In Which I Tackle Technological Challenges by Nancy L. Eady

 I am convinced that most technological items, like remotes, have a gender bias that allows them to work perfectly for males but mess up when females follow the same steps the males did. For example, we have a very scary universal remote. I couldn’t find it while writing this blog, but the Sony remote from our TV (which fortunately we never use) is just as scary-looking.

Using this, my husband can turn on our devices effortlessly. I can follow the same steps, but it won’t work for me. Ergo, it has a built-in gender bias. My husband laughs at me, but I remain convinced.

In an ironic twist of fate, I manage the IT equipment, computers, networks, internet phones, and monitors at my office. I won this honor for two reasons. First, I learned early that 95% of the technological problems that occur with a computer are fixed if you unplug it, wait a little while, then restart it. For the other five percent of problems, I work diligently to be sure we have very good vendors we can call for problems. Second, when IT vendors throw out acronyms or terms I don’t understand, I stop them to ask what the acronyms or terms mean. I’m not trying to make their life difficult, but how can I decide if I don’t understand what they said? Sometimes, it’s funny to see the look on their face as they try to explain a term that no one has ever asked them to define. One word they often use that makes me cringe is “leverage.” “We will leverage such-and-such to accomplish so and so.” Just substitute the word “use” for leverage and you’ve got the meaning down.

But I digress, as often happens. In spite of my technological handicap, besides blogging for Writers Who Kill, I have in the past written two blogs of my own, workingmomadventures.com and footballnovice.com. I accidentally let the domain registration for The Football Novice lapse, and it has been several years since I published more than sporadically in Working Mom Adventures. I want to write more for Working Mom, but when I tried to do a lengthy post last year, I realized that the user-friendly Wordpress.com platform I started out with in 2010 has morphed into something I have trouble using. And because I didn’t renew my domain name for the Football Novice in time, I lost every single one of my football posts. I cannot tell you how much it irritates me to write something I know I have written before but lost. It never comes out the way the first one did, and to me, it’s never as good. I’d like to revive that blog as well, but figured it was hopeless because of the lost posts.

And then, through a law clerk last summer, I discovered “the Wayback Machine.” Located at archive.org, the “Wayback Machine” is “a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” They started in 1996. Curious, I looked up my old football blog and was thrilled to discover all my posts were there! So I have purchased my domain names back and am working on relaunching the blog, which explains the basic rules of football for new watchers, puts out TV football schedules for the week in the NFL and the SEC at a minimum, and talks about the history of the game. Because I am no match for the WordPress of today, I bought a WordPress manual to start the football blog from scratch (except for the posts, which I will reuse). I am about a third of the way through the manual, which discusses a topic, then leaves you with a checklist to complete from the topics discussed in the chapter.

And therein lies the challenge. In the first chapter, I learned that wordpress.com was not the way to go, but rather wordpress.org. The book thinks it's cheaper. I spent an evening trying to load WordPress onto my computer. I’m still not sure I actually did so, but I finally was able to proceed to the exercises in Chapter 2 and complete them successfully. The book has yet to reach the editing/writing part of WordPress, something called “Gutenberg,” but I have hope we’ll get there eventually because I keep running across sentences like “This is where you’ll find X for Gutenberg, but don’t worry about that yet.”

What does this have to do with writing mysteries? Quite a lot, actually. Yesterday, Sunday, January 21, Sarah Burr published an excellent post, https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2024/01/prepping-for-press-in-new-year-by-sarah.html. In it, she offers advice on preparing a press kit for speaking engagements or interviews, which includes adding links in your press materials to your websites. A writer needs a “platform” website for their works to help promote their writing. While neither Working Mom nor The Football Novice will count as “platform” websites, working with them will help me create and publish my platform website when it is time, and give me a wealth of back material.

I’ll let you know once I’m able to write fresh posts for Working Mom. I’m not sure when I’ll make The Football Novice public: either right before the NFL Hall of Fame game in August, or right before the new spring league, the United Football League (created by the merger of the XFL and USFL), starts in March.

What adventures have you experienced in working on your on-line sites? Is there a “one size fits all” manual not restricted to a specific platform? I’d love to hear from some of you who have tackled this challenge successfully to know there’s light at the end of my tunnel.

THIS POST HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY INTERRUPTED DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES by Nancy L. Eady

 Have you ever tried to write something using a new computer? How about with a (relatively) new puppy? The two in tandem raise the difficulty level in writing to previously unseen heights. Technically speaking, I am also writing this with a new word processing program. Word Online is different from Word downloaded to a computer but not so hard that I can’t handle it.  

So how, exactly, did I end up in this fix? First, the laptop I was using died. Kaput. And I really miss it – the keys lit up at night, the keyboard was the right size for my fingers, the speed was perfect, and I had lots stored on it. We have a family laptop, but that is not the same as having my own writing spot. And while it may seem overkill, I really like having a computer dedicated to me and my writing.  

Then I went to the ABA Techshow in Chicago earlier this month. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and to top everything off, I, who never win anything, won a brand new Chromebook! So, I thought to myself, “Voila! I have my writing computer. Hooray!” Which is true, but as with any new technology, there is a learning curve. This learning curve is steeper because Chromebooks do not run off a Windows operating system but off its own system, Chrome OS. Also, as of this writing, Chromebooks are not compatible with Microsoft Office – at least the version that you download onto the computer. I used my Kindle Unlimited subscription to download the book Seniors Guide to Chromebook by Richard Reed (my husband is still laughing at me over the title) and learned that the reason for this is that the Chromebook is designed to use online apps, not programs loaded onto your computer. This allows a Chromebook to carry a lot less internal memory and makes it a lot lighter. Its keyboard is smaller than I’m used to, also, but I think once I get used to its particularities, I will end up liking it a lot. And free is infinitely better than paying for a new laptop, although laptops are lots cheaper than they used to be.  

Now, to backtrack a little. As you may recall, we adopted Max on December 27. He is now six months old, a sweet dog, but a puppy. Being a puppy, he is a very random thing. He does not normally lick me silly, but tonight, as soon as I sat down and opened my computer, he attacked. It’s difficult to write when your eyes are closed and your face is covered with your hands to keep your glasses from getting messed up, all while trying to figure out how to right click on a touch pad that follows its own rules. But finally, I have managed.  

So, for all my (hopefully) temporary difficulties, WWK community, meet my new writing tool, Chromebook. Chromebook, meet the WWK community.  

And everyone, Max says hello!  

Something Else Not Improved by Technology by Nancy L. Eady

 I have some work I want to do on my computer, but McAfee decided to disimprove my life by unilaterally deciding to re-enlist my account (after I specifically cancelled the last attempt at automatic enrollment). Then Microsoft decided to improve my life by announcing (another) update. So far, it’s been 20 minutes and the download has reached 33%. Even though I know I need my computer to be able to write, right now I’m tempted to throw everything out the window and find a pen and paper. 

But because I can’t really afford to do that, and because it’s too rainy and cold outside to destroy my computer properly, I thought I’d share with you moments in my life that technology couldn’t improve. 

Our adult daughter moved out in July. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, she returned permanently with one addition – a cat. We can’t keep a cat in the house because of my husband’s allergies and asthma, but we tolerated it for a few weeks because Kayla was fragile and couldn’t handle parting with her immediately. Finally we reached the point where it had to go, so my husband and Kayla worked out a compromise – the cat would be re-homed with my sister and we would get a puppy for Kayla. (For those of you worried about the cat, I am thrilled to report that Luna is doing very well, ecstatic at having the run of my sister’s house and making good friends with their other three cats.) Luna went to my sister’s the day before Christmas, so December 27^th found me at the animal shelter with my daughter to see what they had that was adoptable. (Coincidentally, the 27^th is my birthday). So, we acquired Max.

Max Comes Home

 

Max Comes Home 2

For the record, Max is the first dog that has ever entered our house that I did not ask for. The other eight over the years (the last two of which you met a couple of months ago in https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2022/08/something-not-improved-by-technology-by.html) I lobbied for hard, but Max is here solely because of my husband and Kayla. And that’s okay. He also is the youngest dog we have adopted, only three months old, since 1994, when we adopted J.P. Wooflesnort who was six weeks old. Unfortunately, Kayla miscalculated the effect he would have on her social life. And since her social life has not been curtailed, he is every bit as much our dog as hers now.

Mark and Max

 With two dogs in the house, life is never boring. With three dogs under the age of 4, life is nearly chaotic.

Play Time

Snack Time

Fortunately, there are times when they run out of steam, and then life gets really, really cuddly.

From Top to Bottom:  Me, Max, Penny and Daisy

When I look at the three of them, I am forced to admit, yet again, that there are things in life that technology cannot improve upon. And that’s the thought I’ll take with me into the week.

Pack Time

As well as the knowledge that I am very well loved.

 

My Computer: Can't Live With It; Can't Live Without It by Nancy L. Eady

I have a love-hate relationship with my computer, particularly with Microsoft products. One reason is that you can never, ever win an argument with a computer or a program. Whatever gremlins inhabit those tiny bits and bytes use many tricks to make sure I lose. 

One of the gremlins’ favorite tricks is the “spinning circle” trick. It usually happens when I am in a tearing hurry to get something done and the program decides it doesn’t want to have five windows open at one time. Once the computer has had enough of me, it dispatches a gremlin from the word processor or internet browser to the CPU, the disk, or the memory, (or all three), shouting, “Stop the presses!” The program then refuses to work, showing me a snarky circle that keeps whirling. The odds of this hiccup happening increase geometrically when I am working on something 1) with a deadline breathing down my neck, and 2) I have spent 30 minutes or more working on a critical document without having saved it. And yes, I know that’s why Microsoft invented automatic backup, but somehow my computer never has saved the best part of whatever I didn't save before the crash occurred. And there is nothing more irritating than having to rewrite something you already wrote. 

Another favorite trick is the hidden update that improves my life by changing the program. To up the difficulty factor, the change is something important enough not to ignore and subtle enough to require digging through umpteen different settings menus before I can fix the issue. I think the gremlins wander through the setting menus, changing them at random right before I reach them just to confuse me. 

Automatic updates are another pet peeve. The computer used to ask me nicely if I wanted to install updates. I would politely answer “Thanks, but no thanks.” So now it takes matters into its own hands. As I get ready to unplug my computer and pack it up, the computer announces it is installing updates, and forbids me to turn it off, implying that world destruction, fire, flood, and earthquakes will ensue if I do.

But the biggest problem with arguing with a computer is that when all else fails, the computer has the last word with the blank screen of death, a blue/green/black screen with just one tiny cursor in the bottom left corner blinking in time to a chorus of gremlins singing, “Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.” 

What drives you most crazy about the tools you use for writing?