Computer troubles overcome:

Having been off the air for some time, I forgot to mention that my beloved contacted a firm to help me resolve my computer problems.

MacKeepers are a firm who assist Apple owners resolve their problems remotely. I had lost use of my iPhotos and not being resourceful and wanting to go out of my way, instead found other things to keep me occupied, rather than fix the problem. The first man to help lived in the Ukraine. By paying rather a lot, I now have oversight of my computer without having to worry about new bugs invading. The first help took 13 hours to rectify the 2052 problems and freed up some GBs. It is now in the regular helpful hands of MacKeepers who are also at the end of the telephone if I have questions or problems. This is a wonderful service and I really am grateful to have the computer back. Of course there are lessons for me to learn to help keep my computer healthy. I have utilised this telephone service once and the man was very patient and talked me through, seeing what was on my screen he could see what the problem was.

The relief is enormous. I hadn’t realised just how much it was bothering me subconsciously.

Here are a few more photos, left over from my last post of our visit to Arthurs Seat, Mornington Peninsula.

Tree surfing

One of the Mazes at Enchanted Adventure Garden

The Fairy Garden

Cherio from M & J

Overcoming fear

Blogging is a fear that I’ve been overcoming. Sharing information, putting it out into the ether, not knowing who is reading it. But my biggest fear has been using a computer, which continues to flummox me. Having purchased a laptop and transferring relevant material is such a tedious process. I sometimes hate the computer so much; I swear I’ll return to pen and paper.

Returning to a typewriter, I remember the drawbacks:

• Having to use tippex to whiten any mistakes.
• Then cutting and joining with sticky tape a paragraph that needs to be inserted elsewhere.
• Using that horrible black or blue paper to make copies, that never look as pristine as a computer copy.

Yes, I guess I am conquering my fears and appreciate the benefits of a computer. I shall just have to continue learning how to make best use of it.

 

Phobia Shmobia, daily post by Ben Huberman                                                                                    Fears evolve over time. What is one fear you’ve conquered?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/phobia-shmobia/

Computer distractions:

The computer came home today after being worked upon lovingly by a kind soul who specialises with Apples. Then getting the jolly modem working again, was tricky, to say the least. Although it will need to go back in about a month for an update, we’re once again in working order.  iPhoto had collapsed!

For all of you cat lovers out there, I’m sharing a photo my daughter put on Facebook, as we share the same quirky sense of humour.  I have no idea who took the photo, so thank you to who ever did take the photo, but one would need a sense of humour to own this cat, don’t you think? Hair parted down the middle too! Does this serious face make you smile? I hope so!

Punctuation :-)

Today’s daily prompt is about punctuation. This is an interesting subject, as I find that my punctuation has changed having become a blogger. There are additions of  🙂  and 😀 and many more, with my favourite ❤ . Not only with these changes, but also with exclamation marks; I would not use in my more serious writing yet I use liberally in posts. Is this a sign of changes afoot? Maybe the semicolon will become a thing of the past? I do hope not, as it does help when reading to have ‘correct’ punctuation. The computer is telling me to revise my semi colon use…. I use them when it needs more than a comma and less than a full stop. Isn’t that what it is supposed to do? I’ve now lost confidence in my own judgment.

My children send me messages on their mobiles; the abbreviations are quite a new language. Blogs too use abbreviations; M-R introduced me to ROFL and I had to Google it to find what it meant. I printed off a couple of pages of abbreviations and now they have disappeared into the detritus of papers that surround me.

It seems that most take these changes in their stride. I struggle to keep up. There are so many changes and I’d love to get on top of things. The computer is an awesome appliance, but I still hesitate to change my blog. I’d love to be able to separate my posts into categories, so that I can put, for instance, children’s stories into one folder. My children live such busy lives, and when they visit, there never seems time to waste on the computer…

By the Dots

We all have strange relationships with punctuation—do you over use exclamation marks? Do you avoid semicolons like the plague? What type of punctuation could you never live without? Tell us about your punctuation quirks! Ben Huberman

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/by-the-dots/

 

 

Bamboozled by Gen X,Y and Z?

Have you ever been bamboozled by talk of Gen X.Y and Z?

I looked it up on the internet and was surprised to find I was born the year before the Baby boomers! They start in 1947.

GEN X: 1963-1980

GEN Y: 1981-94

GEN Z: 1995-2009

GEN ALPHA: 2010-

This listing means that my children are all born in Gen X. That makes me laugh as Rebecca has always said her brother was different, being a Gen Y! I wonder who makes up such divisions and how they decide the cut off points? Are people really different depending when they are born?

It will be interesting to see how different out grandchildren in the Alpha generation differ from our grandchildren in the Gen Z grouping. Certainly they will all be computer literate and understand things we find complex.

I have just realized, last time I sent in stories to Penguin, I spent ages filling out the forms and didn’t complete the task properly. They asked for Pdf files, and I didn’t know how to do that, so just sent them.  I wasted my time as the files couldn’t be opened. This year I must do better. That is one New Year’s resolution, must do better! Are there others out there who find new technology difficult?