NOV 21, 16 .. MARRIAGE AND LENOVO ..

In my last Post ..

http://bobbacaps.blogspot.ae/2016/11/nov-17-16-marriage-and-windows-10.html

I discussed an absolutely unreal experience I had here with my laptop.

I took it to mean MicroSoft and WINDOWS 10 were my benevolent benefactors.

With a lot, and I mean a LOT, of discussions by e-mail with friends ESPECIALLY Gullible, I thought I had been 'hacked'. So far absolutely no indication thereof.

Now I believe that the manufacturer of my laptop, LENOVO, was my benefactor who came into the scene. I have a full, 1-year, warranty with LENOVO.

IF indeed, their product had a glitch, then it would figure IF anyone was interested, it would be LENOVO.

See, what happened could have been, in no way, an issue with an operating system. MicroSoft's WINDOWS 10 is an operating system.

When I get to Hong Kong, I will head for an authorized LENOVO store and chat with them.

Thanks for your support and interest.

Cap

This I know for absolute certainty. My laptop froze up. I could find no cursor. As I sat wondering what to do, I got a message on my screen to the effect .. "We are looking into this matter. We will do a re-start. We will advise you."

Something happened (I could see it on my screen) and everything was resolved, and remains resolved. 

NOV 17, 16 .. MARRIAGE AND WINDOWS 10 ..

Oh come on blogspot! 

Pick yourself up off the proverbial floor. You look silly sprawled out on the carpet. Get yourself up and stop miss-behaving.  

Patti and Rockin' Robb, did either of you pick up on that? Miss-behaving.

I am doing a dot.NET Post here on you blogspot. I KNOW, you are used to long fancy posts with photos and the like. You are not used to me coming over here to ..

TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

'Zilla left me the below comment over on dot.NET ..

Hi Cap,

A nifty travel log on your journey to Ras Al Khaimah! It’s great that you have your new laptop along to keep your stories moving along – that is when you have the time to do all the posting – a big job but appreciated by all!

A question occurred to me on why you waited a long period of time to buy a laptop prior to your many earlier trips? You certainly really hit the ticket now as I can see you are in 5th gear (say racing gear) by all the lovely photos, stories that you are doing! Really super, as I said before it’s like you are taking folks on a beautiful tour as you can really believe you are there – I can even taste your lemon on your fish meal (I should say your friend’s meal)!

I know Dubai is a “fairly” rich country by viewing all the beautiful buildings and the on-going construction, so my next task is to goggle the country and check the stats regarding income, etc. BTW the last GP of the season for F1 is on Sunday, November 27, 2016 and the final race will determine the World Champion. Lewis won today’s race in Brazil and it was a very exciting race due to poor racing conditions as it rained very heavy throughout most of the day’s race. The race was “red flagged” twice due the down pour and serious accidents. The race had a 2-hour limit, however the race was completed with one minute to spare! A very exciting race!
Enjoy your travels!!

zilla

To 'Zilla I replied as follows ..

So good to know you are doing OK ‘Zilla and following along here. Because of visa restriction time duration issues and airline difficulties in changing my flight reservations, I simply am not able to stay for the Grand Prix race the weekend of the 25-27th of November. I wish I could but I can’t.

I have had, I have owned, my very own, personal, Apple iBook G4, laptop since March of 2005. I have had my very own personal laptop for over eleven years and counting. I have a thousand musical songs on iTunes on my Apple laptop.

Because of weight, because of theft issues, because of me being able to lose it, because of internet WiFi connection issues (in past years it was not what it now is), because of fragility issues (my laptop getting damaged), because of the abundance and the availability of Internet Cafes where ever I have been, I have always chosen to travel sans my laptop. I have had the choice for over eleven years now to take it with me or to leave it home.

Yes! I am loving having this new Lenovo, state-of-the-current-art, ThinkPad with me. Yes! Having it with me has put me into 5th racing gear for sure.

Learning to cope with Windows 10 was a challenge. I survived it. Windows 10 no longer is my opponent, it is my friend.

Smiles ‘Zilla .. So nice to have you here with me as I write my Posts. Your Ally since 1975. Cap

Stop it blogspot! Stop squeeling. You will recover from a real, tell it like it IS, post being put up here on you.

'Zilla here is another reason I have not taken my own laptop with me. At an Internet Cafe or a library, IF something goes wrong, all I have to do is ask for help and I get help.

Well, the other day, here in my hotel room, DISASTER HIT ME. My LENOVO 'froze up' totally. I had no cursor. I could do nothing.

Do all of you out there realize this: To use WINDOWS 10, MircroSoft has your personal computer's password!

Got it? MicroSoft, in a way, 'owns' your own personal computer. I have this first hand from some computer 'geeks' over here. I could not believe it. But when it came time for me to use Mister LENOVO, MicroSoft invited themselves in and I let them come in.

I did not fully realize what I was doing, but whatever it was I did, in came MicroSoft.

Now back to my DRAMA. Here I sit. Paralyzed. Sitting here in front of Mister LENOVO who is locked up. Here in the United Arab Emirates.

What to do? DO I DO a forced shutdown? I am stymied.

When what to my wondering eyes should happen? I am just sitting here in a real quandry. 

Out of the blue, a message appears upon Mister LENOVO's screen that reads:

We have detected a problem with your computer. We are going to investigate the problem. We will do a restart.

I sat, idle, wondering what in the world was going on.

A message appears:

It is now OK for you to start your computer.

I did a start up. Everything was fine.

It was like nothing had happened ..

BUT LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! 

Something had happened here and what had happened here was not exactly clear to yours truly.

WINDOWS 10, you are making a believer out of me.

Am I dreaming this up? Nope. My worst nightmare was underway, a sick computer, and me with no viable alternatives.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH .. Something IS happening here and what it is ain't exactly clear.

For what it's worth .. Cap

I get up in the morning. I turn on Mister LENOVO. A message appears: Your computer was scanned and it is up-to-date. There are no problems or potential problems.

NO! I am not dreaming this up.

NOV 16, 16 .. ABU DHABI WRAP UP ..

The time has come for me to wrap up my 6-hour visit to Abu Dhabi with the Rayna Tour Company.

Sometimes even an ordinary, mundane, photo will show something of interest.

I am amazed at the condition of the automobiles. It seems like they are all late-model vehicles. You do NOT see junkers on the streets.

Clean and then even cleaner.

Numb. One gets numb to the proliferation of beautiful buildings.

On the road 'home' to Dubai.

And there we have our last look at Abu Dhabi. Many of you, all of you perhaps, will not be visiting the Mid East. If I would have let my inner critic run loose, many, most perhaps, of the above photos would lay dead on the cutting room floor. So I screened out a few no-brainers and posted all the rest.

Much Joy .. Cap

NOV 15, 16 .. ABU DHABI .. LUNCH ..

After visiting Ferrari World .. Just for you 'Zilla! Just for you! You too Robert 94596!

After visiting the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque .. 

We took a lunch break.

Lunch was .. in two words .. something else. Our restaurant was located within Heritage Village in Abu Dhabi.

The below photo 'says it all'. It was a buffet. All the food you could eat. 

Buffet's do not work well for me at all. Atta Boy Captain! We like honesty here!

Sometimes (Captain! Remember that this is a program of honesty here!) I usually / I always will begin with the desserts! Who wants to fill up on lettuce and veggies? If I have room after I have demolished the desserts then I will get into some other foods on any given buffet.

Desserts mix very well with some good, healthy, Middle East food.

I did Muhammad. I really gave you a great recommend.

Look over there girls. Snap! Gotcha! And you didn't even know I just snapped your photo.

Short and I hope sweet (with all of the desserts). You all need a break from these long posts I have been putting up here.

Smiling from ear to ear .. Cap ..

Possibly only Gullible  will understand the below photo. I have several (Captain! This is a program of honesty!) I have a bunch of digital memory chips containing photographs I have taken during my travels. Some of these memory chips contain a few thousand photos! The photos are organized into up to 21 folders within each memory chip. I was sure the memory chip I put into my card reader contained the photos of the above restaurant in Abu Dhabi.

Wrong Captain!

Obviously I had the wrong memory chip. BUT I love the photo of the below child taken in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia last year. Or was it this year in the Spring. Actually this is one of my all time favorite photos that I have ever snapped.

Words fail me. 

NOV 14, 16 .. ABU DHABI .. SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE ..

Let's begin here with a word.

Sheikh.

I always wanted to pronounce this word sheikh as .. She eeK!

And why not.

Sheikh.  She ikh. She is she. eik is eeK. It is a no-brainer!

But this is not the case.

This word sheikh is pronounced, well at least here in the Arab world, SHAKE.

All you ever wanted to know huh?

Whoa! Wait a minute! Hold the presses Captain. What is this?

SHAIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE.

Ho Hum Captain. As you know, this is 100% normal for this part of the world. Spelling differs all over the place. 

But for this word of all words? SHEIKH and SHAIKH.

Get it Captain? The word SHAIKH pronounces as SHAKE! For by this time clarity has been found. The proper spelling of SHEIKH is probably SHAIKH.

Until I saw this mosque, The Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed Grand Mosque, I always thought that the Taj Mahal was it.

Well Mumtaz .. You ARE still IT.

Patti's expression of wonderment says it all about Mumtaz.

I will 'hedge my bet' as follows:

"Mumtaz! My Dear Mumtaz! You have some SHAIKH company over here in the United Arab Emirates."

"You my Dear Mumtaz, without a doubt, are much more photogenic. You are smaller and much more compact and I can capture you in one photo."

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

Lord God of Abraham, creator of heaven and earth, THANK YOU for the countless blessings you have showered down upon me! That I am able to see and I am able to visit the places I see and visit and then share my joy with my followers.

Whew! Wow! I do not take this all for granted.

In the below photos, you will see that I was only able to capture bits and pieces of The Sheikh (SHAKE) Zayed Grand Mosque. 

You had better believe, that in visiting the grand mosque, the ladies on our tour donned the proper Islamic attire that was provided for them at no cost by our tour company, Rayna Tours.

I love it. Selfies and smiles and photos galore!

My first view of Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed's Grand Mosque.

Now we are going to turn-the-corner. You will now more fully appreciate the size of The Grand Mosque!

The Grand Mosque is simply: Enormous. Gigantic. Stupendous.

I very carefully, to the best of my ability, snapped my photographs without showing you the crowds of visitors. So, since this is a program of honesty, there were indeed a few other visitors here with us.

"A few other visitors Captain?"

Yes! This indeed is my bus. Home Sweet Home Bus. Turn ON Turn UP the air conditioning.

What a DO-NOT-MISS experience seeing Sheikh/Shaikh Zayed's Grand Mosque was. 

Words simply fail me.

/ SIGN ME AS /  .. Wordless Cap