For those who wondered, yes Logical Tips did go out twice last week thanks to a small computer failure and user error on my part. Something locked up, and rather than taking a "wait and see" attitude toward the problem (which would have been the smart thing to do), I assumed it didn’t go and just resent the ezine. My apologies. (Note to self: check your e-mail and see if you get the ezine before you resend it!)
In much less nerdy news, last weekend, in a fit of industriousness, I decided to tackle the dreaded dresser project.
A few weeks ago, at our weekend stop at to the local dump, I spotted a dresser in the free stuff pile (a.k.a. the "Colburn Mall"). I determined that although the dresser was ugly, it was actually made out of real wood instead of particleboard, presswood, or any other qualitatively questionable material. I talked James into throwing it into the back of the truck.
After we got it home, I realized that, in addition to having an incredibly hideous paint job, it also sort of smelled. So the dresser sat outside for a couple weeks to air out. Fortunately, the sun baked out the gross baby room stench, so last Saturday, I started the process of removing multiple coats of paint and grunge.
Apparently, I needed to work out some aggression or something because this project went on ALL day. Some of the time, I was thinking to myself "why am I putting so much work into a free, quasi-dilapidated dresser." (James definitely thought I was nuts.)
In the midst of sanding, I realized that when you work with computers all the time, you are faced with endless obsolescence. Documents I slaved over 10 years ago are long gone. Web sites I created months ago have changed and evolved. Most software I bought 5 years ago can’t even be loaded on my current computer anymore.
Wood furniture doesn’t generally become obsolete. It may be given to charity or even thrown away, but some enterprising individual can come along and bring it back. With some effort, you can restore a 30-year-old dresser and make it useful again.
Although there are some amusing anecdotes about people who have turned old mainframes into fish tanks and so forth, in general, a 30-year-old computer is really, truly trash. Nothing can make it useful again.
There’s something ultimately depressing about that fact, so it’s probably a good thing that I like crafts and refinishing furniture in addition to my day job.