Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Will Be Back Soon . . . Missing You All . . .

.
.




















.
.
Just in case anyone's wondering, I haven't fallen off a cliff . . .
.
Am not going to go into details about work here, as that is not what this blog is about, this bog is the opposite of work; but work has been absolutely crazy for the past two weeks or so, and is going to stay crazy until Xmas is behind us. My job could be comparable to being one of Santa's elves. Everyone wants their presents at Christmas. The problem is, every year on this planet, there are more and more "everyones". . . and that means more and more work for Santa's elves. Sigh . . .
.
To add to the madness, I took inspiration from Steve at Bloggertropolis, and decided to finally get a new PC after years of procrastinating. The problem is, new PCs come with Windows 7, in either a 32 or 64 bit version, and Bill Gates / Microsoft have not made anything alot easier for us poor users out here with this latest version of Windows. My main beef after just a couple days of getting-started-hell is that Windows 7 does not recognize a certain number of pieces of software and hardware that worked perfectly fine with my older Windows XP. My scanner is no longer supported for example, there is no driver for it compatible with Windows 7. Guess I'm going to have to get a new scanner. My printer is the same, and didn't have a USB cable anyway, so it's obsolete now. Other software disks I had which worked cheerfully with Windows XP are now balking with Windows 7. I had to spend hours downloading and installing a new Windows 7 compatible program to support one of my cameras, and the real injury was with my internet connection from a service provided by France Telecom, the software disk which worked previously did not work now, and I had to spend time on the phone with their technical support to find a solution, which leaves me without the same e-mail configuration I had before . . . in short, you'd think they could have made it easy for us, and made everything that worked in previous versions of Windows compatible with the new one. . . but no, this is the face of "progress". And consumer-driven-capitalism, as it forces idiots like me to go out and buy new "stuff" which we can't necessarily afford . . .
.
So, work has been nuts, the PC nightmare was lengthy, and Xmas has been sneaking up on me and I've hardly prepared a bit for it. And I haven't even been out to see the re-make of Dickens' A Christmas Carol which by all reports is worth the detour. In any case, I just wanted to say to all you wonderful people out there that I have not given up on blogging, and will be around to visit just as soon as I'm able, and would like to thank each and every one of you for the fantastic several months that have just gone by in your company. What a trip this blogging business is turning out to be !
.
Happy holidays to one and all !
.
.

42 comments:

English Rider said...

Get your work behind you and enjoy your family at Christmas. Festive wishes to you.

Owen said...

Many Thanks ER, and have a great Xmas in sunny California !

Virginia said...

We await your return to us and i hope you have a blessed holiday with your family . What a dear new blog friend you've become this year. Here's to many more .
V

Deborah said...

Joyeux Noel, Owen, and I look forward to seeing more of you in the New Year.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Funny thing, the last few days we were trying out a Laptop for the first time... up to this point only used PC's... and it had Windows 7.. it was too heavy to be held in any lap for any length of time... and it kept shutting itself off.. don't know if it was the laptop, windows 7 or the nuts behind the wheel.. "took it back it was a piece of crap" .. you know that song by Neil Young ... anyway we are waiting for the fallout of windows 7 to narrow the odds...

but surely hope your troubles are solved soon... Wishing you Good tidings of Great Joy!!

Heather Ainsworth said...

Happy Holidays Owen! It's been a pleasure being blog buddies this year! Thanks for all the support! Now lets go see some music, shall we?

Amy said...

Happy Holidays Owen! I hope the season calms down just enough to enjoy and then flies right on by for you...

Marguerite said...

Mon cher Owen, Cie la vie! Relax, enjoy, and have fun! Repeat many times, then have a Joyeaux Noel!!
Love, Marguerite

Anonymous said...

I will miss you Owen but I can understand.
J'ai moi-même été extrêmement déçue par Vista (Versus XP) lorsque j'ai acheté mon PC cet été, alors je n'imagine même pas ce que doit être la nouvelle version de Windows. Je trouve que plus les versions évoluent (explorateurs ou simplement Office), moins les choses se facilitent. De plus, si cela nécessite l'achat de nouveau matériel compatible, je n'agrée pas à ce genre de révolution.
Bon courage dans ton job et bonnes fêtes de fin d'année.
Cordialement,
Marie K.

French Fancy... said...

We hate anything to do with Windoze in this house. much preferring Firefox - I run on Ubuntu. It does annoy me though how biased so many companies are - assuming that the whole world is windows compatible. I was trying to alter some mis-recorded tracks on my sony mp3 player (no, I don't have an I-player) and when I finally located the online 75 page pdf all it talked about were altering things using Winamp. Bloody ridiculous how these huge corporations just take over

Anyway - rant over - have a great Christmas Owen and may 2010 bring you only good things

Loulou said...

OMG! A pc? How possible????
Being Mac user, I still don't understand why... the price for sure! And that's big rationale for sure. What else??????

Good luck with those "everyones" all over the world. Work to be crazy is still crazy and certainly not what you were dreaming of...however may I add that some people would like to have some crazy work, at last that would mean that have some work...
On this sad note (and sorry about that sweet Owen), I wish you my dear blogger counterpart, a very fantastic POST chritsmas time with your wonderful family (say hello to them).
We will stay in Asia, we plan to go to Sri Lanka right after XMas, depending if the Santa's elfe has been working crazy enough!!! (kidding......)
Take care,
Bises
Loulou

:: Karine :: said...

un très joyeux noël owen adoré !!!!
plein de belles choses en famille pour cette fin d'année :-)
je t'envoie un bouquet de baisers

Anonymous said...

Dum spiro, spero.

A long breath and even more hope and joy for these days I'd like to wish to you.
Arriving here without any computer me wife bought me one, a local one, which however do speak Greek...in the beginning it was of much fun, but turned out to be worth while, assume it might have an alike outcome for you and your pc.
Please have a wonderful Tuesday and a Merry Christmas just alike.

joo said...

Merry Christmas Owen:)

Anonymous said...

No problem! Just have a great holiday season.
Thank goodness I haven't changed to Windows 7 yet! Thanks for the heads-up.

J said...

I think maybe microsoft have banked on the fact that vista is so urgh that people will just be grateful not to be using it. Hmmm...now thinking I should try and install my camera stuff on my windows 7 running laptop to see if it works!

Anonymous said...

Discovering the Magic Lantern near the close of 2009 was a highlight of our year.
We're holding on tightly to our Windows XP PC and hope to keep it in our clutches for years to come.
Because of everything you've gone through and millions like you.
But, 2010 is a new year and so on to brighter things.
Looking forward to the start of a new decade with your wonderful, witty, wordly insights.

William Evertson said...

Sounds about right for this time of year. Holidays are a bit of juggling chain saws; you know you can do three or four but throw a pc in there and well...

Nathalie H.D. said...

Oh dear, your description doesn't make me want to change my PC nor work as one of Santa's elves ! :-)

Keep smiling dear Owen, look after yourself and see you soon when the multiple everyones have sent/gotten their little Xmas present and leave you alone. Cheers!


Look

StyleSpy said...

Happy Holidays, Owen! Wishing you peace, joy, love... and a Mac.

Unknown said...

Good luck with everything, Owen! In turn, wish me good luck recovering from the holiday nightmares I'll be having starring that crazy clown you featured here on this post! ;)

Stickup Artist said...

We've missed you out here in Bloggerville. So sorry to hear about your computer woes, but I know you'll get it all behind you and be back up and running soon.

I want to wish you and yours the best of holidays, and to thank you for all your wit, warmth, and spirit that you spread with such good cheer in any season!

To be continued next year...

Plum' said...

Bonsoir Owen,
Un petit coucou très bref, tu as dû lire ici ou là mes problèmes de vision. Dès que le Père Noël m'aura offert de yeux tout neufs, je reviendrai avec plaisir visionner ma lanterne magique préférée :)
Je te souhaite de très belles fêtes, à toi et ta petite famille.
A bientôt,
K'line

Steve said...

Have a wonderful CHristmas, Owen - sorry Windows 7 has been causing you trouble. I have to say it's been trouble free for me so far (touch wood)!

Cildemer said...

We live in a crazy world! Tout est bon pour nous faire cracher au bassinet!
Have a nice holiday and merry Xmas to you and your family.

CiCi said...

Can't offer any advice or expertise on Windows, I have a mac. Good luck getting the new computer where you want it to be.

Nevine Sultan said...

Have a wonderful holiday season, Owen. I would've suggested you go with a Mac, but we can't cry over spilled milk, now. I'm sure you'll figure things out. In the meantime, best wishes to you and yours. And may the new year dance in with a big smile for you! Happy Holidays!

Nevine

jeff said...

Hi cher ami !
Je passe par ici pour t'adresser toutes mes amitiés et mes voeux sincères de bonheur...!
Picole pas trop l'ami... moi aussi, je sais... merci ! ! !

Passe de bonnes fêtes de Noël Owen !...

Jeff...:-)

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!! Enjoy the whole shebang!! That's one reason to have holidays--to break up our daily routine and shake out the cobwebs in the fancy tablecloth and napkins. Wishing you and yours much joy in the new year.--Annie

Lynne with an e said...

I send you a big hug like the wrapping around the Quebec trees.

Roxana said...

oh no - i hate when computers don't work and all this technical hell - i am stubbornly sticking to my XP because i know what i have to expect :-(
i hope you can find solutions for all the software soon enough so that you can relax for Christmas and afterwards, forget work and instead enjoy the most magical New Year's magic lantern show! :-)

a lot of warm hugs and my dreamiest wishes :-)
(for you and the lovely Ms. Grenouille)

clo said...

coucou Owen...
ne t'inquietes de rien ....nous t'attendrons patiement...c'est pas une machine qui va avoir le dessus ...
je passais donc par là pour t'adresser mes voeux les plus doux a toi et ta petite famille..passes un beau noel...c'est un joli moment...
et finis bien cette année...
je t'embrasse cher owen et je te remercie pour tous ces bons moments que nous avons echangé....2010 sera beautiful ...alors ça ira...
bises Owen....

Sar@h said...

Think different … Take a Mac !

Une note et ses conséquences. Mot du jour : esturgeon … nous parlons caviar, élève de CM2 raconte en avoir goûté chez Patrick Jeffroy, élève de CE2 explique qu'elle y déjeune dimanche. Maîtresse raconte qu'elle a vu des marque-pages sur un blog.

Elève de CE2 revient le lundi avec un marque-page pour chacun. Maîtresse a donc un magnifique lever de soleil sur le château du taureau !
Ou Noël avant l'heure …
Merci braz !

Merry Christmas

LR Photography said...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family. Enjoy the season!

The Sagittarian said...

Cheers, ears. See you soon. xx

@eloh said...

Change, I hate change. If I had my way my life would revolve around the care of a pair of mules.

A new address, well too bad, I as gonna send out small hams for Christmas... that's what spam is right?

Merry Christmas Owen and to your lovely family.

babbler said...

We are on the precipice of Christmas! Yay! Wheeee! All of us Sluggies here at Slugs Rest want to wish you the happiest and most comfortable spot to rest your Christmas Bellies! Thanks for 'splainin' your busy holiday, I know you will get a chance to come by and catch up on all of the excitement here in Oregon when you are able to catch your breath, we'll leave the light on for ya, as we do for all of our moth and batty friends who fly through the night and slide in the day! Merry Christmas from Mr. and Mrs. Slug, Mr. Lunchbox, Mr. Canopener, Mr. LunchBAG, Batty, Squirrely, and all of your friends! Here comes Santa! Sliding down Santa Claus lane! Yipppeeee!

Anonymous said...

A blessed Christmas for all of you.

Lena said...

Happy holidays to you, Owen!
May all of your PC problems be solved by the time you come back to the blogosphere!!

Warmest hugs!

Rhiannon said...

Merry Christmas to you too Owen! And hope for a better year of "peace and love"...I've posted a John and Yoko video of John talking about war and things he says in it still ring so true! Then the video has the song "Happy Christmas war is over"...hope you'll drop by.

I tried a few times to post a comment a while back and I got hacked! Darn!

I know what you mean about all the news pc stuff. I got a new laptop and it's "vista" was confusing at first but now not too bad..and I found a wev site to download to make my scanner compatible for it..hope you get the new "kinks' worked out with your new pc..."the more choices we have the more confusing life get"...ain't it the truth! Yep!

Love and Blessings,

Rhi

Owen said...

To Each and Every Wonderful One of You...

Just want you to know I've read with enormous pleasure all of your kind and thoughtful comments here... and you've overwhelmed me with your warmth... thank you from way down deep in the bottom of my heart, can't tell you how much I appreciate your complany on the blogging trail...

Lot's of love and best wishes for all good things in 2010 ! ! !

Marie K. said...

Nous aussi Owen, on apprécie. Sois en assuré.