Of course this has to be near the top of the list else I wouldn't be doing this. Giggle, smirk, titter, chuckle, sneer if you like, but I reckon that if my sons can write blogs then why not me.
Let me first state that I am NOT a computer boffin, actually I don't lay claim to being any kind of boffin, but I must say with a certain amount of pride, that I became a 'silver surfer' long before they were ever heard of.
I guess in my household it was a case of 'if you can't beat them, then join them'. My husband, and two boys used to spend hour upon hour using 'Betsy' the very first machine we ever got. It was an Apple II purchased in 1979 in South Africa when the hubby decided to change careers and enter the 'computer world'. Since then we have never been without a computer in our home, and often more than two.
In watching the whole thing develop, from being able to enter data, to auditing household accounts, to one of the best forms of relaxation there is - Solitaire- I gravitated towards e mails and then actually conceding to use the bloody thing for my teaching.
Now, almost 20 years later I can no longer do without it. I am as hooked as the rest of you- particularly those 'silver surfers' who have just discovered it's magic. Compare it to when you got your driver's licence long long ago and the freedom you felt- and you'll know what I mean.
I switch it upon waking up and switch it off upon retiring, much as I would my spectacles. I fiddle with e mails and 'google' anything and everything that I think of. e.g spots on the backs of the hand, itchy palms, a sudden headache. In fact this search engine has become like my 'Black's Encyclopedia of Medicine, which I used to pour over in the pre-computer era. Of course I really wanted to be a doctor but that's another discussion for another day.
Imagine my concern and indignation when this thing goes wrong, when the page is unavailable, when the printer won't print or the saver won't save. I find myself getting into a real state about it and the day seems only partly complete if I can't have my 'first computer hit' before breakfast.
What is doubly annoying to me is that I am the very one who used to scoff at everyone around me watching their utter compulsion and mesmerised staring and chronic habitual attraction to this - what was after all - a glorified typewriter.
But like every other addiction, when it grabs you, it grabs you and I am grabbed! So I will venture forth with my very own blog, using only my two index fingers to type, at a furious pace, and hope that one day I will be offered a book deal. Grin.
Let me first state that I am NOT a computer boffin, actually I don't lay claim to being any kind of boffin, but I must say with a certain amount of pride, that I became a 'silver surfer' long before they were ever heard of.
I guess in my household it was a case of 'if you can't beat them, then join them'. My husband, and two boys used to spend hour upon hour using 'Betsy' the very first machine we ever got. It was an Apple II purchased in 1979 in South Africa when the hubby decided to change careers and enter the 'computer world'. Since then we have never been without a computer in our home, and often more than two.
In watching the whole thing develop, from being able to enter data, to auditing household accounts, to one of the best forms of relaxation there is - Solitaire- I gravitated towards e mails and then actually conceding to use the bloody thing for my teaching.
Now, almost 20 years later I can no longer do without it. I am as hooked as the rest of you- particularly those 'silver surfers' who have just discovered it's magic. Compare it to when you got your driver's licence long long ago and the freedom you felt- and you'll know what I mean.
I switch it upon waking up and switch it off upon retiring, much as I would my spectacles. I fiddle with e mails and 'google' anything and everything that I think of. e.g spots on the backs of the hand, itchy palms, a sudden headache. In fact this search engine has become like my 'Black's Encyclopedia of Medicine, which I used to pour over in the pre-computer era. Of course I really wanted to be a doctor but that's another discussion for another day.
Imagine my concern and indignation when this thing goes wrong, when the page is unavailable, when the printer won't print or the saver won't save. I find myself getting into a real state about it and the day seems only partly complete if I can't have my 'first computer hit' before breakfast.
What is doubly annoying to me is that I am the very one who used to scoff at everyone around me watching their utter compulsion and mesmerised staring and chronic habitual attraction to this - what was after all - a glorified typewriter.
But like every other addiction, when it grabs you, it grabs you and I am grabbed! So I will venture forth with my very own blog, using only my two index fingers to type, at a furious pace, and hope that one day I will be offered a book deal. Grin.
