Excuse Me .........Gotta Get Nekkid......My Ink Cartridges Need Refilling

I  don't know about you folks, but I decided years ago that I would give up my computer printer and go back to using smoke signals rather than pay the insane, obscene prices they charge for ink cartridges. Naturally,  I sent away for a refill kit and have been refilling my own cartridges ever since, but, needless to say, there have been a few "oopses" and a few lessons learned but actually  only a few failures.  I figure I must have saved enough money to heavily reduce the national debt if I had only not squandered it away on frivolity......well, no, I wouldn't call necessities like a cordless mouse frivolity actually.   Anyway.....the time has come once again so I had better get ready.

The truth is, I do not really strip naked any more before starting this process.  It seems to me that in years past the inks were much less removable from one's person and  garments than they are now.  I think they are making the inks washable which is why, when you set your coffee cup or water glass or ?libation down on your newly printed sheet the ink runs all over the effing document but at least you dont have to go around being the Monster with the Bluer Cuticles for the next 2 weeks.   So what that means is that I no longer take off my garment to refill the ink cartridges, but I sometimes do long for the old wilder days.

Anyway.......they are making it harder asnd harder to do this refill process, those money grubbing bastards.  Especially with the color cartridges.  Once upon a time I could drill three neat holes in the top and happily access Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.  I do not know quite how they have changed the innards or whether I simply managed to pierce the walls separating the 3 colors when I went in with the hypodermic needle.......lately I have not managed so well with the color refills, but the black ones, godblessem, are still working for me and I manage to fool the printer into accepting them even though, occasionally I will be coldly informed that my black cartridge is devoid of ink.......heh, heh, but the machine dutifully prints away anyway and I thereby save $25 or $35........hooray.. 

Today I was only 50% successful........blew the color one. but decided to reinstall it anyway even though it now contained a weird mix of blue, red and yellow.......mainly a yucky blue.  I mostly print documents so the color cartridge is superfluous anyway.  I guess I will have to break down and order one in case I need to print a photo sometime.  Once a miser always a miser, I guess, though I actually prefer to think of it as being frugal and wisely prudent, so there.

In all seriousness, I have learned to spend money freely in my old age, when the occasion calls for it.  I just bought myself a lovely gift.  Since my vision and my clumsy, dyslectic fingers make it really hard for me to type without making a gazillion mistakes which have to be corrected of course, (I was tempted by the lure of the Dragon Something or Other which is a program you load and install (at great effort and with much screeching and foul language) but which allows you to dictate into a microphone and see you words instantly appear on the screen as if by magic.  In my usual penurious fashion I found that version 12 had just been released and Amazon was selling version 11.5 for a pittance so I found the deal irresistible......I figured that if 11.5 works at all well I will spring for version 12 after I learn how to use it.  Well, by Gum. it arrived yesterday and today after I washed up from the cartridge refill project I decided I would take courage and at least open the box.  Apparently I had a speck of courage hidden away somewhere, because 5 or 8 hours later I found myself going through the Tutorial for the 16th time after successfully installing the damned program.  The Tutorial works amazingly well and causes you to utter all sorts of exclamations, but, of course, they prompt you at every turn about what to do an how to do it.  I find that even with the little cheat sheet they advise you to print out, when you are on your own it ain'g quite as easy, but i am determined to conquer it because otherwise I may find it harder nd harder to blog and write emails,. so I will persevere.  I promise to report on how I do in case you may be interested in trying this out.  I have to say I am really impressed with the program.....with my own intelligence and ability to learn,,,,,,not so much.  That may be where being a stubborn mule may help me.  All I can say is that when I commanded my computer to "start listening"  and it responded "listening" a little thrill went up my spine.  To almost everything else I said it responded "what was that?" but still.......it was a sort of a conversation.......and it also obeyed me when I screamed "undo, undo".

Now, if I can only figure out why sometimes, when I say "undo" it undoes........and other times when I shout "undo, undo" it dutifully types "undo, undo".  Sigh.

And now, I say to you as I say to my computer, You may "stop listening"..whereupon it advises me it is sleeping.  As for all of you, you may doze off too or do whatever you please. I for one, am satisfied with my vast achievements today.........I hope you are the same.