Somehow, with all the deleting and reorganizing I did, I still only managed to regain 50 GB of additional space, totaling 185 GB out of a terabyte. That didn’t make sense until I found Microsoft’s backup files. They produce two per month and apparently collect a full year of these. That’s hundreds of thousands of KB for each file and there are a lot of files. How many backup files do I really need? One, maybe two. I kept five (ten, actually, because there are two per month), back to last May and deleted the rest. Voila! another 150GB regained. If I get brave, I’ll delete another couple of months.

I ditched a lot of old files that were hanging around from when I was still working. Resumes dating back to 2006. Unlike Garry, who still occasionally works in his field, I don’t work, at least not for money. Everything I do is free, though if anyone wanted to pay me, I sure could use the money. The thing is, once you start monetizing your blog, it changes. You get advertisements from anyone who pays for the space and some of those ads are really disgusting and many are for products I would never use or advise others to use.

At least when I worked, I did something I could take pride in. Monetizing is not work. It’s just running ads to make a few pennies. I don’t know anyone who has has gained more than a few pennies by monetizing. I won’t do it. If someone wanted to pay me for what I’m good at — writing and taking pictures — that would be one fine because that’s where I know I can produce real work. But running anyone’s advertisements to make a few cents? Not me. I’m broke, but not quite broken.

Still, the beat goes on here as I try with gritted teeth to free up enough drive space and also, to get rid of applications and old programs I don’t use, but which take up a lot of space.

Why does Microsoft need a full year of bi-monthly backups? Macs only need three and with the volume of updates you get from Microsoft, you can be sure backups from a year ago won’t run. There have been I-don’t-know-how-many updates to Windows 10 this year. On the average, one each week and occasionally more.

Updates older than a month or two are unlikely to run. It’s why I don’t bother to make the “backups” they suggest. I have the original I made when I first got this computer. I’m sure it’s useless by now, but I keep it (on an external drive) out of some kind of sentimental paranoia.

Speaking of the most boring thing in the world, I had to optimize my drives. This is something Windows normally does automatically, but I’ve made so many changes on both drives I figured I wouldn’t get a clean reading if I didn’t optimize. I was very glad I had downloaded solitaire. Truly, watching your hard drive very slowly — oh SO slowly — optimize is beyond boring.

Now I have a migraine. My stomach didn’t like the curried noodles and shrimp we had for dinner. Tasted great, but my stomach didn’t agree. Just to finish off this long and very dreary day — did I mention that it’s pouring? We are in the middle of a genuine deluge — and Amazon’s delivered my granola bars. FedEx dropped them in the middle of the driveway in the pouring rain without so much as a plastic bag around them. I’m afraid to look.

I have also discovered that some applications are very hard to get rid of. Corel is one. It has tentacles and sends pieces of itself into every niche and corner of your system. You delete it as you should, but there it is on your other drive, in your interface, mixed with your photographs — and the files are huge. You remove it, but no matter how hard you try, it keeps showing up. I keep wondering if it has a life of its own and is reproducing.

If I was ever going to buy another graphics application, it would not be Corel. I use to like Corel before before they began to deluge me with requests to update. They started badgering me mere minutes after I first installed it. I also don’t like applications strangle you by inserting themselves into every area of your computer and print program I especially resent companies who never quit trying to grab a few more bucks for an upgrade that offers nothing of value. Literally, just minutes after I installed it, there ads starting popping up. Not in Chrome. Jus popping up. I think it’s part of the application, but talk about annoying. If ever I was planning to use it, their advertising made me dislike them. Pity. It’s a pretty good application, but far too annoying for me.

I hope I haven’t deleted something I’ll really miss, but everything’s online anyway, I can reinstall whatever is missing by going to its home website. I have an irrational fear everything I deleted will reinstall itself overnight. Maybe I should stay up and watch the computer.

Nah! I can do that tomorrow. Harking back to my previous choice, I’m ready to give up and wait until something breaks. Then I’ll take care of it. Until then, since it hasn’t stop raining in a whole week, maybe I could read one of the books I have promised to read.

Categories: #gallery, #Photography, Anecdote, Computers, Software, Technology

Tags: #gallery, #Photography, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, software