Frustration

There was a time when families would get together and play board games. The father would be hopeless at the game (too busy thinking about work). The mother would provide snacks (and a memorably leveraged and wholly unsustainable hairdo), and the kids would do a lot of screaming (because that's what kids did before Ritalin was invented, though strangely enough the mother was on Valium). This was the 1950s. It was a kinder, gentler time.

Nowadays we huddle around our sturdy plastic iPhones in isolation. The board game is all but dead, replaced by smartish phones and touch-screen devices. Gone is Frustration. Well, not really.....

Computers bring to my life a new form of frustration. For example: I recently purchased a new laptop computer because no one would play board games with me (not actually true, Wendy is always eager to play Cribbage). My old laptop was so slow that it would have lost a downhill race with a one legged snail, so it needed to be replaced. The old computer came with movie editing software called Windows Live Movie Maker. In case you ever have the misfortune to use this software, don't. Using this oft-swear software on my old laptop, video files kept becoming corrupted (akin to father spilling his gin and tonic on the Frustration board) and I was not able to publish my film (typically after doing 85% of the editing). With a corrupted file I couldn't even try again. I would often become apoplectic. Not a good way to start or end the day.

My new laptop also came with Windows Live Movie Maker pre-installed so I thought to myself 'this will never do'. I decided to purchase some new video editing software. My research suggested that I purchase Adobe Premiere Elements 12.0, which I did for $129. Adobe is the maker of Photoshop, which I love, so their video editing software should be equally excellent.

Rocky start....

I loaded the software and then took a video file from my garbage-worthy Pentax W90 camera and imported it into my computer. Then (drum roll please) I imported the video file in Adobe Premiere.

The message read: "This file type is not supported."

So, my new computer with its new video editing software can't use the videos that I shoot with my video camera. For those of you who know me well, you'll know that I'm 50% in stitches at the absurdity of my situation, and 50% ready to see if my new computer has touch screen capabilities.

Thank god I'm also 50% Scottish. I'm actually too cheap to put my fist through my computer screen, so I'll have to keep it. Now, sadly, I'll have to buy a new video camera. When will the parade of upgrading useless old equipment ever end? It won't. This is how we grow the economy, by making anything older than three years redundant.

So, who wants to play Frustration with me (as I sit alone, huddled around my sturdy plastic laptop)?