IF IT AIN'T BROKE ...

How many times do I have to learn what I already know? If the thing is operating, doing its job, leave it alone.

Don't study it. Don't look it up in a "How-To" book. No checking, no researching, don't even peer at the thing. Or wonder about it, or be amazed by it -- it is what it is.

Don't fix it!

My brain holds on to miscellaneous facts -- computer timing, boot speed, error messages, beeps, odd shut downs, stalled loading, too many windows opened, a light flickering, a light not flickering.

And trivia -- things techies said a year ago, two or ten years ago, experiences with remote access, turn on switches, turn off switches, upgrading, downgrading, temp files that shouldn't be there, or should be and aren't.

I can, after a computer crash or serious trouble, remember all the steps taken in remedying the trouble. It's my dancer's brain -- I somehow photograph and retain processes.

And, after the major troubles, I reconstruct what I did or didn't do that might have created the event.

Uh oh! Here comes the FAULT, the FLAW in Em's brain.

CURIOSITY. For instance, the day I wondered "What is system restore?" I remember when I first noticed that folder in one of my earlier versions of windows -- boink -- I deleted it.

Furthermore, when the folder I'm working in does not appear at the top of the list of what's in my C drive, I re-name the folder -- move it, change the name of files, move them, eliminate them -- yep -- blithely I've gone into CONFIG, EXE and INI files, and evolved different ways of organizing and ridding my computer of un-necessary temp files, and those irritating Perflib files.

What a shining clean house I would have, if I cared for my home the way I care for a computer!

Are you laughing at me? Feeling sorry for me? Do you do similar things with your favorite tools?

Playing with the operating system, customizing it --especially customizing word-processing software is ... well, it's interesting, sort of relaxing if you're careful, and don't make a boo-boo ...

Woe is me ... How many times have I learned, if it' ain't broke, don't fix it. And proceeded to fix it, and broke it...

Dr Em says it's a good thing you're so busy writing these days, that you don't have time, end of the evening, for tidying, re-organizing, checking, fixing your computy-wooty .

Do I really call my computer that? Well ... sometimes ...

Anyhow, being a blogger commentator, I've got blog lists, notes on ideas, a backup blog named "Teecherme" that I scrupulously keep up-to-date -- and QuickFinder search files so I can keep track of what I've said, or written about before, and ...

Gee, I love work and the work of my work gets me working better, faster, more creatively -- hey, "'My cup runneth over!"