Goodwood

Goodwood

Friday 11 February 2011

Me a Dinosaur?

I can be a bit of a technophobe when I can’t see the benefit of a gadget. Add to this equation the concept that I believe a little knowledge can be very dangerous and you’ll begin to see why I thought mobile phones were a waste of space initially, because they were the size of a house brick! I failed to comprehend how mobiles would be popular. So it goes without saying: I’m no trendsetter.

But naturally if I can see how a widget or a gadget can assist me in my daily life then all of you will have to get behind me, in an orderly queue, because I’ll be at the front ready to adopt it.

This morning my computer operated at a painfully slow level it was making me angry and my frustration grew rapidly. I had no idea what the problem could be and I could have cheerfully picked it up and lobbed it out of a window! However luckily for the computer it is sited on the ground floor so my spectacular display, would have been wasted, due to a lack of height.

Then I had a bight idea: maybe my computer needs to be 'defragged.' I couldn’t ever remember doing this process since I had purchased it and thought it might be worth a try. I set the machine running and the program advised it could take a few minutes or hours. I reckoned that I’d better settle on the latter, knowing my luck.

Now what was I to do? As I’m unsure whether I can actually use my computer while a defragmenting process is running. The hint was in the program, it wisely suggested doing this process at 1am every wed, while I’m presumably asleep.

I decided to switch off, go relax, freshen up. Anything that would help me ignore this grindingly slow process of trying to improve my computer’s performance. The idea that this action might help me gain speed is not lost on me.

Picture this. I’m in the shower, a great place to relax as the water cascades and then it dawns on me: yes like I said I can make a connection however tenuous, or I can be very blonde and miss it totally. I have a laptop. I have wi-fi in my home. The penny drops. Yes I’m over-egging it a bit here. Like I said I don’t mean to be a dinosaur but unless you’re used to dealing with computer glitches (I’ve always had access to superb IT teams in previous lives) then the obvious solution isn’t always immediately ‘OBVIOUS.’

So I can keep working, I can keep in contact with Twitter, I just have to adapt my personal working preferences. It’s odd but I don’t think to use my laptop unless I’m on the move, to me this is a portable device. Besides which I would much rather sit at my desk with my mainframe than hunch over, this fabulous small keyboard with a screen that’s too close to the keys, in a chair!

I can hear you laughing at my short sightedness, but honestly I do aim to improve my ‘numpty’ behaviour. Keep ahead of the game? Well perhaps that’s a little too ambitious at the moment. But I am determined, focused on achieving the big goal.

Even if my computer is on a go slow - I’m not.

Follow me on my journey and see where I go – writing my novel is important to me, getting it published even more so. Then all I will need is readers. So I’ll tell you what’s happening, how I worked things out but I’m not in the business of offering advice or how to do things, when it comes to writing - I’ll leave that to others far more capable than I.

I don’t mean to be a dinosaur but I promise to try to make you laugh, keep my blog entries life hearted.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kay

    I don't think I'll ever get to grips with technology. As long as I've got Word and can cut and paste then I can happily write.
    How's 'Letting Go' coming along? Are you editing the completed MS yet? It took me longer to edit than write my book!
    Good luck with it, I have my fingers crossed for you.
    Ange Barton x

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