My Mac desktop is clean. There are only three folders and four files on it, leaving the sandy beach (background) visible. (You know what I mean. One of my colleague's Mac deaktop is COVERED by icons, which would stress me out working on such a Mac.)

Still, I know there is a problem with my Mac. Ever since I upgraded the operating system a month ago, it seemed to take more than a minute to open up my Mail tool. That frustrated me so much so that I decided to take another one-to-one class. (Actually, it was the ObamaCare: I was unable to pay for the new medical insurance for days. There was a vague suggestion about disabling pop-up blocker, but I didn't know how to at first. So, I signed up for a class. Of course, one can learn almost everything online these days, if you know how to "ask" the right question, which is how I learn most of the time.)

Even though the ObamaCare payment problem was resolved (by disabling the pop-up blocker--why can't Kaiser just put a warning next to the click button, which would have saved me hours of trying to reach one after another tech staff and none was sure about what to do), I still had slow email to deal with whenever I clicked "Mail" icon. Anticipating it should just take a minute to get an answer, I ended up having a wonder 20-min chat with Jeff, one of the trainers at the Kahala Apple store. He explained to me what the number (next to an email account) means, and taught me how to clean away old email easily. For example, next to "Gmail," there was a number of 144. I thought it meant there were 144 messages in that email tray. No. When I clicked "Gmail," it told me (at the top of the page) that I had more than 1,000 messages under Gmail account and 144 unread (not sure how this happened since I "read" every email). And this is the "cleanest" of my four email accounts! Am I in trouble! No wonder it would take forever to open up my Mail. (Actually, it's also a memeory issue. To clear memory under "Mail," one needs to really QUIT email but selecting "quit" after using two figners to click "Mail." A simple "exit" of the Mail page does not do.)

There are still 20 days left in 2013. Should I clean up my Mac Mail this year, or make it "New Year Resolution" for 2014?

Another question concerns my "Downloads" folder. I had tons of downloaded files. I only knew one way--to rid of one file at a time, but I didn't want to waste my life doing this. Well, clearly Jeff knows the answer. Now, I can get rid of all the files at once (using the shift key), or get rid of certain files (using the Command key to select). I am sure you know all this, but if you don't please feel free to ask me.

Oh, before I go, I want to repeat what Jeff told me: "You do backup. Right?" Yeah, you'd better back up before you start to delete files.