Yep, right here, yesterday, I demonstrated fairly clearly how harsh I can be with myself. I’m the problem, the incapable one, the clueless one ... and even though a good part of me knows that isn’t always an accurate representation, whenever a problem arises The Inner Critic jumps up and starts pumping those messages. Way back when, my kindergarten teacher observed and remarked on this element of my way of being; while I have made a good deal of improvement since then, it is somewhat embarrassing to realize that I still have a long way to go.
Or do I? I honestly don’t know. Human nature is, of necessity, self-centered. Our own perspective is the only one we ever fully experience; and to the degree that others share their perspectives and contexts with us, they are incomplete and subject to our judgments of them (Is he telling the truth? Why is he telling me this now – what’s in it for him? Those and similar questions influence how we interpret and respond to others’ sharings). Thus it shouldn’t be that surprising that I concluded that I’m the source of the computer problems I’ve been having.
Except that it appears I am not the source. Based on the problems I had late yesterday—essentially a repeat of the problem that MAL and I had attributed to faulty hardware—it appears that the source of my meltdowns has been a bug in the security software. A couple of things I was doing was apparently amplifying it—especially installing all of Gnome on top of KDE.
So, today’s a new day, with yet another fresh Kubuntu install. I’ve already restarted the machine, with no problems. I’ve already gotten some stuff tweaked to my preferences, and will be doing more throughout the day. And, thanks to the wonderfully supportive and helpful contributions of Ian, Presto, and Endervidual, I am much more appreciative of how much I have learned and can do by myself, including importing files, installing fonts so that they’re available to any program that can use them, and getting more comfortable with the command line. And off to it I go.
Glad things are going better...
I am very familiar with troubles with the inner critic. I am often very harsh with myself, and it has been a source of problems for me, so I can most definitely sympathize. I'm glad things are going better for you.
Linux, while making great usability improvements in recent years, still occasionally requires you to get "under the hood." It is, though, a dramatic improvement over when I used to use Slackware and FVWM, requiring me to patch and compile code myself for days just to get a usable system. It still can be a source of challenges, but the rewards of actually knowing what happens under the hood outweigh the drawbacks.
If I might ask, what was the security bug that caused you so many headaches?