The Upgrade

It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are. ~Clive James

Nothing could put the fear of technology in me as much as the loss of it. Besides a power outage, there are two things that will cause that loss: a highly damaging virus and an operating system or bios upgrade. I have done both kinds of upgrades over the years with as much dread as anticipation.

The best case: everything goes smoothly and there are absolutely no problems...period. Life goes on and I just have to learn my way around with the new changes.

The worse case: everything crashes. My life is then completely focused on what I cannot do with my computer and finding what I need to do to fix it for however long that takes. I know how bad that worse case can go. Once, about 25 years, ago my husband locked up the computer so badly, we could not get it to do anything, even in DOS; I put the DOS manual in front of me that afternoon and got it to something more than he had so that he could fix it, because the rest was beyond me at the time. (If DOS loses you, then you either are younger than I am or you have always had other people fix your computer...or both.)

My husband has taken courses on operating systems and networking and more. I did not, but I have taken computers apart and put them back together. I have fixed computer infected with viruses, especially when he was working and did not have the time to devote to it. I also learned on my own how to create websites from the backside, meaning I learned the codes you do not see that makes the website work as they do before there was WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Just think of it as the DOS of Internet...if you can.

When I talk to friends of mine, who are about 20 years or so younger than I—yes, I actually have quite a few—they often talk about the things they did in school with a computer. I laugh, because when I was in school computers were something that only NASA and a few large companies had. The closest thing to a personal computer was a pocket sized calculator and a few electronic learning toys like a Speak & Spell and Little Professor for learning math.

Microsoft Windows has changed so much since we bought our first computer in 1995. It is difficult to believe that it was only 20 years ago! Just two decades and we went from a clunky Minecraft presentation, slow operation, and counting the kilobytes to the beautiful blending of digital graphics, sleek operations, and counting how many gigabytes are in a terabyte.

Yesterday I broke one of my personal rules: never upgrade to the newest Windows version until it has been out for at least a year so that all the serious kinks have been ironed out. In my defense, we had already upgraded my daughter's laptop computer and it was running great but then hers has a touch screen and mine does not, for which Windows 10 was made but it is certainly better than Windows 8 was. Anyway, I while I was running errands, I let my computer do some running on its own. It downloaded the free Windows 10 and when I got home I accepted the terms for the installation and then took my daughter and her friend to the Christmas party for the youth at church.

When I came home, there was my new Windows 10 computer, up and running. All my setting are still there, including the backgrounds on my desktop screen! All is well...so far. The only thing I have noticed with both computers since the upgrade is that when I switch to the touch pad to move the cursor there is a lag of a second or two that was not there before. It is annoying, but actually that is fixable in the settings, I just found out so all is good. Very, very good!

Thank you, my Lord, for technology. We really do not know how much we use it until we do not have it.

Blank Slates

Having a blank slate is sometimes as daunting as it is exciting. -Joe Madureira

Since I had taken such a long time away from my blog, lost all but a very precious few my regular readers (when I had precious few to begin with), and thinking about my last post of my daughter's visualization of a garden in need of tending, I am again playing around in the background with new themes for my blog. In all the years I have had this blog, I have not change its theme, partly because it took quite a bit of coding to make it appear the way it had, but mostly because I just never made anything I liked better. However, it has looked dated to me for the past three years and maybe that is in part why I have not been posting, it nags at me that I want and should change it. I have been identifying things in my life that work like obstacles for me and this feels like one of them.

There are three things I decide to do when met with one of my mental/emotional obstacles: remove it, change it, or not deal with it now because other things have higher priority at the time. I took out ignore it on my list, because I am trying to change my ways and not only recognize an obstacle for what it is, but take time to examine and identify why it is an obstacle. Still, I tend to choose the delaying one too much of the time, because I have previous ignored too many of the obstacles I had. The obstacle list is whittling down though as I am making myself familiarize with the obstacle before deciding to put it off, so it will then nag me until I do something about it which is usually sooner than later.

At first I planned on the blank slate approach for my new blog style. I looked at other blogs and have seen some I dearly loved. They have a fresh, smooth, clean style, but when it came down to choosing colors, layout, font, and all the other extras--well, the new theme would be all those things that I liked in the other, but it just felt like it was it was designed by someone else for someone else; it was not me...not at all me.

Then I thought about what I still like about my blog style, what seems ageless and classic to me and what does not. Being real with myself does not mean that I have to toss out everything I already like, but changing what I do not. 

So as much as I like other smooth, clean, fresh blog styles, I really do not like smooth as much as I love textures. I like a clean style with personality, not sterile, boring, and white. I love the colors and textures I currently have in my backgrounds--that could change as I work on a new style, but for now I think will use what I have in new ways, freshening up my style but not tossing it completely.

Some of those old widgets have to go too. Some are not working and others need to be updated or replaced with better ones.

It will be a process. Hopefully, a therapeutic one rather than something I wish I had not started.

Thank you, my Lord, for allowing us to be renewed each day, each moment, in Your love and forgiveness, yet still be ourselves.

I Have a Kindle Fire HD!

Men have become the tools of their tools.
~Henry David Thoreau

All I wanted for Christmas was an eReader. My husband had SkyMiles so, at no cost to him, he ordered a Kindle Fire HD 7-inch. This was far more than I wanted. I just wanted something so I could read eBooks and Kindle Fire has a high gloss screen making reading in sunlight difficult. However, I have since gotten a matte screen protector that works well so that I can read in sunlight. The negative side of that is that it slightly dulls the HD effect for games and movies.

Oh, yes. The Kindle Fire HD is actually a tablet that allows me to watch movies, play games, access the Internet. Just ask me how many books I have loaded. Two. Ask me how many I have read. NONE! That is why I wanted just an eReader. I know my weaknesses. However, one of the books is the Bible and I have read some of it...okay, technically it is a free app with various versions of the Bible.

I have loaded several free apps. I have an app with all my most favorite recipes syncing with my recipe box as allrecipes.com. I even have one that allows me to take hand written notes with a stylus or my finger. I use it for when I am in a store and jotting down expiration dates so that I know when the items will be marked down or for sale dates and prices. Very handy! I dislike typing in everything with one finger.

So I have plans, lots of plans, for my Kindle Fire, like taking place of my chore index cards and planner system that did not get past the morning chores stage. There are actually apps for housekeeping lists, but they just have not made the app I really want yet. Did I ever mention how picky I am in that way? Hmm. Maybe it is a control issue? So I decided the best thing would be for me to try out the free ones and there is one I like but I would have to write all the chores and put in what days and so forth, because I do not like their schedule.

Until I decide what to do about the Kindle, I have decided to work on my lists in OneNote, cross referencing so that things are listed by rooms, clutter spots, days of the week, intervals, etc. Yeah, really detailed...which is why I have not done this for the three years I have been thinking about it. I have three rooms, the garage, porch, and deck to yet add. I also plan to add seasonal things like deep cleaning, gardening, and more.

Then there is an app to help me keep track of the items in my pantry. If the app were on an android phone with a camera it could scan the barcode, but the Kindle Fire HD does not do this so I have to type in the UPC numbers, but still it does not take long and instead of trying to remember what is in my pantry, I have the inventory with me as I shop.

Yes, lots of plans all of which enslave me to a device that is meant to be a helpful tool. Yes, yet another addition to my growing love it/hate it list of technology.

Still, I am really liking my Kindle Fire HD!

~ My Lord, let not the tool become the master. ~

Playing Telephone

Cell phones are not a sign of power, they're a sign of subservience. ~Doug Pappas

Yesterday was rather interesting. When we arrived at the horse barn, the Princess noticed immediately that several horses were not there. I had forgotten the dates, but I knew that the girls with their horses would be going to a week long camp during the summer and since only the boarded horses were missing, I was not alarmed. Not at that...but there was something that caught my attention and did cause me some concern: Dunny was limping.

Dunny is a new horse to the barn, having been there only two weeks. He is owned by a friend of Miss Annette, the 4-H leader and owner of the barn. Dunny is being leased by one of the 4-H mothers, who also boards her own horse there. She is leasing him for the 4-H'ers to have horse to ride, since Molly is the only large horse owned by Miss Annette along with the five mini's and two ponies.

After bringing the horses into their stalls and Dunny to an outside pen at the corner of the paddock as we have no available stalls, I took a quick look at Dunny's leg. It was bleeding and there was a cut into the hoof at the coronet band, where the hoof wall and the skin meet. At first, I thought it could be the cut causing the problem and it would be deep to cause him to limp so badly, so I had the Princess knock on Miss Annette door, but not only was no one home, but the dogs were not as well, which suggested that she was either with the girls at the camp or, as I later found out, she is on an Alaskan cruise.

Now the problem is my cell phone gets very bad reception at the barn and just a bit better when I am up by the house, but only enough to hear and give very broken messages. I needed to call the woman leasing Dunny, but I had to call home hoping my husband had not yet left on to go to another state to work. He was home and after ten minutes and two calls, because we got cut off, I finally had a phone number, but no answer and, yes, her daughter was at the camp so she could have had her mother's cell phone.

My husband called another mother, whom he knows, and texted me to look for the emergency numbers in the feed room notebook. I got them walked back up to find the best signal and called all three. One went to a bank and the other two were no longer in service.

In between the walking back and forth with the cell phone, I cleaned up Dunny's left fore leg with hydrogen peroxide and really examined the injury. He is a gentle horse and allowed me to lift his hoof without fussing. There was a cut in the hoof, but it was just the outer wall and it was not bleeding. What I found was that his pastern was bleeding all around with a general rawness and that he was swollen in the same areas. Before he was fed and after, he was pawing between the pen bars with that same leg, so I deduced that he was causing himself injury and that we would need to either have someone stay with him while he is in the pen or feed him somewhere else because at this point the tendons were swollen and warm. I was also concerned about infection, particularly because I could not find the purple spray that we use on cuts and abrasions. I wrote a message to place near the white board relaying information about Dunny's pawing injury to the other barn families and planned to call the leasing mother when I got home and went on with our work.

About ten minutes later three vehicles come whizzing in. Children run breathlessly toward the paddock and one says, "There's Mack!" pointing to the Iceland pony coming up from the upper field looking to get a drink. Another one echoes the same words as if she could not believe Mack would be there. I said, "Well, of course there's Mack." The children went on naming the horses they saw, ignoring my questioning look. These were 4-H homeschooling families that live nearby. Finally, the three mothers came up with questioning looks also.

Apparently, the mother my husband called got the impression that all the horses were missing and only Dunny was there...and he was injured. I thought he may have misunderstood me due the the signal breaking up. Later I would learn that my husband mentioned that some of the horses were not there as I had told him and he understood they were at camp. However, "horses missing" and "Dunny injured" must have been the terms that made the mother must have assumed that the horses had gotten out. Relieved the mothers talked awhile, examined Dunny, and planned to feed him in the arena or watch him in the pen. The Princess was delighted to play around with so many children that she likes so well, while we talked about how the emergency numbers failed and how to improve organizing the barn, maybe even having a phone in the barn. (Annette's husband works for the phone company.) One mother texted the mother leasing Dunny to update her about his habit and injury, which she texted back that she would check on him later.

Just as the three families began to leave, another came. This was a homeschooling family I had not met so we talked some after the other left. Three of the families were still homeschooling, not that they planned to homeschool in the summer, but they had not finished the year yet. I am so glad I just homeschool year around, although lately it is very light. The last family now feeds on Wednesday morning. There used to be a feeding schedule posted in the barn, but we do not have one now and that was one of the things we discussed about organizing the barn better. By the time the last family left, it was noon and rather hot, so the Princess did not ride and we left to run a few errands and eat lunch at home.

It just was not the typical Tuesday, but it was less typical when my husband called to tell me that he is all right, which is his opening line when he has been in a accident. I was relieved to hear that it was an accident with rubber coming off the tire of a semi truck. However, it caused some damage with the van and to fix it was going to cost far more than if he was home and able to go to our favorite garage...and maybe cost more than the van is worth, but buying another vehicle would cost more and is not in the budget right now so...I am just wandering where this will go.

~ My Lord, help us to hear truth as it is not as we fear it could be and also guide us into making the best decisions about the van. ~

Lockdown!

A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind.
~Joseph Weizenbaum

My daughter is very respectful of our rules regarding the Internet, but also naïve...and I would like for her stay that way for now to protect her innocence. When I discovered in addition to looking up word definitions at Merriam-Webster's Word Central, supplementing math lessons at Math is Fun, looking up maps at Google Maps, and some reference information at Wikipedia that the Princess was windowscreen shopping on Amazon, I began to wonder where else she might wander.

The Princess did tell me that she went to Amazon by clicking on an advertisement on one of her approved sites and I began thinking of all those advertisements that I purposely ignore but would be so very enticing to a young mind willing to ventured in yet untried territories...some being spiritual voids that could tear away her innocence.

Time to lock it down!

Since I do not have alarm going off when she is on the computer nor sleeping cat on the keyboard that she would not want to disturb, I had make do with what I have. I must say though that I do like the cute sleeping kitty.

We are using Windows XP with no built in parental controls and Firefox for our browsers, I was pleased to find ProCon Latte Content Filter as an Add-on for Firefox. Instead of blacklisting certain sites, I set it so she can only go to whitelisted sites of my choosing. Her search engine is Google Safe Search for Kids, but she cannot go to any site not on the whitelist without my password protected approval. It has frustrated her a few times when she was doing some research or searching for desktop pictures for her PC, but if the site seems to be safe, I can add it to the whitelist in just seconds.

Now I am considering one other thing: time limits. I am looking at a free program called Romaco Timeout. The problem is that we are using the computer for lessons now so that could be an added complication. Still, I want her to begin monitoring her time, for her to consider how much time she is spending with email or writing new chapters in one of her many books. Yes, it seems she has a heart for writing.

~ My Lord, please help me to be wise in how I use my own computer and the Internet so that I will be a good example for my daughter. ~

Oh, Where Can She Be?

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine. ~Robert C. Gallagher

I wish I could say that I am purposely hiding away...more than that I wish I could say that I have been on a wonderful, relaxing vacation. I have been just away from my little corner of the Internet more because I have been doing so much more in my little corner of the real world. Blogging is sometimes an indulgence and other times just one more chore. I have so much to share, so much has changed, there is so much to write and yet...there will be time, there must be, to blog.

My daughter had a birthday! She is now a fairly responsible eleven year old, therefore now also the proud owner of an older laptop computer...and when I write older laptop computer, I mean hers is exactly like mine (and I desperately would like a newer one, but my husband insists it will be a Mac so that is not happening anytime soon). Some years ago, probably five or six now, my husband took advantage of a typo in a sales advertisement and bought three brand new laptops at great price: one for his father, one for himself, and one for me.

I used mine the most and fried it a few years ago; it worked but with crippled RAM. We were given my father-in-law's back when he passed away, so that I could have a good working one again. My husband recently acquired a iPad2 so he decided to give his old laptop to the Princess. We now have an even older desktop computer, which she was using but we do not need--besides she maxed out the hard drive with all the pictures she takes on her digital camera. The laptop has more storage space and we have an external hard drive on our wireless network, so she is going to be learning about how to manage computer files and delete pictures that are not good ones.

Her first agenda was quite important! She just had to pick out her wallpaper scene. She now has several pictures of horses from which to choose. My first agenda was as important to her but not as glamorous. I needed to load a browser and email program. She does quite a bit of emailing...far more than I do! Since this gift has been given, when I cannot find the Princess, she is in her little nook with her laptop--or a book as she still reads a lot!

I have to say that timing of the laptop was perfect, as all things are when God is guiding us. I felt I could use a change, even a break with homeschooling, but not take the entire summer off because with our schedule that is not practical. However, I like to do things differently during the summer so I was looking over some deals through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op and found three online programs that I felt would be very good. I still like learning from books, but these would be a great way for me to have a break and for the Princess to take some personal responsibility for learning on her own also. I am excited and a bit apprehensive to see how it will work.

One is a grammar program called Grammarlogues that is a lifetime kind of thing and seems to be quite comprehensive. Words and Their Stories came with a bargain price for one teacher and one student for the co-op buy for a one year subscription. The one the Princess is most excited about is My Access! were she will write about a subject given and her grammar will be marked for correction; she can do several drafts and then when it is rated proficient she can publish her work as if she is a journalist of a newspaper and send it out to friends. This appeals to her far more than the others and I like that it takes the focus off of me trying to get her to correct her mistakes. She might respond better to another source of mistake finding.

I also decided that I am starting to get lost with her Latin and Greek so I am taking the lessons along with her. Sometimes she quizzes me with the flash cards and even though I know most of the words, I really do need to learn a few and all the endings of the verbs and nouns too. I thought she could use a bit of competition and these subjects are the ones I do not know myself, so we both are truly learning. She is now checking my papers and I check hers. It seems to have added some excitement to these subjects for both of us.

I have not devised our summer schedule yet but I shall be soon because I need time to work in the gardens and to clear the woodsy area in the back yard. Plus our house needs some major work and my husband and I are considering doing some of it ourselves, especially since receiving estimates on how much it would cost to have the entire thing done by someone else.

These are just a few of the things happening behind the screen to explain why I am not blogging as much as as I used to do. I just have so much to do!

~ My Lord, the ability to change and adapt is one of the greatest strengths in human beings. Help me to enjoy each of these seasons in my life as I live them and accept the change of them well. ~

Not Today...Facebook

Oddly enough, Facebook has little to do with faces and nothing to do with books. ~Unknown

Long ago I used to subscribe to forums. I do not now. I visit one of a handful of forums about once every three to four months...out of boredom, I guess. After reading just a five of the most recent post titles, I remember why I do not do forums anymore. Yes, I may miss out on some great deals on homeschooling materials for sale or the latest news on the local forum, but honestly the forums are pretty much the same year after year. The names may change but the questions and answers, opinions and arguments, rants and praises are the same.

I admit that I have met most of my very best friends through message boards, so I should probably be more appreciative of them, but like all things, forums had their season in my life and now that season is over. I am not one to look back in longing once I have let something go.

I do like blogging very much and I have met interesting people through it, as well as deepened some "post-forum" relationships. I know that one day its season will end also...but not today.

I am reminded quite often of how much I am behind the times with social networking. Nearly every day Facebook and Twitter are referenced, but I have resisted. Perhaps I have a very low tolerance for social network overload, because while the format may differ, what people do with them is basically the same.

Yesterday I found out (in an old fashion way called "conversation") about a large Facebook group for homeschooling families in my area. No doubt it is full of information about local events and materials for sale (I have some things I could sell!), the kind of things I used to see on a local forum. I even know the woman who started it and some of the people in this group...and there may be a new potential friend or two in that group!

I am so tempted, so very tempted, to become a Facebook member just because of this, but then I am reminded of how hurt some of my friends have been by things placed on their walls by "friends" and family members. Yet, there have been a few good stories about Facebook too, like a mother finding her son who left home years ago with no word.

I am not sure I want to find anyone or to be found...perhaps it is the residual of a painful past. I prefer to stay lightly veiled online, not using my real name. I have some hurtful people in my life and I do not wish to give them easy access to temptation, which will harm their souls.

There may be a season when I change my mind, but...not today.

On the lighter side of it all...

~ My Lord, please bless the people on Facebook who think carefully before the type and thank you for reminding me that I do not need it in my life at this time. ~

Living Without TV

If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it. ~Jerome Singer

Long ago, before the Princess was born, my husband thought it would be nice to have a TV in our bedroom. He thought I would like it..."Not unless you are planning to sleep with it alone," said I. One TV in the home was enough I felt, even during football season, which holds far more interest for my husband than for me. We have been in agreement about this ever since. Although we do have an excellent surround sound system, we also still have a twenty or so year old TV set. No sleek, flat, wide screen. No HD. Let's not even talk about Blu-Ray! Not that I would not like to have these things, I just know they are not really necessary.

Average Number of TVs per U.S. Household: 2.5
Percentage of Americans with 4 or more TVs: 31%

There have been a few times we had no TV. Just before we bought this last TV set, when the one before gave out, we were without a working TV set for months. Another few months without TV service, when we first moved here about fifteen years ago. I have been without a TV set or service several times for long periods before I met my husband and did not watch much of it as a teenager even when it was available.

About a year ago, we made the decision to turn off our TV service temporarily: Taking a Break from the Regular Scheduled Programming. I planned to bring it back on sometime in autumn, but finances were at a greater crunch due to the double tithe commitment we made then. Because the service will only allow suspension for six months in a twelve month period, it came back on the week before Christmas and I thought that would be nice to watch Christmas specials and movies especially since it was dark so early and the weather so cold outside.

Instead I found that there was so much, so very much, that shocked my senses and much of it was the commercials. My husband and I decided we did not need it at all: This is Not a Test. Within a month, I called to have it turned off permanently, while the representative offered all sorts of very enticing deals and I have to say I was so tempted. I finally told him that they were very good deals and I was very happy with the service itself, but that I was not going to another competitor, just turning off the TV altogether because we did not like what was on it.

It is said that the best way to know whether or not you really need something is to put it away for a few weeks and see if you go looking for it during that time. Yes, there have been times I wanted to sit down on the couch, just turn on the remote, and browse the list of available shows and pick, not necessarily what I want to see, but whatever seemed the most interesting out of whatever is available. Often it was just so much wasted time on deciding on and watching the least of evils.

Hours per year
the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
the average American youth watches television: 1500 hours

I really do not think we realize how much is on TV that our children (and ourselves) do not really need to see, actually would not be exposed to at all as we go about our days and yet we invite this assault right into our homes. We become desensitized by these things when the tube is on so much of the time. Even at the most innocent level, there was all the ads about the latest and greatest toys and gadgets that my daughter did not really need but then wanted just because she saw them. Advertising works and when you think about the irony of it, here we are often paying for TV service, so that we will want to buy more things.

TV not only gives a false sense of reality, but it influences our reality. It makes us desire to be entertained more and more. I believe that desire to be entertained has shaped the way church services are done these days as well! Not that it is a bad thing to have an enjoyable service, but I am not so sure that so much effort needs to go into the staging of a service...and I might be saying this in part as the wife of the media/sound man of my church, because I miss him sitting with my daughter and me.

We think we decide what we will watch when we sit down in front of the TV, but how many times did we leave it on after the show we wanted to watch ended so that we end up watching something else we did not really plan on and we should have been doing something productive? How many times have we seen things that would embarrass us to be watching if Jesus was sitting next to us? How many times have I heard conversations among Christians about certain shows or movies and I thought that maybe they were not such good ones? (And yet the reason I knew about them is because I had actually seen some of them myself!)

Average number of hours the TV set is on during the day:
7 hours and 12 minutes.

We suspended the TV service a year ago because we just had too much to do and would not be watching it much during the summer and had plenty of DVDs and VHS movies and seasons of shows like the Waltons (my daughter's current favorite), Little House on the Prairie, and the Andy Griffith Show. I thought I was busy enough last summer, but since then we have added the rabbitry and food gardens! I rarely sit on my cozy couch these days, but when I do, it is not just something out of habit that I do every day. I have purpose in sitting there. I choose to watch either a DVD or VHS tape...or read a book or play a game or just pray or blog with my laptop. With it being summer, my living room has become more of a parlor because we have so much to do outside.

I wanted to begin exercising regularly and I am doing just that. Most days I go to bed tired because I have been doing more physical stuff all day. Actually, doing all kinds exercises just cleaning up gardens and the yard. I have been using my body to work in all kinds of ways I did not think I would ever be able to do because of my former back problems and I am also stronger than I was so that I can, thankfully.

56% of American children between 8 and 16 have a television in their bedroom.

Plenty of time to watch TV and all those reruns of the shows I missed, if I want to watch them, when I am quite old sitting in a favorite chair and unable to get around. If the Lord takes me before I get to that point, I would count it as no lost. I like my life much better this way. I love the creative things my daughter thinks up to entertain herself and me because she is not wasting her mind away being entertained on the couch. Even though many of her friends have TVs in their bedrooms, my Princess was not one to watch much TV anyway, naturally preferring creative pursuits, and I am glad that we have made the decision to just do without it completely. It has freed up time to spend on more worthy interests, skills, thoughts, and prayers!

I think a TV fast now and then could be a good thing for any family. We sit watching people act out scripted lives on a screen and do not think about how we live our own lives in front of it. I mean, how interesting would it be to watch someone zoned out on a couch watching TV? You know, that just may be the very reason you do not see shows and movies with people watching TV.

Just a thought....

~ My Lord, thank you for giving us a life full for worthy pursuits and understanding that TV was not a necessity in our lives. ~

Freshening My Sanctuary

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up.
~Pearl S. Buck

You may have noticed changes to my sanctuary, some font changes...at least I am hoping they are working for everyone. I found out just recently that Google, which provides eBlogger, also provides Web Fonts for free. Using a wider choice of fonts on my blog has been something I have wanted for a long time! I think it adds interest and is welcoming, hopefully others will feel the same.

You may also have noticed the newest addition to my blog on the right under my profile. I have many books to add to my list of have's and read's and want-to-read's at GoodReads, but this is a nice start.

I am not sure that I am done freshening my sanctuary. I have not changed the background since I started it two years ago. I do like its peaceful simplicity and its understated earthiness—I do so like the color green—but perhaps a few touches of change would be nice there also...?

~ My Lord, thank you for the desire to change, to better what has been, and may it always be in honor of You. ~

The Trouble with Cell Phones

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.
~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971

My husband left Friday for a retreat with three other men from our church. He promised to call me that night but the call did not come. I finally called him only to get his voice mail.

He knew the Princess had a fever, because I called him when he was on the way. Is something wrong? Was there so much going on that he thought it got to be too late to call?

Yesterday I received a call from a phone number I did not know and it was my husband. It was a choppy connection as he explained that his phone service did not work there, only one did and thankfully one of the men he was with had that one. He asked about the Princess and if I was getting sick also. He told me that they would probably come home earlier today than planned because the weather would be turning bad.

Now I know that technology is not without its limitations nor is it infallible, however when I expect a call from my husband and I cannot get a hold of him, my mind starts working and I rarely think that it may be his phone does not get a signal where he is. The trouble with cell phones is that I have completely different expectations of people when they have them. I expect to be able to call them at anytime no matter where they are. I expect them to call me when they say they will. I have expectations...higher expectations.

I am beginning to think that the more technology we have the more we all expect from each other, even though having expectations always seems to cause more trouble than not.

~ My Lord, help me not to use technology as an excuse to have higher expectations of other people. ~

Techno-Freebies

Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau

~ Molding my Matrix ~
If you have been reading here for some time you know of my love-hate relationship with technology. One of the things I have wanted to change in my lifestyle is how I use my computer, because the reality is that I need it, really need it—I am so addicted to it that I can find convincing reasons I need it even when I have none. My husband mentioned during my computer virus woes few weeks ago that he sees his computer as a tool, as a means to get his work done, but he realizes that other people see their computers as more of a lifeline. Yes, I would be in the second category; although I know I could live without it...well, let's just not go there!

I realized, while loading programs on the reformatted hard drive, that part of my contention with my laptop is that it really has not been customized for how I use it now. If it is an extension of me, why does it not seem to fit me better? Why does it make me feel like I am conforming to it (as if the Matrix has me) instead of feeling comfortable with it? Why does looking for homeschool files make me feel tense as if I am about to search for in a file room that a tornado went through while I have all my pictures neatly organized in dated file folders? These questions drummed in my head, while I reminded myself that I have only myself to blame.

During my hunts for free programs to fix and protect my computer that I am sharing with you below, I found some other free programs that I am using to customize my computer.


~ For the Writer ~
Some things were simple changes. Being a writer, I like to have an dictionary and thesaurus on my computer. I had a suite program that provided this on the top bar of my computer screen. The dictionary and thesaurus feature was bare bones, but sufficient in most cases for me to find a word, when my mind would go blank. However, the rest of the bar just took up space and was not used and the program was old, usable but outdated for my Windows version, so I planned not to load it, which meant I would want a dictionary/thesaurus replacement.

There are several free online dictionaries and thesauruses, but I am not always writing where I have Internet access. Besides that, there are three programs that are excellent in this category, however I could not choose which to use as they all have their strengths and weaknesses so I am using all three!

• TheSage is wonderful for when spelling the word is an issue as it has a wild card search and it's dictionary is basic and in a logical format, making it great for children to use also. It has a unique feature, an anagram, so it can be used to create anagram word games. The list of synonyms is too limited for my use, but it also provides hypernyms (more generic terms) and hyponyms (more specific terms) alternatives separately. This one I used more as a traditional dictionary for spelling and concise definitions.
• Mobysaurus is an exhaustive thesaurus that is a huge help when I have that essence of the word I want without knowing the word itself that I need. Its lists can be overwhelming to look through, so I use it only after I have tried the next one on the list.
• WordWeb is the one I use the most because it usually sufficient as a dictionary and a thesaurus generally, has access to Internet sources also, and I can hotkey a word in most text programs, like MS Word, to call up the reference in WordWeb. It also runs in the taskbar so it is running when the computer is on. If you only wanted one of these dictionary/thesaurus programs, this would be the one I would recommend.

While WordWeb runs in the taskbar and TheSage can run in the taskbar once it has been opened, I still wanted easy access to them while in a program so that I do not have to go back to my desktop or into the start menu, like I had with the other outdated suite program. Was I just being spoiled? Asking for too much? Was this a convenience that was actually going to make things even more complicated?


~ Convenient, Not Complicated ~
Apparently, I am not the only one who not only wanted to organize my desktop better. Now I have a nice little slide out menu that lists all my writing tools. The menu hugs the side barely noticeable and slides out when the cursor touches it. I can access whatever I have there in a click no matter what program I am using at the time. This nifty little program called SideSlide is also free. I am in the process of making another container just for all my homeschool file folders, programs, and most used files, like those pesky attendance records, so I am not looking all over in Windows Explorer to access special files. I am thinking of some other ways to use it too. I like this program!


~ Protect Your Data ~
Here are some other finds all absolutely free! These first two are must haves for all computers with Internet access if you don't have an antivirus program.

avast! Free Antivirus: It updates on start up, every day, sometimes several times a day. It is now on every computer we have because we just did not have the funds to renew the virus protection service we had (which is why my computer was vulnerable). This program and has saved me from a few more virus downloads already.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware: This program and others were instrumental in cleaning up my old hard drive so that could access my data. I had a unique problem with my partitions and GoBack that I am not going to get into, as it was complicated but it was all caused by the malware attack. Once we could access Windows again, this program worked its technomagic. It gets many of the things that slip by anti-virus programs―yes, that does happen.

Let's talk about back up. I currently am using Norton Ghost because we already had it, but I have found there are even free programs to back up your data! If you like to partition your drive as I do, there are really good free programs for that also. Easus offers free versions on many of its products. I used the free version of their Partition Recovery―what a life saver! With the other free versions of their software, you have all the programs you need to save all your data.


~ Tis for Tat Preferences ~
A change that I just like...
Thunderbird: I know what you are thinking. Why bother with Thunderbird when you have Microsoft Outlook for your email program? I have been using Firefox―love the automatic spell check feature among other things―instead of Internet Explorer for a year or two. I like it so much better that I finally decided to switch to Thunderbird and I will not likely ever go back.


~ Programs for Homeschooling Mamas (Like Me) ~
I really like MS OneNote. I have the 2007 Student Edition that will not upgrade but it was more affordable; it's a trade off. There are just no free programs similar that are quite like it as it is unique in its class. There is a webware application called Zoho Notebook that looks to be quite similar and free for personal use, should you be interested, but I have not used it personally. As much as like it, I have not been using OneNote as I would like. I would like to use it more for unit studies in history, but it has just gotten to be my dump everything program, which is its advantage and another source of clutter that annoys me―odd, because it is meant to be very helpful in organizing notes.

I think the problem for me is in the formatting of each page. I would like more order with certain things like address books and recipes, so I am using Thunderbird for my address book. To provide that ordered format to my recipes that I would prefer, I decided I needed another program designed specifically for recipes. I do have an online account with All Recipes, but here again, I needed to be online to access it, so I finally found one that suits my needs and is free:

ChickenPing does everything a recipe manager should do with a rating feature, meal planner, shopping list, scaling ingredients for servings, add pictures, nutrition analysis, and the print out is nicely formatted. Unfortunately, pictures cannot be downloaded from the Internet directly, only from your computer, and the food icons are limited. Still, I think the large print "Sticky Fingers" mode is wonderful if you are one to read a recipe on your computer in the kitchen as you prepare it! Easy cut and paste for adding ingredients, too. It appears to have excellent support. At this time this is the best free recipe manager I could find and I am working on putting recipes on it. This is more work than just copying them over from the Internet into OneNote, but I like it much, much better.

I have a few more programs I am trying to find and decide on, but this is a very good start in conforming my computer to fit my desired lifestyle, to mold my own little virus-free Matrix. I hope that I may have given you a few tips and ideas about how you might do the same.

~ My Lord, please help me to make my time on the computer more productive and use technology as a tool within the lifestyle in service of You. ~

Cell Phone Slavery

Apparently we love our own cell phones but we hate everyone else's. -Joe Bob Briggs

It is amazing how technology sneaks into our lives. We are seduced by its promise to make things better for us. It seems to make work more efficient. It seems to make life easier. We master it....that is, we seem to master it until it does not work and then we come to the terrible realization that it masters us. Our dependency on it has become so complete that we have become slaves to it.

What brings on such thoughts, you may ask? Yesterday my husband flew into New York to work. I had not heard from him all day, which is not unusual when he goes to the customer first and begins fixing the machine with which they are having difficulty. It is tradition that we talk every night around our daughter's bedtime, if he is in the country. We call him, if he does not call first.

Last night, the Princess called him to say good-night and had to leave a message. Typically, my husband will call back immediately, even while she is leaving a message, but that did not happen last night. I allowed her to stay up an extra fifteen minutes waiting and then I tried again myself, also leaving a message. The Princess went to bed and we prayed together, which is what Daddy does when he is home.

I watched an hour TV show I had started to record just an hour earlier, I prefer to watch recordings than live—It is so nice to fast forward through those commercials and watch it all in only 45 minutes instead of an hour! Then I tried to call again, still no answer. Now I am getting a bit concerned. At 10:30 p.m. I looked up the email message he forwarded to me with all his travel itinerary and called the hotel. After allowing it to ring about twelve times, someone answered and confirmed that my husband had just checked in thirty minutes ago. My call was put through to his room and my fears faded away with the sound of his voice. His cell phone, for whatever reason, was not working, he said. How dare his cell phone not work!

You know, for years I resisted cell phones because of health factors associated with electromagnetic radiation, but eventually I relented not just for convenience, but out of necessity. Just try finding a working public phone these days! However, the average phone call for me on my cell is under two minutes, most of them are under one minute and I usually only use it about once or twice a month and only my family and a handful of people have my number. When I use the cell, it is for just telling someone I will be late, coordinating with my husband where to meet, or to get some directions because my GPS is not getting me there. (Yes, I have an old model of one of those too.)

My cell is on my purse, not on my body. I do worry about how much my husband is required to use his and how it is always clipped on at the waist, but now I worry more if it does not work, because in my mind, it is more than just a means of communication, but it is part of him—or he is part of it. Perhaps we all are being integrated into the Matrix with every upgrade in technology that makes our lives more convenient, thus more independent on it.

Think your not a slave to technology? Just try going a week without using any of it at all.

My Lord, let me not be a slave to technology but to use it wisely. Thank you for being with my husband at all times, whether I can talk with him or not.