Five Hundred!

 

I posted the first entry to Blah Blah Blog on January 15, 2006.  This is my 500th post! 

Starting Blah Blah Blog was a fairly intimidating endeavor for me.  Just three years ago all I knew how to do with a computer was send basic e-mail, IM  (even Instant Messaging was a fairly new phenomenon to me!), and make a simple Word document (I had also put together a PowerPoint presentation to use for one of my jobs, but that required SUPREME effort!).  I was still on dial-up.  I didn’t know how to create files and folders (all my documents were in one big file, including all my internet downloads!  Finding documents was a needle in a haystack proposition.  I didn’t even know how simple it was to rename a document.  I didn’t know how to drag documents from file to file or how to copy files.)  I had a digital camera that I had only taken a dozen pictures with, even though I’d had the camera for two years.  And the pictures were still on the SD card in the camera.  Only at the time, I didn’t know what an SD card was, or what you did with it!

I love technology and computers, and the internet, it’s not that I didn’t.  I was, in fact, the first person I knew to have a car phone.  Those were the phones you could get before there were cell phones!  I was the second person I knew to get a cell phone.  I was one of the first people I knew to get an e-mail address.  And I bought my first laptop computer when they were still a novelty.  Even so, I was petrified by my computer.

So, just about two years ago, and just shortly after moving from LA to Colorado, I was coming back to life after being a little bit dead for a long time and a lot shell shocked for some months.  The pieces of my heart were being put back together.  I had things I wanted to say.  I had ideas I wanted to share.  I had pictures I wanted to take.  The computer I had at the time just wasn’t going to get the job done.  So I went shopping.  I bought myself an awesome new laptop and an AIO (all-in-one) printer, and I got cable internet and I went wireless.  And I put my mind to learning how to use it all. 

And after a few months, I started to blog.

Back then I didn’t know how to put in fancy schmancy links.  I didn’t know how to upload pictures and put them in my blog.  Heck, I still hadn’t been brave enough to figure out my digital camera!  I didn’t know how to make, let alone upload and import videos, or ANYTHING!  But I started to write.

I learned how to take pictures and put them in e-mails.  I learned how to make videos on my camera.  I learned how to get both pictures and videos back OUT of my camera and onto my computer.  I learned how to resize pictures, how to crop pictures, how to make files and folders and how to name and rename documents.  I learned how to move documents around from here to there.  I bought myself an external hard drive and learned how to back things up.  I learned how to scan documents.  I learned how to cut and paste and how to “right click”.  I learned about Google Earth and IrfanView and Photo Impact.  I learned about Skype and Flickr and YouTube.  I got a webcam.  I learned how to burn CDs.  I learned how to upload a thousand pictures onto Shutterfly. My Teen Missions kids even got me doing MySpace and Facebook!  ETC!  🙂

Five hundred posts and two years later, and people actually say things to me like “you’re a computer person, how do I…..”.  Inside I’m cracking up!  I’m so NOT a computer person.  But the craziest thing is…way more often than not, I can help teach them what they are wanting to learn.  I can’t believe all the skills I’ve added to my repertoire in less than two years.  Thanks to those of you I drew upon for your expertise and for being so patient in teaching me!

What’s next?  Who knows!  I was thinking of taking a crack at doing a website for my friend Donna’s jewelry business.  I’m not even exactly sure where to start on that one!  (But I bet I can figure it out!)

I guess I’ll just have to see what trips my trigger!

Five hundred posts ago I wasn’t sure how long my enjoyment of blogging would last.  Little did I know that it would become such a permanent and important aspect of me.  The frustrated writer is no longer frustrated (even though the books I am working on once again lie fallow).  The photographer in me is able to take and share pictures.  I have met people through blogging that I would never have met otherwise.  I am able to store my thoughts and track my adventures.  My dad can keep track of what I’m up to!  Maybe I’ve even shared something that has touched someone else.  It’s allllll goooood….

(The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins?  Nope.  Really has nothing to do with this post, except for the “500”, and for the fact that I have loved the book since I was a little girl!)

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