I had gotten an idea for a Reel – for Instagram, a while back. In the show, The Office, one of the characters is named Devon. This character only appears in the first couple of episodes and then returns near the end of the series. Because of this, two of the main characters say the name Devon while addressing him or talking about him. As it isn’t a common name, I thought it would be funny if I could somehow get a few sound clips put together of them saying my name and then use this for the Audio of the Reel.

The idea took some time to develop what I wanted this to look or sound like, and to think about how this might work. I struggled a bit getting some ok audio that I could use. But with anything electronic such as apps or computer things, my motto is ‘there’s gotta be a way.’

After some trial and error and Google searches, I created it! It’s fun to see the end result but I was mostly excited that I figured it out.

I also had a massive amount of photos on my phone and iCloud to deal with. It has caused some anxiety because although all the photos were stored on the cloud, if I deleted from my phone, they would also disappear from iCloud. This seems to negate the purpose of storing it the photos there. I am sure I was ‘blocked’ in thinking of a solution just because it felt like such a dilemma for so long.. what to do with all my photos. But with a trip coming up, I decided I must deal with this to make room for fresh photos.

I organized two electronic albums of vacations from years past to have printed. And then discovered that the more recent trip photos were all stored as HEIC files and not jpeg. Another hurdle. So a flash drive it is to at least store everything and then I can get the albums printed at a later date because there’s gotta be a way to convert the files. And while loading my 9 thousand photos onto the flash drive, (yes 9k, but this is over quite a few years 😂), the photos got converted to jpeg in the process! So I have now also loaded the new jpeg photos to the website for printing and took care of both tasks at once. Success!

So although electronics can be tedious and frustrating. I know there is always a way. People much smarter than me have developed these programs and applications so I have the confidence that they have thought of all these things that I have come up against.

It does feel rewarding when you discover how things can be done and what you can do to make things work – even ‘cleaning’ the computer so it runs better. I love knowing things and any electronic learning helps understanding how systems work when you come up against the next dilemma. You become better equipped with what to look for the next time.

So when any challenge comes up, I just know, there’s gotta be a way, right? And then you come to realize that doesn’t have to just apply to electronics.

Sending Love,

Devon