Too many passwords

I made my decision and bought my new computer. And not unlike my last experience with a MAC, I managed, within the first few actions to delete a program. It just went poof and disappeared. The support woman on the phone kept saying, "don't worry, it is there." Alas, it was not there.

Fortunately, it was a trial program so I downloaded it again.

Next came time to check my bank statement. I entered my password and it came up with a security question I never typed in. I was suppose to have a different question and the computer kept tasking me what was the name of the city in which I was married. I would answer and was told I was not being specific enough. It also told me that it did not recognize the computer. OK, let's try it again. And again, And Again. Still, it kept telling me that where I was married was not correct. You have to have a sense of humor. I decided to check into later. I haven't blogged in about a week , so I chose to do this instead of dealing with the bank. 

My new computer has a lot of bells and whistles--as they say. I think perhaps I should get some lessons to learn exactly what this machine can do. Years ago, I had a PC that did all types of fancy stuff for the time. I just used it as a word processor. It was silly not to learn more of the computer. So, here is another pledge for this year. I will learn all the tricks my computer can do and try to utilize them. How? That remains to be seen.

Buying a new computer

I remember the first time I needed to buy a computer. It was months before I could get the courage up to make the purchase. It was during the early 80's and while computers were around not so many people owned one. I remember, as I was living in a loft in Manhattan, that my upstairs neighbor was "investigating" a purchase. I learned a good from our discussions. I bought mine before he bought his computer. I bought an IBM and the operating system was DOS.

I learned enough of DOS to work my computer and write my dissertation on it. For whatever reasons, I eventually needed to buy a new computer-- this time I went with an Apple. There was a graphic designer in my building who owned a MAC and loved it. "You can't do anything to ruin this computer, " she told me one day, as I had the computer sitting on my desk for about two weeks unopened. I was afraid of it. I didn't know what would happen if I turned it on.

I followed her advice and turned it on. BOOM the thing froze before it had completely booted up. That led to many phone calls and finally several hours of talking with support to straighten out the problem. We became such good friends during the long arduous process of figuring out what was wrong with my computer, that at the end, when the machine was up and running, the man on the other end of the phone said, "Now, Linda, you need to get a glass of wine and take a warm, bath to calm down. Everything is fine." He was cute. I don't know that I did either of those things, but I certainly didn't feel anymore secure about my ability to operate a computer than I had before I hit the on switch-- and so much for the graphic artist's advice...

I have had several computers since that time and today I need to go once again and purchase a new computer. Since those first years, I have had different kinds of computers, including one custom made. My kids have MAC laptops with all kinds of fancy bells and whistles. I think I will go back over to Apple. I am sure that once I make the purchase I will have heart palpitations before I turn the thing on. This time, I will probably enlist the help of my son--he no doubt will think I am ridiculous.

But, now I am facing transferring the data from my PC to the MAC and the thought of that makes me nervous. Oh Well, yet another adventure. Hopefully, I won't repeat my first experience and have the thing freeze up on me and I won't loose any important files in the transfer. After all these years, I know alot more about computers and how to do things but I am still intimidated by them and get confused when trying to do things, like import buttons to make this blog more visible.

More will be revealed as I like to write....

A Whirl in the Blogs

O.K. I am trying to get this stuff straight. I have another blog, one that the world has yet to find out exists. I thought I would try setting up this one as well. I spent a few hours the other day trying to understand what I did or did not do the first time around to make my blog accessible to someone. Anyone, actually.

I remember last month when I put my blog together. It seemed to being going smoothly until I tried adding banners and the like. I was hopeless lost. Perhaps this time will be different. I also
joined Helium thinking I would try my hand at writing short posts for money. I haven't gotten that far yet and in truth, I am not all that overwhelmed by what I have read there.

I realize that the world of the computer is evolving quickly. Already I am behind but I am trying to catch up. I admit, being old enough that technology seems a bit threatening. I never thought I would be able to write and edit on the computer. I still print out my work and read it on hard copy. There is some security in that.

As the new year approaches, my desire to become more proficient in the uses of the computer increases. I know I need to use it as a marketing tool both to sell my books, Awakening Minerva: The Power of Creativity in Women's Lives, and Dancing with Gods: a collection of women's short stories and I need to use it to promote my writing in general. And so, the gauntlet has been dropped and I bravely charge forward into the unknown.