Back to Basics

Yesterday I bought an address book. The old fashioned, scratch out addresses when someone moves, put a check when you send a holiday card, address book. It doesn't lose addresses, eat them, make them disappear, nor require a computer science degree to get the addresses to print so you can carry 10 pieces of paper somewhere when you want address your envelopes anywhere but at the little computer desk. Take that, Microsoft Outlook - you've been fired as my official address book!

Cyber Evolution

We first went "online" in early 1998, with a Mac Quadra and a dialup account. I soon found all sorts of sewing info, which led me to the Sew4Kids4Fun email discussion list on Quiltropolis. I soon had all sorts of cyberfriends all over the world who shared my love for sewing. Over the years I've had the pleasure of meeting several in person, despite my DH's initial fears that everyone on the internet were axe murderers! And on 9/11 one of the first things I did when I got home from my Washington DC job, where I could see the Pentagon from my office, was to post to the Sew4Kids4Fun list that I was ok.
The Sewfers started sharing pictures of what they had sewn, so I soon found myself with a PictureTrail Account. I learned to have my pictures developed onto a floppy then a CD so I could upload them painfully slowly thru the dialup. I was so excited to finally get my first digital camera in 2002!
The Sew4Kids4Fun list spun off several special interest lists, and I joined almost all of them. Then I found yahoo groups and a whole other world of lists. I was getting hundreds of emails a day and could not keep up!
Then people started talking about blogs. I hopped on the blogwagon too. I'm finding that I compose way more blog entries in my head than I actually ever get to post, and I am sorry for that, dear readers, because some of them are pretty good (ha ha!)!
Then people started talking about podcasts, but we were still on dialup so downloading them was next to impossible. It didn't take long to convince DH to make the switch to cable, despite the added cost. Next thing I did was to get DH a new iPod for Father's Day, so he could hand me down his older one and I was hooked on podcasts! I quickly filled the little ipod mini up, and started campaigning for a new ipod with enough memory for all my podcasts and also TV episodes! Remember, I'm a Lost junkie! That happened last fall, when we cashed in a big jar of change we'd been saving for many many years and I got my ipod classic!
At some point I heard on the knitting podcasts about Ravelry, the online knitting (and crocheting) community, so of course I jumped on that bandwagon too! I'm busknitter over there!
DS joined an online community too, Webkinz, so I had to get my own furry friends and join that too so I could see what the Webkinz craze was all about.
Now there's Facebook. I just can't keep up! I have a wall people write on, I've been poked, and I've gotten in touch with some dear friends from high school that I had lost touch with over the years. That's cool.
And I don't even dare explore what Twitter is! Where are we going next??????

Geek of the Day!

Live, from the Thyme2Sew living room....Me! Yes, I have successfully moved my desktop computer and all of its peripherals from the bedroom upstairs to its new home on a new computer desk in the living room! I felt like such a techie, disconnecting and reconnecting. Only one cord did I hold up and say, now what is THIS one for?! (it was for the speakers)
Why the move? Well, since we switched bedroom rooms upstairs, the computer had ended up being in the master bedroom, which really hampered my online time, as DH tends to go to bed before me and wake up after me. He doesn't like the clickety-clack of the keyboard while trying to sleep. And, the cable upstairs was split ten ways to Monday, which sometimes (we think) caused some of the intermittent cable issues we'd been having. Downstairs we only have the cable connected to the TV in the living room. I can take a quick look at email, etc while I am doing whatever in the kitchen, too!
Now, I just have to figure out what to do for a chair (I'm currently sitting on DH's drum set stool), and I think I might look into one of the flat screen LCD monitors, as this one is your regular old-fashioned (haha) big hulking monitor that is probably 16 inches or so from front to back. Hey, at least I don't need my glasses to see it!
The dog is happy too, as she was not allowed into the master bedroom (except when DH wasn't looking!) and is happily lying at my feet. A good move all around! Now, I must go run errands before the nice independent pharmacy we frequent closes! TTFN!