Archive for September, 2004
09.30.04
Posted in computers at 10:32 pm by Mrs C.
Today seemed like a very long day for some reason. I updated a few wedding pictures to my website at www.creativehomecomputing.com after dinner and read my email. That’s about all the energy I have tonight. I must get about 50 junk emails a day, which drives me batty. Or should I say battier?
I finally got my newsletter out yesterday and have had some positive comments about my crazy computer alphabet, so maybe I’ll do some more. Also started a contest to gather computer tips for an upcoming ebook.
Found out today that URL is pronounced earl. I would never have known that and it sounds really funny.
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09.29.04
Posted in computers, learning at 4:39 pm by Mrs C.
Here it is almost 2 weeks since I last posted. I barely turn around and my days are gone. What with working at an ESL library, commuting to downtown Toronto, and household chores, I barely have time to eat and sleep, let alone do computer stuff. I try to read my forums and email, but sometimes am too tired to type.
I decided since my travel time is so long, I should buy a laptop so that I can get some stuff done then. After checking prices and stores for a few weeks, I found a store that sold used laptops for reasonable prices. The one I liked was missing the charger, so I had to wait two weeks for it to come in (was told it would be 3 days). By then I had spent the money elsewhere so didn’t get it.
This weekend I was Cash Convertors looking for electronic games and saw a Toshiba laptop for $200 - Pentium II, but it’s enough for my purpose. It was advertised with a 10 gig hard drive, but when I got it home it was only 4 gig. I should have checked the size while I was in the store. I also found out that the battery is dead. It works fine with the charger plugged in, but defeats my purpose for a laptop. According to the Internet, a new battery for that model is $150 US.
Now my dilemma is should I pay for a battery? Who knows how long the machine will last? The warranty is only 30 days, so I don’t want the screen to go after paying more money. Only problem is that I can only get an exchange, no refund - so I may be getting stuff from there for a very long time before I use up my credit - unless somehow they have a working model at one of their other stores.
The other thing I learned is that when you get rid of a computer, make sure you take your information off it. This was a company machine and still had budget reports, specialty company software, etc. Unless this guy was fired and did it on purpose, I don’t know what he was thinking!
Anyway, back to the searching for a good deal. I leased my Dell PC and later bought it and lately I’ve been thinking about doing the same with a laptop. Do I want to pay for two years, or do I not? On the plus side, I could write it off every month on my taxes - hmm.
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09.16.04
Posted in computers, life in Canada, learning at 1:30 am by Mrs C.
I wasn’t exactly intending to start this tonight, but I seem to have been carried away with the blog tide. It was easy enough to set up, the hard part will be writing every day. When I get home from work I just want to veg.
Work is being a library technician at George Brown College in the ESL department. I enjoy it when I get there and the students are great, but I have at least a one hour commute, sometimes up to 2 hours, which is the pits!!
Maybe I could start a book on the manners and lack of seen in the commuter crowd. From the couple making out, to the drunk yelling at everyone, to the girl on her cel phone letting the world in on her private conversation. People use transit as their kitchen, make up room, lounge and everything in between. I find it amazing that people will not look at you or talk to you since you’re a stranger (this is downtown Toronto after all), yet they are sitting so close that you could be joined at the thigh to the person beside you.
Anyway, so much for my reasons to be too tired to write. If I could only turn my brain off, because my body wants to go to bed (after all, it’s 55 years old), but my mind still thinks it’s 25 and keeps coming up with neat ideas for things to do and learn. How do I manage to keep up with myself? It’s like when you get older, but you’re still a kid inside and feel like doing a sommersault. If you follow through, you will end up in pain lying on the grass - I speak from experience.
So this blog will follow Mrs C. in her quest to keep up with a motivated mind that always wants to learn about everything. ( Working in a library for me is like a kid in a candy store - at least I’m a speed reader.)
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