Yeah, I could add an SSD to the innards of the Intel Core 2 Duo tower, but I instead opted to first max out the memory from 4GB to 8. Unfortunately, this was not as easy as it sounded for a host of reasons.

Yet, now that I’ve done it, it has made all the difference.

One of the dirty little secrets of Windows 10 is its propensity to not run at all that bad on a pretty old rig.

The latest 20H2 update, however, seemed to drag down the venerable Tangent tower.

Before I started shopping around for memory, I first tried paring down start-up items in an attempt to restore some oomph.

This endeavor was only marginally successful.

Too many times, I was clicking and waiting for something to happen for longer than I wanted to.

I thought there could be some malware or a virus that needed vetting, so I ran a Windows Defender scan, which of course, came back negative for any threats.

While the Core 2 Duo processor is long in the tooth, I did not have any PC performance issues before the latest Windows 10.

I wanted enough performance from the machine to avoid recycling or re-provisioning it for someone else to enjoy. In addition, the current amount of computer memory would only be good enough for basic tasks such as web surfing and email.

My thoughts soon turned to memory vendors and what was available in the form of DDR2.

It turns out there is a glut of reasonably priced used memory out there for AMD machines. Those with Intel processors do not have this luxury.

Part of the reason is that DDR2 memory is no longer available brand new.

I did find one merchant who was charging half of what other vendors were charging. But the cheaper-than-an-entirely newer PC price was attractive enough to me to order two 4GB chips to replace the two 2GB ones in the only two banks on the logic board.

It took a little while to arrive, but I had it installed and fired up the PC less than an hour after it came.

It was hot out, and I was mowing the lawn. Big surprise there, but drenched in sweat once finished, I ventured back inside to extract the old ram and replace it with the new.

I say new because it looked immaculate—no signs of wear, off-brand label, and very clean all around.

Long story short, it worked!

I’m typing on it now.

Speaking of now, now I can afford to wait a while longer before I replace the mechanical hard drive with an SSD.

That upgrade should give this old PC a new lease on life for the indefinite future.

Facebook annoyances

While I miss some friends that I only hear from if I log in to Facebook, most of them should know by now that my hiatus has been quite long.

Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), aside from keeping in touch with these friends, I can say I honestly don’t miss it.

The same goes for Twitter.

The same goes for LinkedIn.

I guess the same goes for any social media that is out there.

I would call them pathetic if Facebook were a person (instead of a multi-national conglomerate entity).

I have turned off all notification emails, or so I thought.

I had one the other day from a Facebook friend who sent me a message that I can only access on Facebook Messenger.

Messenger has long been off my phone since I haven’t traveled since pre-pandemic days.

You can log in from a computer in a web browser and access it that way, but that would be breaking my consecutive games, I mean, days streak without being on Facebook.

The last time this happened, the acquaintance who sent me the message delivered a meme.

Memes can be fun, but I can’t help thinking even less than that about them these days.

Yes, a picture can be worth a thousand words, but if it’s a meme, the image often yields diminishing returns.

Anyway, I will not be accessing this “message” anytime soon.

Closing arguments

I would not be nearing the end of another post if I didn’t leave some parting thoughts on a few things.

There is no shortage of news on other sites, blogs, and podcasts.

My only obligation is to deliver entertainment.

I say this because it’s essential to entertain readers as well as myself.

As the old saying goes, much like body odor, everyone has an opinion.

Do the St. Louis Cardinals still have a chance?

They better win today.

Say what you want about air conditioning.

You can stick your head in the freezer as an alternative, but as long as the AC is running, you’re pretty much living quite well.

So, count your blessings, be kind to others, and make an effort to argue less and remain calm more often.