Category: Computers and Internet

Beginning A Project For 2012

I am hoping to accomplish something creative every day forward for the year. Much of this will entail writing, but there will be some artwork, photography, crafts, and whatever else I come up with.

For today I took a picture of the books I am reading daily:

DSC_0478

The two at the bottom I am reading aloud with my Mom as a Bible study. Our church is doing Read The Bible For Life this year, and although I do not attend, we are participating in the study. The other five I chose to read this year for personal edification.

The following is a scan of the hand written journal entry I made this evening:

Journal 1-10-20120001

I mentioned my new Invicta watch and I guess I should show you what it looks like:

DSC_0480

I chatted with Alex a bit today and learned he is enjoying Hawaii. He has begun writing again, which I think is marvelous because Alex is very talented.

I am running out of time so this will be my creation for today. Stay tuned for more as the days go by.

Always,
Jo Ann

First Blog Entry of 2012

I am thankful:

1.   I made it through 2011, and accomplished much in the year.
2.   Mom is doing fairly well.
3.   I was able to get a new laptop, Wacom tablet, some artistic programs, and Office Professional 2010 for Christmas.
4.   I have designated my old laptop for Mom’s use and she is learning to use it for playing games she enjoys.
5.   I have lowered my reading goal for 2012 to encourage more creative pursuits.
6.   I chose to do the Read The Bible For Life study with my Mom this year and she is enjoying it so far. I read all the material aloud to her and elaborate on the answers to the questions asked in the study.
7.   I was able to pay my cell phone bill for this month and my car insurance.
8.   We do not have any appointments in the coming week and our shopping is done for a few days. Maybe it will not be necessary to go to town until late in the week.
9.   Winter has been mild and I have not even had to put on a heavy coat this year.
10.  We were able to help Laura, my daughter-in-law, by giving her the mattress set from Alex’s room.
11.  My dog, Hope, is a wonderful companion and very sweet.
12.  The gift cards I was given for Christmas helped me survive December.
13.  Jana gave me a Kindle gift card that I have not used yet.
14.  Our Christmas and New Year meals were delicious.
15.  I took all the library books back and am now reading books I own.
16.  I have found some excellent resources on the internet for writing, art, and free eBooks.
17.  I have adequate shelter, clothing, transportation, and nutrition.
18.  God blessed me with intelligence and talent.
19.  I have experienced love in my life.
20. I have survived the ravages of pain and hate.

I am enjoying my new computer a great deal and am so glad I can share the older one with my Mom. It gives her something that challenges her mind and keeps her entertained. I am hoping to use my new equipment to further my artistic endeavors this year as well as my writing. Cutting back on my reading goal should give me more time to use creatively. The only thing I lack now is inspiration and I am hoping that will be in ample supply. I have some books that should help with it.

I like doing the Bible study with my Mom. Her attention motivates me to do the daily readings. I probably would not do the study without her involvement. Making her happy makes me feel I am a success.

I have been watching the Republican debates and though I am not happy with everything President Obama has done, I do not see where any of these candidates would be a superior choice. I am afraid there is still a long process before our economy will recover and I do not think one man has the power to do all that is necessary to accomplish effective change. The people of our country can not make things better when they are so divided in their resolve. Working together is the only effective way to improve our nation’s problems.

If anyone is lonely and sad I highly recommend acquiring a puppy dog to provide companionship and lift the spirits. My sweet Shih Tzu, Hope, is a wonderful addition to my life. I do not think I would be nearly as happy without her presence.

I hope everyone has a wonderful year full of blessings and happiness. I encourage each one to take time to be thankful. Gratitude adds satisfaction to life.

Always,
Jo Ann

Thankful List: Friday, December 2, 2011

I am thankful:

1.   Mom and I did not go out during the craziness of Black Friday.
2.   We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at home.
3.   I took all the library books back to the library and am going to read some of my own books for a while.
4.   Alex is going to continue paying my Boost bill so I can keep my BlackBerry.
5.   Carrie Leigh and Jesse will visit this weekend.
6.   Laura and I are getting along well.
7.   Mom’s thyroid levels are back to normal.
8.   I am learning to use Windows 7 and the new Internet Explorer.
9.   My Mom is so good to me.
10.  I am feeling somewhat better. My stomach still is not normal, but it is not churning quite so bad.
11.  I was able to give Edith Leigh a few of my clothes that she liked.
12.  I used Shop Your Way Rewards to buy Carrie Leigh a jacket.
13.  I found some good online deals during Black Friday week and on Cyber Monday.
14.  Even though I am not going to meet my reading goal this year, I have read many books.
15.  My puppy dog, Hope is a constant joy to me.
16.  Mom is going out with June today, so I will have the house to myself.
17.  My nephew, Jeremy, no longer has responsibility for his nieces.
18.  Mom and I went to the courthouse and placed our votes early.
19.  I have some cute Christmas outfits for Hope.
20.  I was able to make this list. 

Where I Ponder My Choices

I finished reading Overbite by Meg Cabot this evening. It was a very good novel with an unexpected, but satisfying ending. I am trying to decide on a new book to begin. Perhaps I have too many to choose from because I cannot seem to make up my mind. I am 9 books behind on my goal of reading 120 this year. This is disappointing, but the goal is only a target, not something I must complete.

The new Kindles are to be released next month, but I think I am waiting a while before I purchase one. In fact, I am in a holding pattern on most electronics. I want to wait for the next operating system before I get a new computer. I want to get the next model Nikon when it first comes out. I want to see if the next generation of tablets and e-readers are better. I am content with my BlackBerry, although I am considering an Android or iPhone if plans and pricing come down. My iPods are sufficient for the time being.

It seems I am regressing to older technology lately. I am so taken with the books I purchased at Borders’ going out of business sale and those I borrow from the library that I am hardly using my Kindle 3. I have started writing with an ink pen rather than on my computer and am enjoying seeing words fill my notebooks.

This entry was written in my notebook and copied so that I might add it to my blog.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Always,
Jo Ann

Thankful Thursday and Thoughts–September 8, 2011

I am thankful:

1.   Mom and I had an enjoyable lunch at Hudson’s Barbecue while we were out to run errands yesterday.
2.   Penny is doing well on the medicine the veterinarian changed.
3.   I have read some excellent books recently.
4.   I archived some of the free eBooks on my Kindle, and with the memory freed the device is working much better.
5.   Alex and I chatted a few nights ago and he seemed to be doing well.
6.   The temperature was a bit cooler, so Hope and I walked a mile last evening.
7.   I have been cooking more, and Mom seems to really enjoy it. I still hate to cook, but it is nice to make her happy.
8.   The recent storms have passed us by without any damage.
9.   Jeremy fixed the air conditioner on my Buick.
10.  I cleaned out all the freezers, so there is only good food inside.

I have been trying to stay home as much as possible because going into town has been making me very nervous since my niece, Leigh, and her family had their van stolen. I know they were in a different city, and that Washington, D.C. is a high crime area, but I cannot seem to shake the feeling that something bad might happen while I am out. I am more comfortable at home on the average day.

I managed to buy some books and bookmarks at Borders’ going out of business sale. I would have liked it more if I had had more money to spend, but some is better than none. I am so disappointed that my favorite bookstore is ceasing to exist. I suppose Amazon will get my business from now on because there is no nearby physical bookstore. Thankfully a new library is opening near here soon. I read many more library books than books I own. Reading is an expensive habit without library books. The free eBooks on Kindle give me lots of reading material too. One thing I really must begin to do is leave a book if it doesn’t interest me and stop plodding through books just because I started them.

I am planning on going to my thirty year class reunion this month, but am a little hesitant about it. School was not such a pleasant thing for me because I was bullied, though I do have some good memories on the academic side. I have always enjoyed learning. I hope this reunion is better than the ten year one I attended.

Laura, my daughter-in-law, found a puppy. She seems totally taken with Luna who is a black Lab mix. I think with all the attention she is giving the puppy that it should turn out to be a fine dog. I have no doubt Luna will be just as spoiled as my Hope.

I have not been paying much attention to my creative side. I fail to write, I fail to draw, and I fail to paint. Somehow I need to get back to those things, but my enjoyment of reading seems to hold me captive. There should be a balance, where I create and I read, but that does not seem to happen. At least I am not hooked on television. Computers, yes, books, yes, but those things give me some hope that I can be reunited with my creative side. I should really come here and blog more often, but I have little incentive. I often feel I am only talking to myself, and I can do that in my head without all the effort of typing out the thoughts and making them sensible. I manage to post on Twitter and Facebook quite often via TweetDeck, but even that seems futile at times. One day I am going to make a collection of my best Twitter posts and bring them here. I think some of them are quite erudite.

I hope all of you are doing well and living happily. I am happy in my life be it ever so simple.

Always,
Jo Ann

When I Write… I Must Sacrifice

Unfortunately, I do not write as much as I should. I have some talent, and some say a way with words. There are things I concentrate on more than writing practice.

I am an avid reader. This year I have read forty-five books and they have not been thin volumes. I will read instead of taking time to write.

I have responsibilities that take up a large amount of my time: chores, shopping, caring for Mom and the dogs, and cooking. I also spend many moments computing: checking and answering email, chatting with my son, Alex, who is a U.S. Marine, updating and checking Facebook, and posting to Twitter and reading the posts of those I follow.

The truth is these pursuits do not prevent my writing. I could read and compute less, easily finding time to devote to writing, but I am not motivated to do so, because I enjoy reading and computing. Writing is exhausting mental work. It is much easier to take information in than to formulate meaningful sentences, which will hold the attention of another person. Often I think of writing, but am not inspired with a topic upon which to expound. I can come up with a 140-character thought to post to Twitter and Facebook, but going beyond that is more difficult.

I have a plethora of books on the art and craft of writing, and could probably find inspiration in some of those. I know I should write if I ever intend to produce work of value. I am so afraid of writing something of inferior quality that I avoid writing much at all.

I love writing and find it very satisfying. I feel a need to put my words into a permanent form, but I rarely make the sacrifice required to accomplish that goal. Perhaps there is an element of laziness in this shirking of effort.

I am sincerely considering reading less so that I may devote more time to writing. That would be a huge sacrifice to me because reading is one of my greatest joys.

If you write, what do you sacrifice to put out your words ?

Always,
Jo Ann

 

Note to Writers and Authors

I am an avid reader and I write. I do not know that I will ever be widely published because I have a great fear of failure. That stymies my creativity.

Today, I speak directly to writers and authors. I love reading and spend much of my time perusing the pages of books and eBooks. I am a kind reviewer, giving many of the books I read the highest ratings. However, I find it very distracting to read poorly edited books. To come upon one or two mistakes in a text is forgivable, but when pages are riddled with wrong words, omitted words, and grammatical problems, it pulls me out of the story. I see how careless the writer has been and how little respect he/she has for the reader. I like to give indie authors a chance when I read on my Kindle, but many of these eBooks appear to be totally unedited. The story may be marvelous, but the craft should be attended to as well.

I know most of us write on computers these days, and am thankful for spell-check. Even with the marvelous aids given by technology, a careful reading of what is written is required. If you, as a writer, lack the skill to recognize your own mistakes, have someone with some knowledge of English read over your work and suggest corrections. Please have enough respect for your readers to produce clear copy. You will earn more repeat readers by so doing.

I hope this will make an impression on those who are self-publishing, and even those with publishers.

Always,
Jo Ann

Some Random Things You May Not Know About Me…

1.   I love my steak medium rare.
2.   I could spend unlimited amounts of money on books and eBooks.
3.   I treat my puppy dog, Hope, as if she is my second child.
4.   I am a very good editor and once published a magazine.
5.   I love electronic gadgets: computers, iPods, BlackBerry cellphones, Nikon digital cameras, digital video cameras, and my Kindle.
6.   I collect so many things my room is overly cluttered.
7.   I love my son, Alex, so much that it is often overwhelming.
8.   I don’t believe in buying songs from iTunes, but always buy my music on CD.
9.   I am a perfectionist, not a good thing at all, as it keeps me from trying things at times.
10.  I am very loyal, trusting, and love my friends and family very deeply.
11.   I have a slow temper, but once I am angry I can hold a grudge for a long time.
12.  I sometimes have a very dirty mouth, usually when angry.
13.  I hate to cook, but am quite good at it.
14.  My favorite color is red.
15.  The Rolling Stones are my favorite Rock stars and I have seen them in concert twice.
16.  I watch very little television and find it very irritating.
17.  I am a Christian, but have moderate attitudes.
18.  I have never flown on an airplane.
19.  I am very good at entertaining myself and almost never become bored.
20. I take care of my 81 year old mother who has Parkinson’s Disease and other maladies.
21.  I believe all people have unlimited creativity and special talents.
22. I love art and can draw and paint a bit.
23. I almost always wear Nikes.
24. I have had the same email address over ten years.
25. Some people say I am a talented writer, but I have not written creatively in a while.

Reply to Unsolicited Message on Facebook

This stranger sent me a message on Facebook and I sent him back a very frank reply. I thought some of you might get a laugh out of it. He never replied so I must have had his motives pretty well figured out.

His message follows:

“Hello Beautiful, how are u doing..My name is ******* am just checking on my facebook before,Came across your profile,Huh U look so beautiful and bearing the same name with my Late mother…if you don’t mind Let get to know each other, Are you married or single for now, Am a single funny man,We can be a good friend,my person Email ************ @*****.com hope to hear from you soon You are so Beautiful,
*******.”

My reply follows:

“I am very wary of people who contact me this way and I do not do personal email or chat with strangers. Compliments without more than seeing a little of my profile do not impress me. I know I am not particularly beautiful and tend to think that men who start out like that are after something from the beginning. If you would like to continue to message this way and see if I can come to trust you that is okay, if not, so sorry. I am single, but am not after a relationship. I have quite enough to keep me busy in life without trying to live up to some man’s expectations.

I almost ignored your message, but thought if you could weather my scathing reply that we might become friends. I do not do internet relationships other than friendships, just so we are clear from the outset.

Sincerely,
Jo Ann”

I am not adverse to becoming friends with people on the internet, but I have some doubts about messages like his. If someone wants to communicate with me it helps to use good language skills. If someone is careless about that, I think they are either not very intelligent or have very poor habits, and I find that very unattractive.

What do you think? Was I rude? Should I have been more kind? I would love to have your comments.

Always,
Jo Ann

Another Day, Another Computer Fiasco

I have had some interesting moments with my computers of late.

Thursday, September 30, 2010, I had to call Microsoft Technical Support because Outlook was malfunctioning. After a couple of hours that problem was resolved again. I am not convinced it is permanently resolved, but for the time being it works.

Monday, October 4, 2010, I downloaded Google Chrome. That went well and worked smoothly, but that was the best of my recent adventures in computing. Also on Monday, I had to migrate my blog, Chronicles, from MSN Live Spaces to WordPress. Overall that has worked out okay, except that the photo albums, lists, and links I had on MSN Live Spaces did not migrate. These omissions are not pleasing to me.

Thursday, October 7, 2010, Alex called from Djibouti and informed me my yahoo email account had been hacked. He thought I might have a key-logger on my laptop. I spent a good bit of the day changing passwords on many of the sites I frequent. I also ran Norton scans to find out if there was anything wrong with my laptop which has become my primary computer. I found no problems and am fairly sure the laptop is secure.

Today, October 8, 2010, I turned on the monitor on my desktop computer which was already on and the screen was asking for a boot disk. I turned the computer off because I thought it was just an odd error. I turned it back on and it worked fine until it should have opened the desktop after the Windows loading screen. Instead it rebooted and brought up the HP opening screen. I found out this is called boot-looping and that it could be a software issue or it may be a hard-drive failure. I am hoping my niece’s husband can help me recover the computer from this failure or I will have to take it in to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I had no printer access with the laptop because it had been networked through the desktop, but I carried the laptop into the bedroom and plugged the printer cable directly into it. That worked, but I knew there was wireless access to the printer, so I called HP Technical Support to get their help setting up the connection. At first they told me my warranty was not active, but they finally verified that it covers my printer. The technician took about three hours to get everything working properly… there were several problems so it took longer than usual.

I sincerely hope that the desktop can be recovered because it has a great deal of programming and data on it that is not accessible any other way.

Hopefully nothing new will go wrong with the laptop, the network, or the printer. I do not think I can deal with another computer related fiasco any time soon.

Always,
Jo Ann