I'm back

I got Satya back the next day with everything intact. It was an odd thing that happened - a CD I had put in her drive did not show up on the desktop and when I tried to eject, it would not budge. I restarted and was met with a frightening, white screen and no little apple indicating that Satya was booting up. To cut a long story short, the people at the mac place opened up Satya, got the CD out and Sat was working again. What a relief!

But ... I still decided to take a few days away from internet on the whole and it was good. Didn't go on at all. Spent time being quiet, spent time in nature, spent time tuning in. Would still not have been on were it not for clients sending e-mails which I needed to look at.

Rainbow seen on drive back from La Vega with Gab the other day.

Until further notice ... use telepathy

My footsteps, Toco
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Dear All,

I will be taking a break from technology for an indefinite period of time. Satya, my laptop, is currently being diagnosed (an unexpected ailment). Thankfully her hard drive is intact but the exact nature of the problem is not yet clear. Please send her good vibes as the experts examine and work on her.

In her absence I don't think I will be going to internet cafes, etc. to update my blog, check e-mail, etc. I've already told my clients and my friends who e-mail me regularly that if they need me they should call me or use telepathy.

With my home phone also not working and TSTT nowhere in sight, my only form of man-made communication is the cellular phone. And even that ... lately some people are calling and not getting through - and when they leave voice mail messages, I am getting them a day or two later, if at all. So, unless you are telepathic, reaching me may not be as easy as it usually is.

I see this as the Universe's way of telling me to not depend on man-made forms of communication for now and to use the time to tune in more deeply and regularly to communication with my Self and the Divine. This must all be a part of the Universe's 2008 plan to get me to trust it more.

While I enjoy blogging daily and will miss it, being without technology can be freeing and enlightening. It is interesting to note what we focus on, return to and rediscover when we go 'back to nature'.

Not sure exactly when I will be back but I will be.

Take care and enjoy your experiences.

Elspeth

Still getting with it

Another learning curve may be on its way ...

This morning I turned on my keyboard (which I bought in 1998) to finish up a scoring job due tomorrow. Thank goodness I had already composed the theme song (the most important part) and sent it to their editor ... so he has that. Because when I turned on the keyboard this morning, the LCD screen just glowed orange and had no information on it. The battery is dying ...

Perhaps it is already dead. I can't do anything with that keyboard today.

I will see tomorrow if I can get a new battery somewhere. I hope so!

So far in the past two - three months, my 3 year old video camera conked out (upgraded to a new one), my cellular phone (got a new one) and now keyboard. Something is telling me that:
(i) it's time to shift gears with the music, upgrade and start using different applications
(ii) I also need to examine the non-technological aspects of life and see what old, habitual or comfort-zonish things need to be changed and replaced by the new

Getting with it

Old and new
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The other day I finally decided it was time to do something about my malfunctioning cellular phone which I had bought since early 2004. Over the past few months it was either always cutting off in mid conversation or there would be a strange noise and the message "Insert SIM" would pop up out of the blue and refuse to go away unless I dropped the phone on the floor, banged it against something or fiddled for ten minutes with the clasp for the SIM card, which was becoming progressively loose. Despite all of this I had never bothered to get a new phone ... until (recently) it started getting on my nerves as the problem worsened.

I set out to the Mall, intending to buy a new phone, when I showed my oldie to a man in a bMobile kiosk in the Mall, he told me I didn't have to buy a whole new phone. I could just get this one fixed. To cut a long conversation short, I ended up going to the relocated TSTT service centre (in the mall) to see if they could fix it.

The first person I encountered when I went in was a girl who used to go to school with me at SAGHS. After we exchanged hellos, I showed her my phone and said: "Can I get this fixed here?"

She looked at my phone and then at me with a mix of genuine horror and disbelief. "Oh gosh, Elspeth! Get with it! Move with the times!" She gestured to the sleek new phones in a nearby glass case and added that they don't fix phones there.

Holding my chunky, battered, light blue dinosaur in my hand I glanced at the three-figure prices and told her I wasn't going to pay a few thousand dollars for a phone when all I do with my cel is send and receive calls or texts. I don't need to check e-mails, take photos or download music with it.

The cheapest phone they had was the slim black $299 Samsung, which I ended up buying. The functions are different and I am slowly getting used to them. It's good to break out of the comfort zone of what we know/know how to do/know how to use and experience a learning curve ... even for something as simple as a phone.