It can be a little annoying when my younger brother shows up ahead of the 9:00 p.m. cutoff that I have for him which he knows nothing about.
He goes out drinking every afternoon; so if he is not home by mid-evening, I will have nothing to do with him where T.V.-watching is concerned. I am the sole operator of our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, so he must find alternate entertainment on T.V. if he is late showing up, because I refuse to risk the strength of his hold on consciousness by tuning in an episode of any of the T.V. shows we follow.
If I do risk him and he passes out, then I must re-watch the infernal episode with him once he is sober, and this has been my lot far, far too many times. I won't take the chance anymore; if he is not home early, I see to it that I get to bed early instead of sitting up late into the midnight hour trying to entertain him with our T.V. shows.
Fearing the quality of his state last evening, I decided to tune in a movie that I figured ought to help him keep his attention alive ─ I selected the 2017 movie Thor: Ragnarok.
I had heard enough about it to expect that it was somewhat comedic, and I was not in the least disappointed ─ even if my brother was too alcoholically obtuse to catch any of the humour.
Chris Hemsworth seemed exceptionally brawny ─ I was most impressed by the young man. Cate Blanchett looked believably malevolent; and despite being in her late 40s, her physique was undeniably magnificent.
All of the characters were well acted, and I found myself quite stirred at times in an inspirational sense ─ I am the sort of person who is uplifted by such shows. They make me wish that I was a far better man than I am or ever will likely be, now that I have achieved 70 years.
Granted, the feats the main characters achieved were Superman-like in the near invulnerability of the performers, so often these superbeings would not have felt any sense of risk like puny you or I would. But it was all still uproarious great fun to watch.
As a result of not getting to bed until late into the midnight hour, there would be no likelihood that I would be rising early this morning. If fact, I took a melatonin tablet to try and do my best to sleep in for as long as I was capable of doing.
However, my sleep overnight was still fractured; and by 7:00 a.m. I no longer felt able to sleep any more. And so I rose, despite still feeling rather short on sleep.
While I was seated here at my computer, at 7:50 a.m. I was startled by the arrival of a text on my iPhone 5. It proved to be from Sandy, the longtime lady friend of Bill, who is a very old and infirm friend of mine. For some reason, she sent me her photo ─ perhaps just to jog me and keep her in mind, for she loves to chat but I rarely telephone her:
The image's metadata says that the photo was taken early in the afternoon of Christmas Day.
When she texted, I was heavily involved in research. I was wrestling with whether to take the dare and try to upgrade my old computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
My machine is probably over a decade old, and it has gotten to the point where I do not turn it off anymore. When it grows cold upon being shut down, then once I turn it back on, it almost always freezes while loading. This requires me to force it to turn off and start the process all over again ─ but it can still freeze, and do so several more times.
As a result, all I have been doing in recent months is just restart it every day or so instead of shutting it down.
If my computer was to die, I am too far deep in debt to be able to afford a new one. Was it worth the risk of upgrading, then?
Well, first off I went through my computer and deleted absolutely every programme and other download that I never use. This included all kinds of .pdf documents, many of which I paid for.
And just how serious was I about this housecleaning?
And just how serious was I about this housecleaning?
When I ran CCleaner to permanently empty the mass of stuff in my Recycle Bin, and to perform its other cleaning feats, it claimed that I would be ridding my computer of ... Are you ready for this? ... 6.576 gigabytes!
That left me with 778 gigabytes of free disk space ─ my computer's capacity is apparently 918 gigabytes.
A few of its other specifications are that it is Intel Core 13; CPU 550 @3.20 GHz; 8.0 gigabytes RAM; and with Intel HD Graphics. Also, 64 bit SP1.
I'm no gamer, so when I first got my machine a decade and more ago, it was a darned sharp machine for the tasks that I use it for.
My research left me feeling encouraged that ─ despite my problems with the machine freezing when it is shut down, allowed to grow cold, and is then later restarted ─ it seemed to be in pretty good shape for the Windows 10 upgrade.
And so after checking out this January 7 YouTube video titled How To... Upgrade to Windows 10 for free!, and reviewing the following two articles, I felt able to follow the steps I needed to in order to have a successful outcome:
- DavesComputerTips.com (January 2): Upgrade Windows 7 To Windows 10 For Free NOW!
- CNET.com (January 27): Actually, it's not too late to download the free Windows 10 upgrade. Here's how
Yes, it took several hours, but that was also due to watching T.V. at 10:00 a.m. with my brother ─ I was no longer more or less hovering over developments at my computer.
When I finally did come here to take a look, I had a fully installed Windows 10 version that did not cost me a thing.
To say the least, I am feeling rather good about myself today!
However, I don't think I'll risk shutting down. I will continue with the daily restarts instead.
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