Do you belong?

Tags

20th century, 21st century, belonging, plumbing, postaday2012, technology, timeline

Do you belong in this day and age? Do you feel comfortable being a citizen of the 21st-century? If you do, explain why — and if you don’t, when in human history would you rather be?

I think that since we are in the very beginnings of the 21st century, not too far from the 20th, I feel pretty good where I am in the timeline. I’m not a techno person but I do enjoy the rapid feedback of WordPress. I sometimes imagine what it would be like to not have access to the internet anymore and the one thing that I would mourn is how it puts my thoughts, words and feelings out there so quickly to be shared with my friends. I try to tell myself that I could simply just write it down in longhand but then what would I do with all of my pages, where would I send them? I would have to find the names and addresses of everyone and do a daily mailing, I would be keeping the Post Office in business but is that in anyway realistic?

I know that I love indoor plumbing so I would never want to go back in time to a place without flushing and running water. I like the old ways of certain things so I think that I am where I should be in time because we haven’t yet abandoned all of the older ways of doing things; vinyl records are making a comeback, books are still revered, letter writing is still considered an art and local industries are regaining their foothold in many places.

I’m happy where I am.

Being part of an online discussion

Tags

debates, discussions, online, political views, postaday2012, technology

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/506c9bbe2b8c2a45a90005ff

Up above is a link that if I did it correctly will bring you to a short segment of Huffington Post Live that I was invited to be a part of yesterday at noon. Sarah Jackson who works at the HuffingtonPost sent me an e-mail last week complimenting me on my thoughtful and engaging comments and asking if I would be interested in being part of a community panel on HuffingtonPost Live. I replied yes, I felt validated by her interest in my thoughts and opinions. I was pretty excited for the whole evening. It’s not everyday that someone from an actual journal reaches out to me, the last time it happened was in college. Exciting!

Getting myself ready to participate online was much easier than I thought, I did it all myself. I registered with Googleplus1, I asked my hubby if we had any spare ear buds, we did. I also asked him where to plug them in, I didn’t want to dislodge any of his stuff, he told me and I found it. I read the three articles to be discussed and then I logged in with the three other gentlemen. We were joined by a staff reporter Arthur and the moderator, an Australian and it was a pleasant twenty minutes.

The topics were-

1.an increase in the sales of mens underwear-positive indication of our economy?

2. workers striking at Walmart, good for anything?

3. Libya and the Obama administration’s response, good or bad?

There was one republican amongst three democrats and I would say that the “sparks” were between the republican and the older gentlemen. The older gentlemen was accused by the republican of being professorial with his words and we were also being told by the republican that we were politicizing the sales of underwear. I offered my thoughts and opinions, I am not very aggressive so I felt a little drowned out in the discussion, I did state that with mens undergarment sales it is primarily the women who make the purchasing choices. I am pro-union so that didn’t fly very well and I said that Europe was good and I wasn’t quite sure why the administration sent mixed messages about Libya.

I’m glad that I took part in the panel discussion. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I know that I could have done a lot better. However I am better at writing my political responses than saying them out loud, I can focus when writing; when I speak my mind, it seems to go elsewhere and everywhere, so I sound scatter brained even though I’m not.

 

Frustration beyond belief

Tags

computers, deep breathing, frustration, hourglass, postaday2012, technology, unresponsive

Today was not a day for writing on my computer. This morning my computer was cooperating while I was going through my mail and other interests which was, in retrospect a gift, because as soon as I had finished doing all of my important items, my computer turned temperamental to the nth degree. My computer went all crazy diva on me like nobody’s business. She could have been a computer real housewife on the Bravo network. I had plans for my blog this morning, I had envisioned trying something new, adding a music clip to my Plinky post that I cross post onto WordPress, I was very excited about trying something new and learning more about the tools available for me to make my posts more interesting and unique to me. But no, my computer diva basically snapped her circuits and said “oh no you are not”. I had commented recently on a friend’s blog who was also encountering computer issues that when mine gives me trouble, I do a lot of deep breathing and many, many walks up and down the stairs as I wait for the horrendous hourglass to go away. I also get that annoying little window informing me that there is an unresponsive script and I could either let it continue or stop it. I always elect to stop the pesky script, but what goes on in that big box I wonder, I always hear things whirring away in the box which holds the hard drive. After what seemed to be innumerable unresponsive script alerts, I broke down and shut down the diva. Frustration was still coursing through my veins and what better remedy but physical labor, taking care of my plants. I transplanted both of my hibiscus to new pots and put them outside in the front. My bougainvillea also got put outside in the back near the pool, soon to be opened this Wednesday. I would have used my new toy, the manual mower, but it kept raining intermittently so I’m hoping to get to it either tomorrow or Wednesday. I am waiting to start the diva back up, I’m happily typing away on my IPad so I don’t want to ruin my mood as of yet. There is always time for frustration later, I’m relaxing reading and writing on the couch. Life is good, plants were taken care of, the dogs were walked quite a bit and I’m still writing.

Does technology help you with your writing?

Tags

postaday2011, technology, writing

If I were to be very specific, I would say that technology has helped with writing in that it helped me to discover that I actually enjoy writing. It was through using the Internet at the behest of my husband that I discovered Huffington Post. Reading the Huffington Post led me to register as a member which finally led me in late December of last year to start commenting in response to reading bloggers and articles concerning politics, a subject that has always interested me and that I have a passion for. I stumbled onto WordPress accidentally and I immediately signed up and joined Postaday2011, and I’ve been writing daily ever since.

Other than discovering that writing everyday is not a chore but rather a pleasure, technology in and of itself doesn’t impact my writing other than the fact that my writing wouldn’t be posted on the web instantaneously without the Internet. I try not to rely on spell check and grammar check, I prefer doing it manually, I use the two after I’ve proofed the post as a double-check. So that is about it for technology and my writing. If I think of anything else, I’ll revisit the topic.