelf are

PHOTO Albums.

The Plan!

Empty cabinet and drawers completely.

Toss/Trash/Organize

The Problem!

Bottom shelf contains 17 photo albums. No one has looked at them in 20 years.

Wedding Pics of my first wedding. Album of all the cards and list of gifts.

1963!

We were divorced in 1980, he died in 2006, our sons do not want them.

Will I toss them?

I compromised, took 12 8x10 Wedding Photos put in envelope to save.

Through both albums in trash with all the STUFF.

Did you know old photos kinda sorta stink?

4 albums full of photos of birds and flowers, and beaches and trees, that I took on vacations with film and prints.

TOSSED! album and all.

I gave up on the rest to save for another day.

Day 2 ended with 2 closets and the cabinet below decluttered and organized.

I had so much to dump, I rolled the big Green Trash Bin right up on the front porch. 

All i had to do was open the door and toss.

I Learned a LOT.

CD/DVD can't go in the recycle, I had 2 drawers full that I tossed.

I learned that last month I broke the law by throwing an old DVD player in the green trash can.

Who knew it is illegal in Florida to throw any type of electronics in the trash. they must be taken to an E-recycle plant. 

I had 87 million cords. I had no clue what they went to or what they were for. A box full. Some I had marked and I found one that went to the HP I bought it 1997.

I have hoarded that large box of cables and cords because I was afraid I would need them but how would I know I needed it It I Don't Know What It is For?

the bed is piled with cords and computers and things I don't know what they go to.

Now I have to find a place to take them.

I forgot to mention we had WWIII, when I asked Bob to remove the hard drive from the computer and smash it.

Who Knew how difficult that could be.

First I watched a you tube video on how to identify the hard drive and how to remove it.

I pointed it out to someonewhohasnocluebutknowseverythingbetter and said just remove those 3 screws, slide it forward and lift it out.

Note! I stole that long word from Easy blog...

Cover your ears! 2 screws came out, one could not be reached!

I will skip the he said/she said War.

I kindly said, don't you think you could work better on your work bench?

(he was using the desk)

The words again!

The next thing  I hear is a pounding sound from the back yard. I go to see what he is doing and he is using a

 HATCHET!

Not the hammer side, but the sharp ,will cut your hand off kind.

The kind that was throwing steel shards into the air close to the eyes that were not covered.

Ear Burning Words were spewing with each shop!

I am sure the neighbors ears are totally burned.

He could not smash it but the video said if it is bent in 3 places that is good enough.

I begged him to stop before I had to call 911.

For Your Protection!

It is illegal in Florida and most states to put Electronics in your trash bins or to burn them.

I HAD NO IDEA

We have placed TV, Microwaves, Computer Monitors at the curb.

They disapear because people stop and take them. 

Did you know it is Illegal in Most States, and in Florida to put Electronics in the trash or burn them.

Devices include

 televisions and computer monitors,

computers, printers,

 VCRs, cell phones, telephones, radios,

and microwave ovens.

 DVD players, routers, chargers, insulated cables and wires...

cameras, camera accessories.

batteries of any kind.

they do not pick up E trash, we must find a place to take it.

But wait, there May be More...

Seagate External Drive

 

In 2006 I purchased this 268 Gig hard drive because I had hundreds of CD's jammed with photographs taken between 2002 - 2006. 

All taken with Easy Share Kodak cameras. Small point and shoot.

I put everything from the CD on this drive and in 2011 it crashed.

 I bought two externals, 500 gig each and started loading all photo from 2006 until current date on each of them, same thing on both for just in case.

I stood staring at the drawer that contains the CD's. 

I am never going to use them, the cd photos are on the above Seagate.

The best of them are on these 3 other drives.

THOUGH just popped in my head.

The Seagate at the top is only 1/4 of the storage of one of the black Seagate boxes and the tiny pink flash drive is 2 T of space. Oy Vey! what next for me to fill with nonsense

I asked myself WHY I can't toss them in the trash?

The best are on my three blogs.

CD's are deadly slow.

10 minutes to move the Pelican folder to my desktop and then delete because bad photos.

Desktop/laptop has no CD drawer, the external player is even slower than the CD

SOOOO WHY can't I toss the CD's?

Bob, Mr. sensible, stated "you don't want them, don't need them, no one else will ever look at, or want them, so throw them out.

What would you do?

To be continued ...................

Live and Learn with Sandra

you might remember my wonderful EGO external hard drive I purchased 2 years and 14 days ago.
if not see Where's My Ego  my photos are trapped forever in the little red eGo... Staples says NO, can't get them off....


Early AM I received Staples email 75 percent off for presidents day and wonder of wonder, they had a Toshiba on for half price.... I will get two, I says to myself....


I have LIVED AND LEARNED, put photos on TWO back up's not one...

Staples has ONE of said Toshiba's. I pay for two, bring one home, with a promise the other will appear in 5 days at my front door....(why do they only have one on sale day in stock)

I plug it in and immediately I hate it... I go GOOGLE which is always my first stop that I forgot to do BEFORE I bought... the reviews are horrible... and  I find that the EGO is made by Toshiba and new one will do the same thing the ego did... which is quit 14 days after the warranty went out.

I run drive back to Staples and Manager says I can return it so I purchase a little black Seagate at 26 dollars more, BUT they can't stop the order, I have to return it when I get it......I am out my money for 7 days..

MORAL IS... Back up your back up.... and if you use the CLOUD to back up, read the book Cloud Crash... a technothriller by Phil Edwards, I got it free for my KINDLE... and YIKES

THE ANSWER TO YESTERDAY POST. What is bob doing?
Our microwave lives on a shelf in the place where a dishwasher should be but is not.... He is watching his  bowl of oatmeal go round and round JUST in case it might boil over...

There is 480 gm of sodium in THREE olives.... YIKES

Thanks YOU Geeksters every where........

MadSnapper Trivia:  I love to play with photos and graphics in software programs.

This collage was created using  Microsoft Word clip- art, the top square is the clip-art I started with...I used the Snip It tool to grab it and save it in JPEG and then changed it 3 different ways in Photo Shop.

The cute little golden computer people were also found in Word Clip-Art and changed a little in Photo Shop.

Before Computers.......

1.  Memory was something that you lost with Age......

2.  An application was for employment....

3.  A program was a TV show.......

4.  A cursor used profanity...........

A mouse pad was where a mouse lived and a hard drive was a long trip on the road.

A keyboard was a piano and a web was a spiders home.

A virus was the flu and a CD was a bank account.

Author Unknown, I found these quotes on Face Book

Thank You! Thank You! Thank you! to all the techies out there that took us from a computer the size of a house to a tiny one we can hold in our hand..

the photo below is from my Friend Snapper II, since I have no smart phone and wanted to know what my blog looks like on one, he sent me a photo.... AMAZING!

Day off 3

 

One thing on the to do list was to put addresses in a new address book, the two I have are a mess. 

NOTE to self... use a pencil that can be erased this time.. 

Avoid Strikethrough

I removed things from the closet and thought to show you how creative I get with storage. This zipper bag had sheets in it. Now it protects my iron while on the shelf. the iron has been used maybe 5 times since 2006... But I have to keep it.

 I use a bag like this that had a comforter in it, to store lap throws and dog blankets. Keeps the dust off. and keeps them from falling off shelves. Up-Cycle if at all possible.

above is the E-cycle to be taken to the place that accepts electronics to be recycled. not shown is the tower and hard drive. when the computer died, the next day, the wireless keyboard/mouse died also. Just in time to be trash. 

 I found a place to take them by Google searching this sentence.... Electronic Recycle near me. 3 came up.  Note, thank you to Hootin Annie who found it is not illegal in Florida to trash these things, just strongly suggested to recycle.  thanks to further research I found a list on our city site that gives a long list of what can NOT be put in our recycle bin and I had to dig in it to remove the old glass coffee pot I tossed in it.. also found that any paper or cardboard that has had food in it is not recyclable. as in Pizza Boxes.

PS for all of you who are dying to ask what the red pillow is....

Bob had open heart By Pass surgery on Aug 23, 2007. The ICU heart unit gave hims this. It was signed by his nurses and the heart surgeon with the date of surgery.
It lives with the signatures turned down because the sun faded the ink to almost nothing.

Flower Friday with Rosy- PINK

While searching for a photo on my very old external hard drive, I saw a folder marked Flowers and Botanicals. Wow! it is full of maybe 1000's of photos, all in folders marked with names like Pink, Red, Toadstools. here is what it looks like. IN OTHER WORDS I have 11.5 Gigs of flower/botanical

SOOOOOOO! guess what this means?????
MORE Archive Diving... the folders date from 2004 to 2009 and the 2 first years were taken with my rally cheap point and shoot Kodak Easy share.

The peony's above from 2005, were brought to work by a friend and sitting on her desk, I sat them in the window to snap a shot.  My desk had this view, to the right there is a pond in which lived a large alligator. Sorry, don't know where that pic is.

Below is my early before sunrise shot of our back yard bougainvillea both taken with the Kodak. My first ever digital camera bought in Feb 2004 to take pics of our new dog Baby Girl.

Each time someone at work got flowers, I sprang into action. 

Joining Rosy on Flower Friday from my archives... I can do the rest of my life Fridays just from these old folders, Dear Rosy.

Married to a STAR

 At breakfast Tuesday morning, we started to remember all the comments Bob gets when we are out and about. His hair makes him a magnet for comments.

Since he spends most of his time outside he is tan year round. Once we came out of the Cafe on the Beach and one of the waiters was outside smoking. He looked at Bob and said "you should be on a beach postcard"

 Another time we were at church and met a young lady who was a painter. She looked at Bob and said
"I would love to paint you sometime"  (no one has EVER said that to ME)

We were walking in downtown area and a young woman dressed like a lawyer, said as she walked past us. "Cool Hair"
Standing at the deli in Walmart, a little boy of about 3, pulled on his daddy's shirt tail and said "Look, Daddy, it's Jesus"  (i said to bob, IF ONLY HE KNEW YOU)

And so many times we can't count he gets the "have you ever played Santa Claus" and our Pastors little boy said to Bob many years ago "Are you Moses?"

This is what life is like when married to a STAR..... but the only Paparazzi that follows him is ME, The MadSnapper and you can all be thankful I don't post the FOLDER of Bob Pics that is on my hard drive.

Captain Scratchy....Fun Friday

It is rare for me to post anything that is not my photo or something I created. But I saw this Nervous Dog magazine cover and laughed myself silly. Those of you owned by pets, it is a must to go to 

Captain Scratchy blog above  and his Chuckle Up....   for the cutest cards ever.

Below is something for those of you who don't have pets....

Something for you,

Something to view,

Bob and Sandra and their Vue

This is an OLD photo from 2006, we bought the Vue when I retired in 06... found the pic while transferring to new hard drive....

Back Up Your Back Up

Just when you thought you were safe....... OH NOOOOOOO!

this is my Seagate External Hard Drive, purchased ONLY to hold photos, it is about 5 years old.

today it crashed, it is 285 gigs and was more than half full, that comes to over 100 gigs of photos.

I can take it to the GEEK sqad and they CAN get the photos off, for a FEE.

The reason for the post, Back up your Back up because your back up can CRASH.

Who's On First?

Above creation to help follow this story, Names not given to protect the elderly innocent 

I am the new leader of our TOPS chapter. Our beloved leader resigned to do a lot of traveling.

This past meeting, Ex-Leader handed over the forms and paperwork with a heads up on my new job.

My name is in the minutes, I have the form to send in to Coordinator to add me in National Website.
She will email me all the spreadsheets.

EX leader calls,  her computer will not work or send the spreadsheets. She drives the flash drive to my house. (keep in mind she has driven past the bank twice to bring me the flash drive)

She leaves, Treasurer calls. "Can you meet me at the bank now?" I have checks to deposit, we can add you to the account at the same time."

The 2 of us walk in the bank. We sit at the desk of the Financial Relationship Consultant, and yes that is the real title.

Treasurer states we want to add our new leader on our account and remove the old leader.

Consultant looks at account and states we need the other 2 to sign off. Are they coming?

The answer is No. We need FOUR people and we are only TWO!

REALLY? Who Knew? brahaha…Just wait, it gets better, or worse depending on how we look at it.

loud embarrassed laughter from both of us

 No Problem. The other 2 live close by and we are shocked when both answer their cells and state they are on the way.

I have been watching the Consultant and so far she has not rolled her eyes, or sighed loudly.

Consultant says "we will set it up and have it ready to sign when they get here. I just need the minutes stating your were elected  and your ID. "

Oh NO! 

We forgot to get a copy of the minutes! I say but I have a copy of the form that I emailed to our coordinator this morning stating I am the new leader.

She replies "I can work with that  as long as I have the minutes emailed to me by Monday."

I open my folder and OH NO. IT IS HOME ON THE PRINTER. .
We are now 2 people not 4, no minutes and no form.  Insert embarrassed laughter.

I call my new Coordinator and ask her to email me a copy and she says you sent it to me, it will be in your sent. ( I just know she is thinking, THIS IS the new leader?)

I say, "I used my work email, and I only have Gmail on my phone." She forwards my email to me, I forward it to the Consultant and she prints it. Consider this.. my work email is my name, my gmail is nevermindsandra... Embarrassed laughter again.

Now there are 3 of us. Consultant prints form, says sign above your name.

I am last of the 3 to sign, I notice my last name is misspelled. She gives embarrassed laugh, states my bad  and changes it in the system.

She does not mention, the loud laughter and mad talking we were doing, while she typed from my Drivers License.  NOTE: I did bring my drivers license. 😜

Consultant states, I will print a new form, but if you like, we can use that one and attach the form that says I changed it in the system. Treasurer, who is the same Type A I am, reaches out and rips the form in half, before her mind registers we can use it.
All four of are laughing so hard, I have tears on my face.

The Laughter is LOUD, even the consultant is howling. She state she can tape it together and make a copy of it (by now she will do anything to get us out of there) Ex-leader says we don't mind signing again.
Consultant prints new form, we all sign and #4 signer, Co-leader walks in. She has heard none of above.
Consultant says Sign above the line and she signs it below the line, on something else. (more loud laughter and tears from ALL 5 of us)

I ask for two logins one for Leader one for Treasurer. NOPE! can't happen on a business account.

Consultant states both of you can use the old one, and change your password, I will test the old one before you leave.....

IT DOESN"T WORK, she tries it twice and it LOCKS the account. The one written down doesn't work. The reason being there is no capital or character and that is required.

Consultant contacts IT to unlock account and we are # TWENTY in the wait queue.

INSERT HELPLESS LAUGHTER...we laugh and giggle, IT finally answers, she changes our password.
I say to her as we stand up. I am going to sneak back in the bank and record what you say to the tellers after we leave.... MORE LOUD LAUGHTER.

We exit and Little does she know I have to go home, call the daughter of the secretary, get her to take a cell photo of the minutes and text to me, so I can email to the bank consultant.  I am afraid to tell her this because they might cancel our account.

While saying my 3rd Good bye to the EX Leader, I say, you know the flash drive your drove over to me this morning? I left it in the computer up on the screen, I say if the computer crashes...… OH Well!

 I am evidently NOT the best bird in the forest. I will keep reminding myself of this quote. At least seniors of a feather flock together... and we have TONS of FUN...

Use all the talents God gave you - for the forest would be very silent if only the best bird sang.
 Henry Van Dyke

Art is in the eye of the beholder

 

Standing in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water, I glanced down at the air drying dish drainer and realized I love the reflections of the clean glass and pots.

Just Sayin, to me this is art.

Michelle and Dan

 My son Dan and his wife Michelle, are coming Sunday for a visit. It's rare even though we are only an hour drive away. The both work 6 days a week and have a house full of pets. I don't drive on interstates and my car is a 2007. 

I will not post on Sunday or read blogs and Monday I have 8 am appt to get results from last weeks test. I will post after the visit to the doctor.

I have been playing with brushes in Procreate, not really art, just playtime, but here are he few I did no delete.

Above is a brush of a tree, its like using a stamp on paper. I created the below, using this stamp, and a bird stamp, and painted the clouds and sky and snow.

the purpose was practice making a flat stamp, as above looked more like a tree. its really hard, but fun.

these are all practices. Digital art is a mix of all medias, as in below merge a photo and draw a heart.

Jackson Sandra Pollock-ish???

I love smearing paint with the brushes.

See you Monday sometime