The Wonders of Technology Revisited

Technology and its good and bad side are favorite topics of mine.  As a society we seem to be growing further and further away from our region of origin.  People used to live in the same community for most of their lives.  Now we move across the country on a whim. 

All too often you loose track of the people who lived next door to you when you were a child.    Every once in a while you think of them and wonder what ever happened to them.  And then you let that thought go because you have no idea how or where to begin to look. 

When I opened my store, I made the effort to look for a friend from days gone by.  And I found her and we keep in touch with each other now.  After all, Cheryls Purple Cow would not be Cheryls Purple Cow without the gift she gave me in junior high.  I would still make and sell my jewelry, but my store would be called by another name.

Nowadays we have myspace and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family.  the wonders of technology.  If my husband wants pictures of his grandson all he has to do is log on to the computer and download pictures that his daughter posted on her Facebook page.    That is just way to convenient.  No waiting.  No lines.  Just log on and print away!!

Now I want to explain what happened to me today that put my mind on this subject.  I logged in to my Facebook page and checked my mail.  There was one particular email that caught my eye immediately.  It was from my first friend from Kingsville.  When my family moved into the house on Pasadena Drive in Kingsville, the little girl who lived in the house next door became my first friend there.  Now I am going to date myself, but her family moved away around 1970.  She came back to visit one time around 1975 I think. 

I haven’t heard from her since…until today.  She somehow found me on Facebook.  I love technology! 

Computers

I have had a fun couple of weeks.  The computer that I was using was about 6 years old.  I have been babying it for about 6 months.  All of a sudden about 3 weeks ago it really started acting up.  I started trying to organize my files so that I could take them off the hard drive.  I was also using the computer constantly for my store.  I was editing pictures and writing item descriptions for several items that I needed to list in my store.  And  finally one morning I told my husband that all I was going to do that day was copy files to a flash drive so that I could load them on his computer.  This idea worked for about 20 minutes.  Then right in the middle of copying a file, my computer had a nervous breakdown 

I had no idea how my life was going to be affected.   My husband, Larry, shared his computer with me and even though he let me use it whenever I wanted, I couldn’t get the things done that I needed to.  His computer has Windows Vista and I had to learn how to use Windows Vista.  I am still working on that.   I take control of my computer not the other way around.  I tell the computer when to look for updates.  And I don’t allow it to do its own thing in the background.  If you knew how many processes your computer was running (that it does not need to run) you would be amazed.  Your computer is always checking with software publishers for updates and such.  I don’t need it to do that 10 times a day when I don’t use that program more than 3 times a year.  Google Earth checks for updates every 20 minutes.  That is why it is no longer on my computer.
All my Internet links are lost.  I took about an hour trying to recreate as many as I could.  I recreated about 5% of them.  I guess I will get them back as I need them.

All the pictures for my store are gone too.  I am going to try to find out if I can download them from the site.  I like to have a historical log of my creations.  And quite a few are items that I make regularly.

On the plus side, my new computer is real fast.  And the tower is more compact.  Before I set it up, I put together my new computer desk.  So my desk is really clean now.  And the new desk does NOT have cubbyholes for me to fill.  This corner looks alot less cluttered.

I will quit crying over the spilt milk for awhile.  Until I need something that was lost.

Please excuse the shouting but I do have one thing to say about all of this:

BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!!!     NOW!

Have a good day

Technology is Wonderful

Technology is a wonderful thing. It affects every aspect of our lives. We curse it when it works against us and we praise it when it works for us. Take a few minutes to think about and to list the ways that technology works against you and the ways it works for you. That is what I did a few days ago. I was amazed.

I could go on for days about the pros and cons, but the title of this blog is “Technology is Wonderful”. I will tell you some wonderful things that you may take for granted.

I live close to my father and my cousin lives close to her mother, his sister. We live in Nevada and they live in Texas. Dad and my Aunt will never again sit across the table from one another and just talk. Neither is really able to travel. But thanks to technology, they were able to have a conversation face to face using the web cam. My two stepsons and my nephew are overseas with the military. They are in places where they are not exactly safe. But thanks to computers we can open the web cam and see the boys and reassure ourselves that they are well. Isn’t that wonderfully amazing!

I speak publicly to help support epilepsy awareness. Before each engagement, I have a practice run through with my speaking coach. My coach is in Virginia and I am in Nevada. We use the web cam so that she can watch my facial expressions and body language. It is a real benefit.

Epilepsy is a condition that affects each person differently. The effect depends on the area of the brain involved in seizures. I have right temporal lobe epilepsy and it affects my memory. Thanks to technology I have a Palm to jot notes in and to keep track of my contacts and appointments. I also have a cell phone that I carry with me so that if I get lost, run into problems or have a seizure, I can call my husband.

Ten years ago I got my first cell phone when my Mother was terminally ill and needed to be able to get in touch with me at anytime. Before the mid to late 1990′s most people didn’t have access to a cell phone.

My husband works and attends college. Some of his classes are taken on the internet. This saves money that he would spend on gas to and from the campus. It also saves time. The internet classes are flexible enough that you can complete the coursework no matter what your schedule is like.

Yes there are problems. There are people who use a Bluetooth that continue to speak on the phone while conducting business at the bank, grocery store, or other business. They don’t think they are being rude. Some people who talk on the phone while driving cause accidents. And there are other examples that I choose not to list.

But in the long run, I have to say it again, “Technology is a wonderful thing”.

Best Friends

I was trying to think about a subject for my blog today, but I have been having trouble concentrating. I recently got in touch with my best friend from Junior High and we have talked on the phone several times over the past few months.

Do you have a friend that no matter how long it has been since you last spoke (this time it was about 10 years), when you finally get in touch with each other it seems as if no time has passed. It seems as if we just spoke a month ago instead of 10 years. Except for the fact that we have so much to catch up on. Well, that’s how our friendship is. We are both 50 now and it is kinda scary that our lives have followed some of the same paths. We even take some of the same medications.

We both have a bad habit of changing the subject of a sentence 5 times before the end. Other people have trouble following our conversations, but we can understand each other perfectly well. In fact, if you read my blog from Saturday, Story Behind Cheryls Purple Cow, then you already know alot about her.

She doesn’t have a computer, but she is traveling across Texas today to visit with her daughter who does have a computer. The reason I am having trouble focusing is that this evening we are going to be able to chat face to face using the webcam. Unfortunately, the reason she is going to visit her daughter is to help take care of her for a few days. Her daughter’s wonderfully cute kitten decided that Mommy needed to play on the floor and tripped her. She landed on a glass table. Not Good! She’s OK, just broke a couple ribs. It’s going to be difficult though, because I am the type of person who likes to make people laugh. I don’t think that she would appreciate that right now.

I just thought of the title for my next post: The Wonders of Technology. I think you will enjoy it.