Overcoming technology tears.

Technology is unavoidable in Australia 2007. I am technologically challenged.

Therefore I am challenged on a daily basis by things that exist on a plane of understanding that doesn't seem to exist in my head - well maybe just a teensy scrap over there in the left hand back corner behind the black hole where "technology " is supposed to sit in my brain. There are only about 5 3/4 brain cells in that area and I have to be careful not to overload them. Maybe that's why God gave me children who understand what is going on and can come to my rescue; and my understanding of how it feels to be learning disabled has really hit home - now it's me, not my students.

Once, not only did my struggles with a computer have the nice young man on a help desk in gales of laughter, but he felt obliged to tell all the other little goblins in the help desk room and they were also rolling around laughing. I know because I could hear them. It didn't bother me, because in between my tears of frustration I could really see the funny side of it all. At least I wasn't boring them.

In one of those twists of life my eldest child, The Good Prince, now 30, is one of the world's best web developers in open source software of a particular kind. Once upon a time, we laughed at the irony of him being my son and me being his mother. Now he says I am an asset - I give him insight into how software developers really need to keep the non-techie-type in mind when they are writing stuff the general public will use.

It seems I am at the extreme end of computer users - I often don't understand the symbols; the logic of how a computer works seems to come from another planet; the words are often cryptic instead of literal, and I can recognise that quirky sense of humour that a lot of techies have, written large all over my lovely flat screen. I recognise it because I raised one of them. Recognise it but don't understand it when it applies to technology. The other thing I recognise is that a lot of the people who write the software are young - intelligent, often very intelligent, but lacking both life experience and knowledge of how other and older people function, and that not everyone has their type of intelligence and affinity with technology. But that doesn't help me understand things when I am trying to pay the bills, or research something through google, or fix something gone wrong because I bumped the mouse and clicked onto something I didn't mean to e.g.

1. "cookies" - why couldn't they just call them "pop-ups" - non-literal language and cutesy language don't give me any information to try to work out what something is, or how it works.

2. Clicking on "Close" - usually means this choice is given -
"Do you wish to continue closing?"

The choices are - "OK" or "Cancel" - my answer is Huh?????

Both are ambiguous - does "OK " mean "Yes" or "No, it's OK, I'll just keep going."
Does "Cancel" mean "Continue Closing" or "Cancel the closing procedure"

Why Oh Why can't can't the choices be "Yes" or "No"

And I really need to grouch about the "Just" sentence - you know the one - that one that starts

"You just........" e.g.

"You just cut and paste the..........." or

"You just close down the........and re-install the......." or

"You just go into........."

Well, no I can't do any of those things!

BUT.... where there is perseverance there is hope! Several years down the track( actually several years x 2) I can send and receive emails; I can find something on Google Earth (Now that's truly amazing!!!); I can mostly find what I want on Google - especially since The Good Prince taught me to click on "Cached" and the instruction actually makes sense! I can buy something from Amazon or E bay; pay bills; be in groups and read blogs; and I actually started this blog all on my own!!!!! The goblins at Blogger have morphed into Good Fairies and set up a 1,2,3 process that is the easiest thing I've ever done on a computer. Thank you, thank you thank you.

And thank you to The Good Prince who set up my computer so it was at it's easiest to use - i.e. blank pages and no ads, flashing things, or extraneous bits and pieces of stuff. Thank you to the Good Princesses who also come to Mum's rescue and show me things/get me out of trouble. Last and never least - thank you to The White Knight - father of the young Royals - who has supplied many tissues to mop up tears and both his shoulders to cry them on while I learnt to do the seemingly impossible.

Whales Waving at Wollongong

Good Evening World,

Today included a 1st! - seeing a couple of humpback whales offshore having a wonderful time playing and showing off- waving their very long flippers in the air - jumping into the air so that only their tails were left in the water, then crashing over onto their black backs with their white bellies upwards with great splashes of water erupting into the air around them. What glorious creatures :-) And I was able to watch from the cliff top a block from where I live.

Since I've lived here just a few weeks it felt like the whales were waving " Welcome to Wollongong". Now I have this whimsical picture in my head of humpback whales semaphoring messages around the world!

Hugs,
Lucy
Princess of The Golden Thread

Good morning world!

Good morning world -what a mind-expanding concept.

Welcome to my blog - but really I like the way my favourite blogger - 108yr old Olive Riley of www.allaboutolive.com.au says it-

"Welcome to my blob"

Hugs,
Lucy
Princess of The Golden Thread