Barbara J. Hamby

Computer Crazy

When I first brought home this new desktop months ago, I went into a frenzy of transferring files. Eventually, my brain switched into overload mode, and I took a long hiatus from those activities.

A couple of days ago I was looking for a memoir story I remembered writing, but didn’t find anywhere on this computer. So I went back to the laptop and found it there. While I was putting it on a CD to bring to this desktop, I added six or eight other folders full of files. I guess I’ll have to do the tedious task of comparing indexes so that I can add only the missing files and not duplicate many others. I don’t know which is more time consuming, comparing indexes or answering prompts if I try to save duplicates.

When and if I ever finish transferring the text files, I’ll need to get back to the pictures. There are still a lot of digital shots to be moved from the camera into the computer, as well as many that are on the laptop and not here. I suppose it’s not necessary to have everything together, but you never know when an elderly computer (I guess that’s over age five these days) may go belly up.

Now I have numerous CD’s and DVD’s with assorted batches of files on them that can serve as additional backups in case of a crash. I don’t always remember to backup in a timely way, so it’s good to have extras. I also have a flash drive with a lot of files on it, but I’m not very proficient at using it.

Today I watched a public broadcasting program about the human brain. Recent research, they report, tells that regular aerobic exercise can be more important to preventing aging in the brain than doing repetitive mental tasks. In addition, learning new skills helps an elderly brain considerably more than continuing to do the things we already do well.

I’m hopeful that the many challenges the computer age has thrown at me in my dotage will keep my brain alert and active. Perhaps I’ll even give up on compulsively working the Jumble puzzle every day.