A lot of teachers go traveling during the holidays and normally my wife and I are keen to go traveling also. But this Chinese New Year was different for us. We took a break right here at home in Hong Kong. In the West, most people make New Year’s resolutions and in Asia there is big a emphasis on starting the year new. That could be new things, new red clothes or even new ideas. The two traditions are similar. It’s not that the old is bad. Many times we are too busy to appreciate the old. Sometimes we really need to embrace challenges in the New Year. It’s not aways fun, but many times we have to learn from problems in the old year before we can move forward.
Sometimes Technology Gets in Our Way
A lot of times we just continue to do things as we have always done them without stopping to think much about it. I know I do. Sometimes I need to hit a wall before deciding to do things differently. For me that wall was my Capture One library slowing down and crashing. For years now, I have been organizing my pictures and making yearly picks at the end of each year. My old main Capture One catalog has roughly 110,000 photos in it. That’s too many. After watching a number of YouTube’s to get help, and upgrading from version 12, I decided to break the catalog a part into smaller pieces. It took a long time for me to figure out how I wanted to set up my new catalog(s). I consider making multiple catalogs on different themes. For example, I tried making catalogs on landscape, school and travel, but I finally decided to simplify things and make one catalog for the last five years. Having a lot of photos and an outdated version of Capture One weren’t my only problems. I also had an old computer. Technology was holding me back. I couldn’t forward into the new year without first addressing these problems. For you it might be another area. Whatever the case embrace the challenges; don’t run from them.
A New Computer
My 8 year old MSI Raider was showing its age, so I bought a 1 and half year old MSI Vector laptop for half the original price on HK Carrosell. It was in like new condition. My MSI has a 4080 Nvidia graphics cards and a 16 inch 2K display. I like it a lot. Like all of my previous computers, the new MSI came standard with Windows on it. It seems that everyone expects Windows to be on PC computers, but that is changing. Now many people, companies and even countries are moving away from windows. That used to be unthinkable. Our programs just wouldn’t run without windows. It wasn’t an easy decision for me, but I decided to wipe my hard drive clean of Windows and install Linux. At first, I was only going to do a dual boot system with both Windows and Linux but then after hearing about Windows’ unwillingness to reform itself and other peoples decision to leave them. I decided to leave as well. Linux Mint is now my host operating system. I am running my Capture One software on VirtualBox in a windows shell. So far I am very pleased with the performance. For video editing, I am running Davinci Resolve in Linux mint.
Make a Decision and Gain Some Forward Momentum
These represent significant new changes for me and I’m not alone. The world is changing and lots of people are needing to adapt. Don’t change just because it’s convenient or easy. Instead choose to align yourselves with Biblical values. The path of least resistance is often the wrong one. Like my journey to learn to get better at Capture One and to learn Linux, it takes time, but it’s doable. Thankfully there are lots of articles and YouTubes out there to help you. We just needed to put in the time to make things work. I have to say it feels good to have made a decision and to have some forward momentum. Hopefully you can identify. Align yourself with truth and do something that makes you come alive.
