Windows irrit8

Recently I had to get a new computer, and this meant I moved on to Windows 8.  It also meant I got the latest version of Word also, where before I had lived quite happily with the 2003 version.  It happens to us all, I know, and I am getting along quite well with Word.  Though sometimes I have to poke and prod the keyboard to find a function I found with ease before.  But Windows 8 was another matter.  I hoped to make the transition to an app-based system more easy by choosing a touch-screen option, and I still like this.  I believe I made a good choice there.  However, some of the aspects of Windows 8 became very irritating.
I think someone had had the bright idea that they could make stuff cleaner and simpler, so some of the apps overlaying the basic application did not have the same functionality.  The main one that was guaranteed to drive me mad was Mail.
Oh so easy, just press MAIL and your mail accounts are all together on one button, laid out in simple format.  The most basic functions were on a couple of obvious buttons - New and Send, Attach, Bin - but where was Forward?  Oh there it is - select Reply and another of the options is Forward.  But forwarding something isn't replying to it, or am I obtuse?  At one point I wanted to add another folder to save some new emails.  The original version of the mail app didn't offer this choice!  Yes, I know I could go into BT Yahoo and do it there, and then 'sync' the mail app.  But surely that's not the point of having an app that supposed to make things easy for you.  They have now added more functionality to the app, proving that you can oversimplify.
The other bugbear was the touchscreen keyboard.  That would have been fine if you only called it up by touching the icon on the bottom bar, but no, they designed it so that if you tapped the screen it popped up.  I would be merrily writing using my normal keyboard, touch the screen to scroll up the page of text, and the touchscreen keyboard would pop up.  Sometimes even putting my finger near the screen popped it up.  I was cursing and swearing as this eager keyboard kept offering up its services to me.  Finally, by searching online, I found a way of suppressing the little blighter.  Boy did I feel triumphant in curbing its profligate ways.
I think I have conquered Windows 8 pretty much, though even now, if I put my finger on the touchpad (I don't use a mouse) too close to the righthand edge, the Windows 8 sidebar slides in.  So I have to tap the screen to let it know I don't want its services.  All these things are a bit like an over-eager butler who slides into the room every time you cough, only to be told his services are not required.  But a butler learns - these applications don't.  Ah well.

Backing up

The weather is hot now, and I'm sweating.  Though the cause of my excessive perspiration is not only to do with the current heatwave.  Last Saturday night  put my computer into hibernation mode, and on Sunday morning  pressed the power button to no effect.  My computer had gone into permanent hibernation - more like a coma really.  I began to sweat when I realised my lackadaisical attitude to backing up my work had come back to bite me.  How long was it since I did a back-up?  Maybe two weeks in all, I thought.  Fortunately (in one sense), I had not done a lot of work on my books in those two weeks as we are in the midst of updating our kitchen.  However, there was a significant amount of work that could be lost.  I do make hand-written notes of what I have done, so that I can look back to where I am with the storyline, but the actual text might be inaccessible.  Well, it was inaccessible inside my non-functioning computer.
I did have a diversion to take my mind off all that possibly lost work on Sunday.  In Hastings, the Guinness world record for the number of 'pirates' all in one place was comprehensively beaten with a total of 14, 231 pirates on Pelham Beach.  And I was one of those pirates.

Pirate Day in Hastings is a remarkable and fun day.  Come along yourself next year, and dress up as a pirate!
On Monday morning, I took my computer down to the repair shop, and had a day of nail-biting worry, until I was told everything was OK, and the laptop was up and running again.  I now have resolved to back-up my work every evening.