Spend an Entire Day, Getting Nothing Done: Here's How

Yesterday was not a red-letter day for me.

I rely on one computer for most of my 'heavy' work, including graphics and web publishing. The latter doesn't take that much power, but it's easier to have everything on one unit, instead of trying to set up a network.

Easier for me, anyway.

So, early this week, an odd little bit of malware showed up on a routine scan. It seems to show up, every time my eleven-year-old son uses this thing.

"Seems to," because I don't have enough data yet to make a case. We could be looking at statistical hiccups here.

Anyway, I'm concerned and/or worried about something having gotten into the works. "Concerned" being the rational, logical, part of the process, "worried" being the emotional side that: but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, I spend quite a bit of time chasing ghosts in the machine. No luck. I still don't know where that 'Fraud.ProtectionBar' came from.

That was Wednesday. Yesterday was more of the same, plus frustration with a digital camera.

(Note to self: next time, think a little longer. Buying the rock-bottom cheapest, made-in-China model may not be the most prudent and Promethean path.)

So, after supper on Thursday, I get back to working on Wednesday evening's Sauk Centre Journal post. There's a nifty Christmas yard display up, here in Sauk Centre, involving flashing lights. I was trying to create an animated GIF file to display it.

Simple? To someone else, no doubt. To me, not so much.

About 10:30 or so, I decided that I was getting somewhere, and that it wouldn't make sense to stop 'at our moment of victory.' I glanced at the clock a short while later, and it was 2 in the morning.

Subjective time sense and objective reality aren't always on speaking terms, I've found.

Some shred of common sense allowed me to abandon what I was doing, and get some sleep. Not much: just enough to remind me that I am no longer twenty, and that I can't get away with all-nighters the way I used to.

So, best-case scenario: I write off yesterday as a learning experience.

Wondering about that schedule I was starting last week? So far, it's not working out too well.