Evolving With The Times

I was first introduced to television in England in about 1951.  It wasn't even ours, but the neighbourhood gathered to watch it from time to time.  Everything was live back then, and that alone could make for some entertaining moments.

We came back to Canada in 1953 and within a couple of years we had a television of our own.  We were one of the first families in our area to get one, and just like in England, neighbours sometimes came over to watch with us.

This means I've had a TV for at least 60 years now.

That is, until just recently.

EastLink Cable has decided that it is no longer cost effective to offer their service in our town as of September 1st. We briefly considered getting a satellite dish when we first heard this was going to happen, but didn't want to sign a contract. That meant we would have to pay a fee to have the dish installed.  We decided to just go without TV.

I tend to spend more time on the computer than with the TV anyway.  There isn't much on anymore, and what there is always seems to run like a serial, so no matter how good it is, if you miss a week or two, you don't know what's going on.  I've stopped watching a lot of things that I once enjoyed for that very reason. Anyway, now there is NetFlix, and things like that, if you really want to watch a series.  Funny thing is, I had access to Netflix for several months before all this took place, and only ever watched 4 episodes of one show, and never bothered with it again.

People have been asking how things are going here without TV.  I discovered I could watch the soap opera, (The Young and Restless) that has been part of my day for the past 40 years. Global puts it online one day later.  I can live with that, as I often watched parts of it on two different days anyway, as something (meal preparation) was always interrupting.  I was sad to think I wouldn't get to see the end of America's Got Talent. The contestants this year are truly amazing, and I have no idea who is going to win. I don't actually see the show, but I do get to see each and every act the next day too.  I've just watched some more of the finalists performances and then watched the rest of a documentary on Mona Lisa that I started yesterday.  I find watching what I want at my own convenience is very liberating.

I actually did not miss my TV at all until there was a storm on Saturday night.  I saw tornado warnings just before I unplugged the computer.  We went to the basement.  Normally we would leave the TV on the weather channel during bad storms, but of course there was no TV.  We turned on the radio to the local station, and heard the warnings again, but everything else on that station seemed to be prerecorded as  no announcer came on even to give the standard news and weather reports.  Maybe he was hiding in the basement too.

Anyway, if I didn't unplug the computer, I'd at least have had better updates on the storm.  Do I miss the TV?  No, I guess not. But I'd certainly miss my computer!

Computers Dish Out Advice

In the old days, if you had a question, you tried to find someone who knew enough about the subject to give you an answer. And then you had to trust that the answer you got was correct.  Today things are different. You can just turn on your computer and type your question in.  You will get lots of links that will lead you to various answers, and you can decide which ones will work for you. I tend to trust answers that I find on reputable sites, or that appear frequently, on a lot of different sites.

In the past I have turned to the computer to learn what to do with a diakon radish, and what to do when a small child is sick on the carpet. This time I needed to know how to clean eggs.

Earlier this week a lady dropped into my hubby's work place with several cartons of eggs. She had too many and needed to get rid of them, so she brought them to the guys at the garage she frequents.  The eggs were not washed, and my hubby made a point of telling me that when he brought them home.

I remember that long ago we were taught that eggshells are permeable so I knew I couldn't actually put them in water to soak the crap off them.  I thought I'd look up how to clean them correctly, since it's always good if I actually have an excuse to be on the computer instead of just playing with my friends on Facebook.

I discovered that it's not necessarily good to wash the eggs, as the eggshells come out of the chicken with a natural coating, or "bloom", that actually seals the eggshell pores and prevents bacteria from getting in. I started by using a sponge, with a scrubby side, and dry scrubbed most of the bits and pieces off, as suggested on one of the sites I found.

I still wasn't convinced I wouldn't contaminate the contents of the shells, when I broke them open, if I didn't do more to clean them. I decided to follow instructions on another site, and set up two bowls of water to wash them in. It was important, they explained, to make sure that the water was warmer than the eggs.  Cold water would just open up the pores in the shell and contaminate the contents. Warm water (not hot, but not tepid either) would expand the pores and prevent contamination.  I put a dash of dish detergent in one and a wee bit of bleach in the other.  I just dipped the eggs, one at a time, into the soapy water, rubbed any remaining dirt off with my fingers, and then did an equally quick dip in the bleach water. I set them all on a cookie rack, with paper towels to absorb the moisture, then dried the properly and put them in a clean egg carton.

The eggs are all brown, though various shades and sizes.  There were a few that I knew I wouldn't want to use in recipes, as they were either too big or too small.  I added the small one to another for an omelet for yesterday's lunch and I boiled the biggest one for breakfast this morning. And no, it did not fit into my largest egg cup.  It just sort of sat up on top.

I'm enjoying my farm fresh eggs. Even though they were supposed to be like a tip for my hubby, he has not had any yet. I'll fix that this weekend.

Sorting Out Electronic Clutter

This week I got a new computer, but other than give it a test run, I'm not really on it yet.  I have year end for the business to do first. The records for that are still on the old machine and since I'm not sure yet that the program will even run on the new one, I figured I better not try to move things at this point.   I also had to do a lot of weeding and juggling of files in preparation for the move to the new machine. Yes, electronic files can get cluttered too.  I know that I still have a lot of files saved on my external hard drive that should likely be pitched, but I'll just have to add that to the growing list of things that need to be de-cluttered around here. I'm glad this is meant to be a year long project, as I have found that clutter grows in new places when you are busy cleaning it out of somewhere else.

My new computer is a Windows 7 machine, and sits flat on my desktop, instead of standing tall and proud like all my previous towers. That means, since the monitor can sit on top of it, I will have a lot more space on my desk ... at least until the usual piles start to grow.  No, no, no .... I need another new resolution!  Not only am I not going to print off any more recipes (that's a habit I've been working hard to break this week), I also vow not to let my desk accumulate piles of paper. It must all be filed in it's proper place on a regular basis.

Now, that may mean I will have to create some proper places.  Until recently I had an old monitor that I could fit a shelving unit over.  It had little cubby holes down the sides where I stored certain types of things, and there was a slotted unit on top where I could file various papers that either had to be dealt with or needed to be held for one reason or another.  Then my monitor died and my hubby gave me the flat screen he had purchased for me earlier in the year. I had turned it down at the time as I knew it would interfere with the filing and storage system I'd had for years.  Perhaps with all this extra room I will be able to have some sort of file box with in and out baskets, or something.  I hope I get that sorted out soon.  With all the shoving around and rearranging that's been going on in here lately, I managed to mail off some paperwork this week, without some of the needed forms included.  Nothing is where it usually is, so it was really easy to not immediately see what needed to be included.

Meanwhile, my printer has also died, and I'm totally lost without that. I tried networking to my hubby's, but didn't succeed.  He then moved his over to my desk, as I need one much more often than he does. My old computer and his printer don't seem to play well together so I still don't have the year end report printed off.  I never had a compatibility problem with a printer before. Hubby seems to think it's my firewall that's preventing it from printing.

Then I won a $100 gift card in a contest from Subway.  In order to claim my prize, I had to print some forms and sign them, and then scan them and send them back.  But as I said, the printers wouldn't cooperate. Then I discovered that the old computer didn't have anything on it that would even open the file I was supposed to print. Neither did my hubby's computer but the new one had the needed software. So we hooked up the working printer to the new computer, and found that it wouldn't work on it either.  After a bit of messing around, and a computer search for assistance, it was discovered that hubby's printer would work on the Win7 machine if he downloaded Windows Vista drivers for it. I never would have thought of that! The contest rules state that they are not responsible for computer problems for equipment failures that may cause the required forms to not be filed with them on time.  I have to wonder if that is meant to eliminate some of the winners, as it certainly hasn't been easy.  If you wave money or food in front to me though, I'm usually motivated.

While I still don't have the year end reports printed, and am starting to wonder if a new printer would even solve that, I did at least get my desk cleaned off. The old computer tower is still on the desk until I get that task done though.  The photo pointed out to me that apparently there is a clutter of envelopes hiding back in the corner under the desk.  Cleaning those out will likely be the easiest thing I've done all week.

A Technological Dinosaur

I started with a Commodore 64 and I used to type in games and other programs out of magazines. This was a great way to learn some Basic Programming as I would always make some typos, and while trying to find the problem, I often learned what various commands did.  I was able then to create a little program of my own, that enabled my hubby to shave hours off a monthly task he did at home as part of his job.  I was quite proud that I had learned enough to be able to help him in that way.

As time went on, I was able to help various friends do the things they wanted to be able to do on their computers, and even became a Newbie Helper on the 50Plus chat room. I was pretty good at that as I was able to get 80 year olds, who had never had a computer before, to understand and implement what I was telling them.  And all that was done online, though the chat window, or sometimes by private message.

Times have changed however, and the technology has been developing so quickly I have had trouble keeping up with it. I'm still working on an old Windows XP machine (which I will cling to as long as I possibly can). I also now have a second hand laptop, but I seldom use it as I find it awkward to type on, and often revert to the two fingered method (and I really don't want to do that).  My young grandsons both have  iPads, and I'd love one, but I'm not sure it would suit my needs. I want something with a USB port, so I can load geocaching way points on it if we find ourselves with some spare time while away from home.  Today there are so many different tablets, and I hear they don't all do the same things, so I'm leery about choosing the wrong one.

Recently my house phone got short circuited by a snow storm and I had to resort to using my cell phone.  I was on a pay as you go plan, which accumulated so much credit that Telus finally decided to let me use that credit if I switched over to a monthly plan instead. Now I don't have to top up every month. But when I turned the cell phone on the other day, I got an automated message from Telus saying I had to top up or I'd lose my balance. I started to reply to them, asking why I  needed to top up when I had already had a message from them recently that told me I didn't need to do that because I had over $......oh wait a minute, how do you type a number into a text message anyway?  I don't have a fancy phone with a built in keypad. I don't have a smart phone, or anything fancy at all.  My phone is the most basic model because, as I said, I don't use it for anything. My hubby uses it as a way to track me down when we get separated in a mall. He calls to ask me where I am.

While I fooled around trying to figure out how to text numbers, (and I still don't know) I got an incoming call from my hubby (he is the only one who has my number). He would have been calling to tell me when to expect the Bell Telephone guy who was supposed to come and string a new line from the pole to the house so I answered the call and immediately lost the text message I was labouring over.

When I finally got land line phone service restored, I immediately went online went online to the Telus site. I'd been without the internet for 3 days by that point, suffering, as one of my Facebook friends implied, from a severe case of withdrawal by that time.  I'm usually good at finding things online, but I discovered Telus are very good at hiding their contact information.  I finally found a chat box, and had a lovely chat with someone who assured me that the message I had received was just an automatic thing and that it would be the last one I got like that. I wasn't going to lose my balance after all. (Darn, what was that person's name in case the money disappears tomorrow and I have to get back to them?) 

I asked, since I had contact with a live person, if my new monthly plan (which gives me 50 messages or texts for the same $10 I've always paid) still included voice mail.  I was asking because I had spotted something on one of their web pages that said "Add Voice Mail" when I was hunting for some contact information.  I had earlier tried to retrieve some voice mail and couldn't get in. The phone was not recognizing the password I'm sure I've always used.  The nice person at the other end quickly decided to reset my password for me, and told me how to access it, and what to do when I did. I disconnected, thinking all was well.  I tried to get into my voice then, as I now had two messages to retrieve, but the password she had given me did not work either. Obviously she must have typed it in wrongly at her end, and I'm going to have to connect with Telus again to straighten that out.

This weekend I was at a party, and even though there where ten of us gathered at one table, several of those were busy socializing on their phones instead of with each other.  I have even seen people actually texting while jumping around on the dance floor, and for the life of me, I don't know how they managed that!  I have a hard enough time getting away from my computer as it is, so I'm pretty sure I'm better off not having such a gadget that kept me connected all the time. Not that I'd ever learn how to use it properly anyway.    

How I went from being so far ahead of others technologically, to being so far behind, is beyond me.  I doubt I'll ever get caught up now.   I've turned into a technological dinosaur. 

The Human Microprocessor Isn't News to Me

Today I read an article in Yahoo News called 'Microcomputers' Live Inside the Human Brain.  I'm not sure why they think this is a new discovery.

As we all know that the brain is a very powerful computer, but what some people don't realize is that you don't always need to fuss over a problem to solve it.  Just like computers often run programs in the background, once the brain is fed the information and left to do it's own thing, it too can work on solving  problems in the background, while you go about doing other things.  It will present us with a solution when it's finished.

Take for instance the fact that earlier this week I was looking for my watercolour pencils and my journal. They should have been in my art bag, but they were not.  I sometimes take a smaller bag with me to a drop in group where I occasionally do artistic things. They were not in that bag either.  I asked at the drop in if anyone had found them, thinking perhaps I'd left them behind the previous week. I knew I had used them there at that time.  Still, there was  no sign of them, there either.  When I mentioned that I had checked both my bags others got into a conversation about all the bags they have too.....one for exercise, one for art, one for bowling, etc, and the conversation went off in all kinds of directions from there.

 I figured I'd either lost the art supplies, or they would show up eventually, and thought no more about them. Then, last night, just as I was about to fall asleep, my brain solved the problem.  When I had gone to the drop in the week before, I had another event to attend immediately afterwards, and I had taken a different bag containing things I needed for that.  It was one that I never take to the drop in so I had forgotten about it entirely.  But my brain had not forgotten, and though I was not actively looking for my art supplies, or even thinking about where they might be, the computer in my brain put two and two together, and presented me with the answer, when I least expected it.

I related this story to some friends this morning, and was immediately told about the time one of my friends took something apart, and had the devil of a time trying to put it back together again. He eventually gave up. But that night he had a dream about how to put it together, and that solved the problem.  The computer in his brain has worked it out for him and presented him with the answer.

I remembered years ago when I had been trying to learn how to do the afghan stitch.  It's a form of crochet you do on a very long needle.  All the stitches are gathered on this needle as if you were knitting instead of crocheting, and then they are worked off again until you are down to the usual one stitch.  I read the instructions and tried to do what they said. That didn't work. I read them again and tried to work the  instructions one at a time, and still it didn't work.  I figured there was something I just didn't understand, so I took the problem to my mother-in-law. She was well experienced in both knitting and crocheting and I thought she could just show me how it was done.  She had never heard of the afghan stitch, so she read the instructions and tried it herself. She couldn't do it either.  She asked me to leave the book with her so she could figure it out, and I did, but she eventually gave up and we were no further ahead.  Just like in the two cases above, I let go of the problem, but my brain apparently did not.  A few weeks later I had a dream, and when I woke up, I knew how to do that afghan stitch.  The computer in my head worked out the problem and found a way to teach me.

Sometimes when I'm working on my computer, it doesn't respond as quickly as I'd like. Then I tend to press a button, or several, or the same one several times. This only confuses my old computer, and makes it harder for it to sort out just what I'm after.  If I had been patient and left it alone, it would have finished the required task much more quickly.


Many of us have been told in the past that if we have a problem we cannot solve, we should walk away from it.  Often the solution will present itself.  That computer that sits on top of our shoulders can work on the problem with out you fussing over it.  Ask the question, leave it alone and often the answers will come.  You just have to be patient as sometimes, like with our electronic device,  it takes a while for the information to be processed. The little microprocessors are working even when the main brain is focused on other things.

Like I said, I'm not sure why they think this is a new discovery.  I figured it out long ago.

It's a New Year

Happy New Years Everyone!

Do you have a New Years resolution this year? 

My main one is to spend less time on the computer. Obviously, I'm not doing very well at that so far, but I'll keep trying.  But I find I've become much more sedentary over the past couple of years. We finally got a high speed internet connection here, and now it's just too easy to come online and just stay.  I really need to get back to being more active.

Another resolution is to have more positive thoughts about my art. I'm often told I'm my own worst critic, so I'm just going to try not to do that. The art journal is helping, I think, since I know what goes in there is nothing more than play, but I seem to be willing to share it anyway. That's a good start, I think.  I do know that what I produce has improved over the years, and that I made some major strides in the past year, so I'm really hoping to have a much more positive outlook for this year.

The only other resolution I can think of is to finally open an Etsy shop. I've been wanting to do that for the past couple of years, and while I have a few ideas in my head, I've only just begun to work on them this past year. I'm definitely closer to this goal than I was last year, but I've still got some work to do first.

So tell me.....what resolutions did you make for the upcoming year?  Maybe we can encourage each other.