Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Gremlins strike again!

I wrote my post a few days back, and saved it, and then when I come to find it and publish it, it vanished! Oh, it's probably lurking somewhere unsuspected and will pop up when you least expect it, but in the meantime, I try AGAIN.



I confess, I am a techno-ignoramus. I am fortunate in having a son with a degree in Systems Engineering, who works with computers and just about lives for them. (At his wedding, I did mention that I was delighted that his bride had neither pointed ears or a motherboard...) So when I have a problem, I can call him and he will come fix it. Or, at least, he has been able to do so so far! He even does it long-distance -- I had a computer problem while living on the Cayman Isles, and the two (two!) 'experts' at C&W couldn't figure out what was wrong. Well, one was on his lunch break, and the other...less said the better. I called my son. He fixed the problem over the phone.



Back in the olden days, I wrote with a fountain pen on lined legal pads. Then I got a typewriter, and wow, I could churn out twice the amount of rubbish in half the time! (Except when I discovered an error in the middle of a chapter and had to retype the whole thirty pages. My, was the air blue...)



Then I got my first word-processor. That was all it was -- it didn't play games or do emails or surf the Net, it just crunched words. It was a revelation!



I've gone on from there and now I'm a computer convert. But it just makes the tedious stuff easier. When a member of a writers' group asked me what sort of computer he needed to write his magnum opus, I told him he just needed pencil & paper and his own brain. (Sorry, Dell. I love you really, bless your electronic gubbins.)



My creativity is being severely restricted by my paying job. I haven't worked this steadily for years -- covering sick-leave and holidays means I don't have much free time this month. Oh, and there's the summer activities for Cats Protection at weekends, and now that Meri the Somali is a fully-fledged therapy cat, there are his visits to make. (He is a big hit, by the way. The ladies adore him. One, who only speaks Welsh, calls him her 'Cariad' ('darling') and kisses his head. I have wondered, sometimes, what kind of human male he'd be. Sweet-natured, inquisitive -- and handsome, of course...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh the days of typewriters. It makes me cringe to think how we'd have to type everything over for a mistake or if you wanted to add or delete stuff. Thank goodness for computers. Though I do enjoy using pen and paper occasionally. If only I could read my handwriting!

Anny Cook said...

Yep. I started pre-typewriter. I wonder if I was a better writer back then?

Anita Birt said...

I love your post. I did a bad thing the other day. I copied my trailer (for A Very Difficult Man) to a CD. Bad! It made my computer unsteady. However, my computer blocked the damned thing but I can't use Internet Explorer. That's a minor inconvenience. Why do these things happen to unsuspecting computer ignoramanuses (sp?) I do not have a handy son. Even if Martin were here, he is not a computer whiz.

You'd think a warning sign should have come up to stop me. Sigh.