Hi everyone. Today I’m once again joining in with Esther’s writing prompt. The word this week is “test”. I could, like I’ve done so many times, rant about the use and misuse of testing in education and care. I mean, everyone who’s followed my blog for some time knows about the nearly thirty-year-old, horribly flawed IQ score still in my care plan today. However, I recently saw the housing profile that will be used in finding me a more suitable place and it thankfully never mentions my IQ.
There are, of course, many other meanings to the word “test”. It could refer to something new you’re trying. For example, today I cooked a cabbage and mashed potato dish. It was the first time I cooked something with mashed potatoes (or boiled potatoes in general, for that matter). When I mashed the cabbage/potato mixture, it sounded horribly soggy, so I almost threw out the entire pot. Thankfully, a staff convinced me to let it sit and see if I and/or my fellow residents would like it regardless. Turns out that, though the texture was too smooth for my liking, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected.
On Monday, I also took out my AirPods to test if they still worked. My best friend had cleaned them several months ago and I was too impatient to let them properly dry. Turns out my right earbud was ruined, though the left one still works. I have been using headphones ever since, but don’t particularly like the feel of headphones on my ears. I do have earbuds, but cannot use those to make phone calls.
This got me thinking of finally buying new AirPods. Browsing the Apple Store online sent me down a rabbit hole of thinking I might want to buy a Macbook again. I had one for about six months in 2019, but struggled to get used to it. The thing is though, I bought that one without researching it properly first because my previous Windows laptop had been near-dead for several months and health insurance wouldn’t pay for me to get JAWS for Windows. JAWS at the time didn’t have a subscription plan, so I’d have to pay like €1000 for just a screen reader. That didn’t make sense to me, so I spent this money on a new Macbook. Six months later, insurance changed its mind and I couldn’t wait to buy a Windows laptop again. I sold my Macbook to my then mother-in-law. Now that my Windows laptop is still working and, besides, I do get annual JAWS upgrades, I have more time to actually orient myself before making a choice.
My best friend was a bit worried when I mentioned the idea of buying a Macbook, because well she doesn’t want me to get overly stressed about it like I was in 2019. That being said, Windows has near-weekly updates that change things around, so I’m more used to adjusting to changes in my tech than I was back then. We’ll see where this goes…
Astrid Blogs About… 
good luck with the new technology! It drives me nuts sometimes having to cope with the pointless changes to software that the tech idiots love to change!
cheers
sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/
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Sherry:
Glad you didn’t mention names of technology or technologists in that one.
Saw that post about one of your close people being a guinea pig.
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Ah yes, you’re right. I struggled with Windows 8 the most, even more than with the Mac. In fact, I struggled with it so much that I absolutely had to have the classic shell on it (a way to make Windows 8 look and behave like Win 95/XP/7, whichever you chose) or I coulddn’t use it at all. This however was over ten years ago.
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Probably the least said about Windows 8 the soonest mended!
I went straight from XP to 7 and eventually to 10.
Since early April 2026 there has been a laptop with the current version of Windows + Edge – and I did install several apps – like e-mail clients and podcast receivers.
If I had a shell I would make it behave like XP or 7.
And you can’t make it behave like 98 or 98SE or even Windows NT [though they are all Windows NT until a certain iteration!]?
I remember DOS shells very well and text editors called *edlin* [which is EDit LINe].
But the last DOS I remember is DOS 6.2 or even 6.3 …
[and Vista is probably the operating system so many people complain about…]
[though there may be Vista lovers – and then there is the Frutiger Aero aesthetic – which is strongly in the current era’s music and which I discovered a year ago – and certainly DID NOT appreciate WHILE it was actively/actually part of my system…]
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I have my windows pc and a mac, but I don’t use my mac all that much, I need to get more family with it. I will practice I think and try to do more on it.
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Carol Anne,
what are you wanting to get more familiar with when it comes to your Mac?
I’ve had mine for 10 years (and this is not my first rodeo with the platform!) and I am still learning all kinds of things that it can do.
Also – what do Windows and Mac have in common?
[really! Those near-weekly changes!]
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Thanks for sharing. You have an older Mac too, right? At least, I remember you getting yours around the same time I got mine. I do wonder whether WordPress is accessible now, as it wasn’t back when I had a Mac. I know you use E-mail to write your posts so you most likely wouldn’t be able to figure this out for me.
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Astrid:
Esther’s writing prompts are great, aren’t they? I say that: not having done one single one.
[and it’s fantastic how she is doing a Swanbrook course – and that she works for the Environmental Writers or something in that purview].
Hoping the profile mentions your skills and adaptability.
The sogginess of it all! [specifically cabbage+mashed potato].
“Let it sit and see” – that is good advice based upon experience.
There are so many people in my life who do use earbuds to make phone calls [and the ones in the right ear would be nearly completely useless to me].
The two times I think of upgrading my Apple are Worldwide Developers’ Congress in June and when Apples come out in September [like new microprocessors and form factors].
One thing which is quite testing is the battery life and how slow it is to get full – another is how easy the filing systems are to corrupt and how slowly they do it when you’ve been using a computer for more than a while.
Thankfully JAWS now have a subscription plan.
Hope your former mother-in-law is a good Mac custodian and steward!
When I am at museums and galleries and similar places I do get my fill of headphones.
The big tech change since 2019 has been the mainstreaming of Artificial Intelligence and related things.
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Thanks for your extensive comment. No, I don’t think my former mother-in-law uses the Mac much.
Just curious, are you hard-of-hearing in your right ear or why did you say the right earbuds would be near useless?
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I am indeed hard-of-hearing in that ear.
Another reason is that earbuds do not localise direction.
And yet another reason is that they tend to block environmental sounds which frequencies and vibrations I use to keep myself safe – especially outdoors.
[The industrial-type works…]
So when it comes to the phone and other audio instruments [like the turntable; the iPad] I try to send the sounds to the left.
These bones!
And there is much that goes on between the brain and the bones…
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I’m the same. I like the idea of a Mac but have only ever bought Windows.
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Makes sense. Now that I think of it, most people who have Macs, and certainly most VoiceOver users, also have a Windows PC. The thing is back in 2019 I didn’t have the resources to keep both or I might’ve actually persevered with the Mac.
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I’m not great with tech but I try! Good luck with yours.
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Thank you for stopping by. I’m okay with most tech.
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