I've had an RSS feed through Newsgator for over a year now, maybe two years. RSS feeds are as addicting as anything could be for me. I want to know it all and it's probably the strongest reason I got into this field of work so many years ago. I read and read and read, and before you know it the hours are passing and I'm not getting any work done. Reports may not be written, timecards not filled out, emails not responded to, etc. I feel that CML thinks they pay me for a purpose, and while some information gathering and technology exploration is a good thing, there comes a point when my paycheck stops because nothing else is getting done. And then I'm out the door trying to figure out how to pay for a mortgage, car, and save for a child's college tuition on nothing but my good looks and winning personality; ie: zilch.
I tried playing around with Bloglines, but I like Newsgator better for now, perhaps just personal choice and because I can navigate around it without thinking too much. I can spend my time on chasing down just one more piece of news...
a girl who grew up in The Land of Sky Blue Waters
Monday, September 29, 2008
Here you can see the TV set sitting on my pass through. Over the weekend, he added a switch under that left hand cupboard to change the TV to a computer screen. It looks just like a light switch. He has also added a unit so that the mouse and keyboard are wireless and I can operate and store the keyboard and mouse anywhere in the kitchen - no wires!
The digital picture frame is on the right hand side of the pass-through in the pictures, but actually it is now on it's way to my mother. My DH has also promised that soon he'll mount the tv screen on a movable wall arm so that I can adjust the placing and angle of the screen as I need to use it.
The digital picture frame is on the right hand side of the pass-through in the pictures, but actually it is now on it's way to my mother. My DH has also promised that soon he'll mount the tv screen on a movable wall arm so that I can adjust the placing and angle of the screen as I need to use it.Friday, September 26, 2008
Write anything about Technology - an L&P assignment
The assignment is "Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests you this week. " They should know better than to give me such lee-way. Here goes, and it's a long one, folks.
My mother has just turned 81 years old, and is still mentally as sharp as any tack, though she has a hard time getting around due to the arthritis in her knees. She also has practically everything she needs, and as she grew up in the Depression, never considers to want things that are not practical. It's tough to find her birthday, Christmas, or Mother's Day present. However, I found it - a digital picture frame! These are so cool! My husband put a 4 gb sd card in it for me, and I downloaded and re-formatted pictures from my laptop all last night. Then I just slipped the sd card into the digital picture frame, turned it on and hey! Presto! it began to run a slide show of friends and family that my mother's going to love. And I can continually update it, by just sending her another sd card. How sweet is that? Now just to get it into the mail and send it 1000 miles away.
While, I'm playing with this lovely digital toy, cooing and oohing and aahhing over it, and seriously coveting it, my DH disappears into the basement. Soon I hear great deals of banging, hammering, drilling, and electric tools being used. I, in the kitchen making dinner, can feel the vibrations on the kitchen floor. I send my DD downstairs to see what's up. (Her favorite phrase now: "What's up?" I hate it, but found I've begun to use it too. Ick) She returns and informs me that she can't tell me, because it's a surprise. Oh-Oh. My DH is incredibly thoughtful and very bright, but his idea of a great surprise doesn't always fall into accord with my line of thinking. Let's just say his surprises are really SURPRISES! I continue to listen to the basement activity with a slight sense of dread.
Then he appears, and begins to empty out one of the lower cupboards. Now while I'm making dinner, I have to navigate stuff lying all over the floor. My sense of dread is growing. He inserts his head and arms into the cupboard, fools around for a bit, utters appropriate swear words, comes out grinning. He then turns on the kitchen TV. Runs downstairs, runs back upstairs and fiddles with the TV, which I can see has begun to load MicroSoft.
The kitchen TV is a 15 inch flatscreen that sits on our kitchen pass through. The pass through is a common kitchen feature, which is like having a window with no glass that looks into the living room or family room. One can 'pass through' drinks, sandwiches, or other food items to those watching tv. I think that's the only thing it's ever used for, that and holding any and all junk items that have no better place to be, but I digress. The kitchen TV is a means of entertainment for anyone who is cooking, washing dishes, or cleaning the kitchen. But this evening, my husband has begun to turn it into a computer station. The banging around downstairs? He was constructing a shelf under the kitchen floor to hold a cpu. He drilled a hole into the kitchen floor and into the lower cabinets to run the cabling. and Voila! My 15 inch flatscreen TV, can now be switched from a TV to a digital photo frame, to a regular computer that can be navigated and where I can also pull up my recipe files to use! This is why I'm married to the man - he can still astound me. I am in love all over again, with him and my new technology.
My mother has just turned 81 years old, and is still mentally as sharp as any tack, though she has a hard time getting around due to the arthritis in her knees. She also has practically everything she needs, and as she grew up in the Depression, never considers to want things that are not practical. It's tough to find her birthday, Christmas, or Mother's Day present. However, I found it - a digital picture frame! These are so cool! My husband put a 4 gb sd card in it for me, and I downloaded and re-formatted pictures from my laptop all last night. Then I just slipped the sd card into the digital picture frame, turned it on and hey! Presto! it began to run a slide show of friends and family that my mother's going to love. And I can continually update it, by just sending her another sd card. How sweet is that? Now just to get it into the mail and send it 1000 miles away.
While, I'm playing with this lovely digital toy, cooing and oohing and aahhing over it, and seriously coveting it, my DH disappears into the basement. Soon I hear great deals of banging, hammering, drilling, and electric tools being used. I, in the kitchen making dinner, can feel the vibrations on the kitchen floor. I send my DD downstairs to see what's up. (Her favorite phrase now: "What's up?" I hate it, but found I've begun to use it too. Ick) She returns and informs me that she can't tell me, because it's a surprise. Oh-Oh. My DH is incredibly thoughtful and very bright, but his idea of a great surprise doesn't always fall into accord with my line of thinking. Let's just say his surprises are really SURPRISES! I continue to listen to the basement activity with a slight sense of dread.
Then he appears, and begins to empty out one of the lower cupboards. Now while I'm making dinner, I have to navigate stuff lying all over the floor. My sense of dread is growing. He inserts his head and arms into the cupboard, fools around for a bit, utters appropriate swear words, comes out grinning. He then turns on the kitchen TV. Runs downstairs, runs back upstairs and fiddles with the TV, which I can see has begun to load MicroSoft.
The kitchen TV is a 15 inch flatscreen that sits on our kitchen pass through. The pass through is a common kitchen feature, which is like having a window with no glass that looks into the living room or family room. One can 'pass through' drinks, sandwiches, or other food items to those watching tv. I think that's the only thing it's ever used for, that and holding any and all junk items that have no better place to be, but I digress. The kitchen TV is a means of entertainment for anyone who is cooking, washing dishes, or cleaning the kitchen. But this evening, my husband has begun to turn it into a computer station. The banging around downstairs? He was constructing a shelf under the kitchen floor to hold a cpu. He drilled a hole into the kitchen floor and into the lower cabinets to run the cabling. and Voila! My 15 inch flatscreen TV, can now be switched from a TV to a digital photo frame, to a regular computer that can be navigated and where I can also pull up my recipe files to use! This is why I'm married to the man - he can still astound me. I am in love all over again, with him and my new technology.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Princess
I have a princess at my house. Do you? I think every home should have one. She certainly brightens my day. She's certainly shown me a new dramatic way to wear lipstick.
This motivational poster mash up was fun. I could really spend some time on it, and really embarass my family, friends and co-workers - then again, maybe not a good idea. I can see that I would need to do a lot better job with colors and fonts. It's supposed to say: "Princess, it's all in your attitude." But that last line is hard to read in a small space. But fun anyway.
This motivational poster mash up was fun. I could really spend some time on it, and really embarass my family, friends and co-workers - then again, maybe not a good idea. I can see that I would need to do a lot better job with colors and fonts. It's supposed to say: "Princess, it's all in your attitude." But that last line is hard to read in a small space. But fun anyway.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Typical
While I had been playing around with the idea of writing a blog for a while, it wasn't until CML started their Learn&Play program that I had a little push in that direction. And in typical ADD style, I started in the middle with the fun and interesting things to do. However, CML is tracking progress numerically, ie: first do this, then this - so now I have to go back and fill in lots of the blanks to be officially caught up. Actually, today I was playing with Flickr's API Postcard Browser. OK, this is way too much fun. I put in Banff National Park, where I visited the summer after my senior high school year way back in dinosaur ages. The pictures are lovely, almost like I had been on that trip recently. I should also say I love playing with Flickr, and can spend hours there. It can be like taking a trip to anywhere you fancy, or you can look at pictures of animals, or kids or whatever. I just love seeing how the world works. I also get a kick out of seeing what people think of my old home town, via the pictures - lots of lakes and snow and icicles, and of course, lots of pictures of the Smokey the Bear statue in our downtown park. (Only YOU can prevent forest fires!) I used to climb all over that statue while I was growing up. My brothers actually got up to Smokey's head once. Don't ask me how they did it, or got down for that matter. I was only brave enough to top the head of one of the cubs.
OK, back to the Learn & Play exercise: Out of the 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners, we are to identify one that is very easy and one that is difficult. It's been very interesting reading other participant's blogs and seeing where their successes and difficulties lie. Many people have identified the habit "View problems as challenges" as their most difficult, while I find that for myself that is a daily occurence. I am constantly running into problems to solve because my brain doesn't process information as most others do. I am not good at reading facial expressions and body language, so I have to pay closer attention when someone is talking to me. Many people have told me I'm a good listener, but they don't know that its not so much listening as trying to figure out what they're really saying, and I can often get it so wrong. I've been labeled quiet, but that's because I'm usually so overwhelmed with information barging around in my brain, that it takes me a long time to process what I should be paying attention to, and by the time I figure that out the subject is often long past. So I would say every day can be a challenge, and I face it without thinking much about it. I've read over and over how ADD people are resilient - they keep coming back over and over trying to figure out whatever is blocking them from succeeding or learning.
My toughest habit would be "Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner." I don't have a lot of confidence in my learning abilties. It usually takes many many tries for me to understand something. And often it's being taught or explained in a manner my ADD doesn't pick up on. There have been so many times where I've asked, what to me was a perfectly legitimate question to explain something, and the instructor has given me the strangest puzzled look, or an exhasperated sigh, as if I should have already understood this part. One quickly learns not to ask questions in that environment. So I do my learning on the sly. I'll find someone who's really good at something, and who I trust implicitly and then I'll ask the questions I want and need to ask. But I still always have the feeling that everyone else knows something I don't know, but should. That doesn't build confidence, that's for sure.
OK, back to the Learn & Play exercise: Out of the 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners, we are to identify one that is very easy and one that is difficult. It's been very interesting reading other participant's blogs and seeing where their successes and difficulties lie. Many people have identified the habit "View problems as challenges" as their most difficult, while I find that for myself that is a daily occurence. I am constantly running into problems to solve because my brain doesn't process information as most others do. I am not good at reading facial expressions and body language, so I have to pay closer attention when someone is talking to me. Many people have told me I'm a good listener, but they don't know that its not so much listening as trying to figure out what they're really saying, and I can often get it so wrong. I've been labeled quiet, but that's because I'm usually so overwhelmed with information barging around in my brain, that it takes me a long time to process what I should be paying attention to, and by the time I figure that out the subject is often long past. So I would say every day can be a challenge, and I face it without thinking much about it. I've read over and over how ADD people are resilient - they keep coming back over and over trying to figure out whatever is blocking them from succeeding or learning.
My toughest habit would be "Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner." I don't have a lot of confidence in my learning abilties. It usually takes many many tries for me to understand something. And often it's being taught or explained in a manner my ADD doesn't pick up on. There have been so many times where I've asked, what to me was a perfectly legitimate question to explain something, and the instructor has given me the strangest puzzled look, or an exhasperated sigh, as if I should have already understood this part. One quickly learns not to ask questions in that environment. So I do my learning on the sly. I'll find someone who's really good at something, and who I trust implicitly and then I'll ask the questions I want and need to ask. But I still always have the feeling that everyone else knows something I don't know, but should. That doesn't build confidence, that's for sure.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
It's a computer disc!
This is a disc from a hard drive from an early OSU computer. It was actually one of many (7?) in the hard drive, and yes it really is as heavy as it looks. It's probably about an inch thick. A co-worker of my husband's had it in his garage and was thinking of turning it into a table. I say put it back in the garage.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Learn & Play @ CML
Well, I really didn't mean my last post to be a 'poor-me' type of thing, but it has been a difficult year. Our staff are involved in a Learn and Play exercise and it has been a lot of fun watching them and working with them. The purpose is to familiarize our staff with the different types of online technology: blogging, twitter, Flickr, mashups, etc. that our customers are using. There's a lot of collaboration going on in the staff work room, and some of us are staying only about half a step ahead. But there have been plenty of Eureka moments when the last little command has been figured out. Lots of people feeling really proud of themselves, too. While the instructions have said that each portion should take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, I'm afraid that may have stretched. But they're still getting their daily work done, and the customers are going in and out, and don't even seem to notice that there's a new project making the staff buzz.
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