The Computer Tech in Me

The  computer tech in me has long been dormant.  A memory. A different person in a distant past.  But she has recently, ie in the past 48 hours, come out of hiding and wreaked havoc.. actually worked magic… at work.

Ok Christiane, what in the world are you talking about?   Oh where do I even begin?  I’ll backtrack briefly.  In high school I had to, like so many other kids, take computer class.  But at an arts school we didn’t just learn how to type and what search terms to plug into Google to find accurate information.  Oh no no!  We were learning coding and creating web pages.  Studying 2D and 3D art and animation.  Practicing photo manipulation.  Oh, and I teamed up with another designer and the Yearbook staff to do all the graphic design for the final book.  I had friends who would take apart and rebuild their computers just for fun on a rainy afternoon and who could design you a business card in seconds.

I’ve always been tech savvy and great at following directions and solving puzzles.  I mean, I was offered a position with Apple company… I know SOMETHING about my computers.  I’m always the one in the family who can trouble shoot, upload, upgrade, install, export, backup, and when i have no idea… call tech support and have some idea of what they are talking about!  haha.

What does any of this have to do with anyway?  Well, at work we just had the floors replaced in our lobby and offices… that means all the desks had to be moved to storage… and that means that everything had to be taken off the desks… and that means the computers had to be all pulled apart and moved.  And THEN someone (me) had to put them all pack together.  Doesn’t sound all that difficult… except when your technology is getting on in years and is about as organized as rats nest.  Actually, the power cables, either cords, phone lines, and goodness knows what else reminded me of a rats nest tangled in a massive cobweb.

Yes, it was bad.  and Yes, I was tasked with untangling and reassembling all the computers and phones in the studio.  You can just see it now– there I am sitting on the floor in a pile of cables and cords and monitors and hard drives. Crawling into, under, and around desks and chairs and cabinets. And did I do it?  Oh yes I did.  I got 6 computers and phones plugged in, powered up, and online almost before anyone knew what hit them!

Ok Christiane… you are blowing this up, big time.  It’s not that hard to plug a power strip into the wall and turn it on.  Oh boy, do I wish that’s all it took.  Yes, plugging the mouse and keyboard with USB plugs into USB ports on their given devices isn’t rocked science (ok, none of this is rocket science)… but wiring a computer at 6am without coffee and hoping you are plugging that important looking… but unlabeled code, into the correct router port… can be well, stressful and intimidating.

But the short of this story is… well… that i got all the computers and phones set up and online and it was so smooth!  Ok… on the first one I did fun into some issues… but once I figured out what I was dealing with, the rest was cake.  And oh wasn’t it a precious moment when I my boss walked into the lobby and it looked like the computers had never been removed from the room.  Yes, what was a glorious moment indeed.

I love playing with technology.  Really, you can’t mess it up to much.  Something doesn’t work, try plugging it into something else.  Tome computer (usually) won’t bite you and you are (usually) much bigger then it.  Don’t show your fear and it will respect you.  LOL!!

I’m such a techie at heart… and maybe in a former life I really was a computer tech.  But for now, I’m the computer queen of the yoga studio and honestly, very proud of myself for that!

Anyway, just a story I wanted to share tonight.  I wish I had taken pictures of what I had to deal with… but just keep that rat’s nest-cobweb image in your head and thing how frustrated and overwhelmed you get when you can’t untangle a knot in your shoe string or a ball of yarn or your favorite necklace chain… and you will know what i was up against.

Share your story!  🙂

lovealways, christiane