Patience, Please…

To be fair, most of my recent technical troubles have had nothing to do with Windows 10. This message from the W10 update sums it up rather well, though!

My own birthday present to myself for my 60th recently – accomplished with the practical help of my brother (three weekends ago) – was a more or less complete “audiovisual makeover” in my living room, including new (smart) TV, new receiver, new speakers, new Bluray player + some rearranging of furniture because the new TV is wider. I paid for the equipment as such, but he helped me choose, purchase, transport and install - and took the old stuff away to recycling.

    

Moreover, my scanner/printer in the study had been indicating lately (rather loudly) that it had in mind to retire from its duties a.s.a.p. So after having installed the audiovisual system (which my brother had bought beforehand and brought with him), we also went out to get a new printer – which then took more or less the rest of the evening to install, because it insisted on searching for a (seemingly) never-ending number of updates before it declared itself satisfied. (Since then it has been working fine, though.)

Per had to go back home again the next day, and there I was with half a dozen new appliances, almost as many remote controls, and about a ton of manuals, instructions and technical specifications etc (not my favourite kind of reading) …

… and, as of that same weekend, a mysteriously sagging and unreliable wireless internet connection to rule them all…

While trying to work out what was what, most of the time I’ve been getting by with a lot of “turning it off and turning it on again”, though. “It” usually being the router, but sometimes also the TV or phone or whatever.

Somewhere in between, I managed the Windows 10 update on the computer (not sure where I got the courage from).

At the beginning of this week, my main suspects were pretty much narrowed down to two: the router, and/or the broadband itself.

I found out there was a firmware update available online for the router, which might possibly be helpful – and at least worth trying before rushing out and buying a new one of those as well, without knowing if that would solve anything. But before I got round to downloading and trying that update, this Wednesday I lost touch with the internet completely – which gave me reason to call my broadband support.

I’m still not sure exactly what the problem was, but the support guy managed some magic tweaks at his end, and voilà (but not until after a long restart of course) I was back on satisfactory broadband speed.

The breakdown happened, by the way, while I was trying to do my first order in a new online ordering system just introduced by my supermarket… (I’ve been able to order food online from there since last autumn, but they just switched to a new system.) So of course I lost that order and had to start over again when I got the internet back… And then I had to call the supermarket’s online support as well, before I got it to go through (because of unclear instructions).

So that pretty much took the whole day.

The next day (Thursday) I was able to download and install the router update and reconfigure the router settings. Even if there are step-by-step instructions, I find the terminology of all the various outlets and cords and settings etc very confusing (and not always improved by translations…) – so that took me more or less a whole day as well (or at least that’s how I felt).

Not until yesterday did I get round to trying to figure out how to deal with pictures in Windows 10. I’m not really “done” with that yet… (mutter, grumble)… On the whole, my computer seems happy with Windows 10 (it seems to run smoother somehow). But as for finding my way within it…

Ah well. If only the internet stays up, I guess I’ll figure it out eventually…

Just a few more tweaks, perhaps??

Lots of Love

Lots of Love “blowing in the wind” at the recent street art festival. On bridge railings, and in the trees.

Linking to

Good Fences & Friday My Town (open theme)

Going Fishing

Artwork by Joe Iurato for the NoLimit Street Art Festival. Well at least he had a roof over his head to protect him from the rain when he did this one (located under a bridge)…

The octopus on the wall behind was painted last year, I don’t remember by whom.

Linking to Our World Tuesday & Ruby Tuesday Too

Mosaic Monday

Today has been mostly about waiting patiently (and rather nervously, because of some recent glitches in the internet connction). The upgrade to Windows 10 took about 5½ hours, but seems to have been successful.

I took the precaution of leaving my other “smart” devices OFF in the meantime, and especially the new TV, as I kind of suspect that the router may have got a bit bewildered by that recent addition to the digital equipment. Anyway, giving the computer priority while doing the dreaded update seems to have been appreciated, as the process was at least not interrupted by any breaks in the basic internet connection. Phew!

This gorilla is a kind of mosaic in itself – made from pieces of cardboard boxes by artist Laurence Vallières.

It was created in the Orangery in the town park (above) during the street art festival, but afterwards moved to a new home in the large entrance hall of the Textile Fashion Center (below).

In the background the colourful entrance to the Textile Museum – also a kind of patchwork (textile) mosaic.

In spite of the lack of greenery just nearby, the gorilla does not seem too displeased with its new surroundings.

Linking to Mosaic Monday & Through My Lens

Shadow Shot Sunday

♫ The wheels on the bikes go round and round… ♫

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Spirals

‘Spiral’ is the theme for Friday My Town Shoot Out this week. Today is Saturday, so I’m a little late… But here are some spirals I found on my walk into town today:

“Tornado” sculpture at the railway station.

Mannequin (or whatever) in a shop window.

Spiral staircase (and its shadow reflection).
(Photo converted into black & white as it was very nearly b&w anyway.)

David Zinn’s dragon still hanging on.

And – a new thought for me, because of being on the lookout specifically for spirals this time: Maybe last year’s mural by Kobra was partially inspir(al)ed by the yellow Declination sculpture by Tony Cragg? It struck me particularly when I took the photo from the angle below (the painting continues around the corner of the building).

Friday My Town – Spiral

Good Fences

Just a garden I happened to pass by today. By putting up a fence they’d created a nice private area to sit and have their coffee or whatever. But by putting the barrow full of flowers outside the fence they also offered a nice view for passers-by.

Linking to Good Fences

Blue Eagle (Outdoor Wednesday)

The House of Knowledge sculpture by Jaume Plensa (at Textile Fashion Center, Borås since 2014) has got a new companion across the street to talk to now – an eagle painted this past weekend by street artist DALeast.

Outdoor Wednesday

Hang On

There’s been so much going on this past week that I’ve really had no time (or energy) left to catch up with blogging. Street art festival in town; more belated birthday celebrations, including a major technical home makeover this weekend (new TV and audio system and on top of that a new printer/scanner); and in the midst of it all (on Thursday) a friend’s funeral. (Add to that the chaos in the World that unavoidably comes streaming over us with every newscast; and sorting out one’s own thoughts and feelings about Everything gets even harder.)

For now, I’ll just post this, following up on a promise made in my previous post: The finished street painting that I got to watch David Zinn sketch last Wednesday – and the fountain nearby that inspired it.

I suppose it’s possible that the challenge of painting street art in very moody and rainy weather may have had something to do with it as well, though –

“just clench your teeth and get on with it”, perhaps??

Linking to: Mosaic Monday & Through My Lens

I Spy… (Outdoor Wednesday)

In case anyone has been wondering: No, I have not disappeared off the face of the earth.  I’ve just been having (and am still having) a busy week, with birthday celebrations, friends visiting, sneak peeks at the upcoming street art festival and whatnot.

The artist whose work I’ve been looking forward the most to getting to see here in my home town this year is David Zinn. I’ve seen his work around on the internet and also one or two postcards. So after last year’s street art festival, and when I heard there was to be another one this year… I was actually thinking what fun it would be if they could get him. And as it turned out (without any involvment from me) - his name was acatually among the very first to be confirmed for the 2015 NoLimit street art festival.

Following the official facebook page, I knew that David Zinn had started his work early on in the week; so when going into town this morning I went in search of two of his pieces that I knew to be finished.

I had to walk serveral turns around and across this ‘haymarket’ square to find this little knitting cutie – even though I knew what to look for.

The photo below might help you understand why it’s not all easy to spot the image from a distance:

I also knew there was to be one image somewhere by the steps leading down to the river (at another open place). Hmm… Can you see it?

Look closer…

Closer…

Little mouse feeding breadcrumbs to the birds in the river (as people often do in this spot) – how cute is that?! (The hole and the cracks in the stone surface, buy the way, are part of the painting.)

Having found these two, and just having missed the next bus back home, I decided to go back to the main square, where I knew that Zinn was also supposed to do something. Could hardly believe my luck when I did find him actually at work there.

He usually works with charcoal and chalk, which means his images do not last long. But here in Borås (known as one of the rainiest cities in Sweden…), he has been using more durable paint to finish the images, so hopefully they will last a bit longer.

He was surrounded by a group of art students when I arrived; and then he was interviewed by someone for a website, and I stayed on in the background to listen. After the interviewer had left I actually got to exchange a few words with him myself. When I said I had had a postcard of his work sent to me from the US, he told me that there will be postcards of his for sale at a local gallery over the weekend; so I shall certainly try and get hold of some.

I hope to be able to go into town again on Friday to see a bit more of what’s going on. Tomorrow I have other things to attend to, and on Saturday I might be too busy as well. But getting to see this artist at work up close like this and even talk to him certainly “made my day” today!

PS. If you’re wondering how that charcoal scetch turned out, you can get a sneak peek here (from the NoLimit FB page). I’ll try to get my own photo of it later - and also what I know inspired it.

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday.