Ulysses' boat has sailed into the harbor

Jan is back home from the "We-Fix-Macs" store.  In the past month, he has had his memory card and hard drive replaced and had a battery problem discovered (which resulted in having to replace the "new" but defective battery with the old and incapable of holding a charge of more than 15 minutes) and the power outlet realigned.  I haven't gotten a new keyboard, but since I went through three of those in the first eighteen months I owned him (the letters kept wearing off) I was hoping we are past that little hardware problem.

The system will not load properly: this weekend I will undertake a complete reformatting and reloading of the disk to see if we can't get this straightened out.  My job search folders are not easily accessible (make that at all), and vitals such as the latest versions of Quicktime and Adobe Reader won't run.  The Quicktime would not matter except that it is necessary to run iTunes.  No iTunes, no music.  Or at least music I can choose.  Pandora's great, but is not the same as having one's playlists at one's command.

System preferences won't pop up, which makes issues such as security and creating additional users impossible (not to mention little things like sound and display settings).  It is frustrating, to say the least.

On the other hand, I know have a computer I can sit and type at which is located at my proper level, so I don't have to perch on an uncomfortable (to me) bar stool or reach up to type.  Not to mention having to fight for access: while I am the metaphorical 500 lb gorilla, the 150 lb chimpanzees can make my life miserable, even if they can't actually kick me off the computer except for schoolwork. ("Are you done yet, Mom?" "Are you going to be done soon, Mom?" "Can I just check my Facebook to see if Wendy is on, Mom?" and so on ad nauseum. And I am sure they're not very happy about it either.)

I have net access.  I have Office.  I can cope.

There is something freeing about my laptop which I never fully appreciated until I lost use of it.  Being online has become a large part of my social network, my communication style, and most significantly to me, my source of self-expression and in some ways self-identity. While not having a laptop does not make any of those things less true, it does make all of them more difficult to deal with.

I blog, therefore I am.  Sadly.  I am very uncomfortable with the ways in which so much of my interaction is electronic these days: does it indicate increasing isolation on my part, or is it everyone else, too?

Is it a sign that I am too much in love with the sound of my own voice, metaphorically, or a sign that I feel stifled and unable to hear myself elsewhere?

Solipsistic? or Silenced?

It's hard for me to tell.  I may need to ask other people.  Probably my Facebook friends....