computer frustration, crow feathers, and cabin fever

I was late to work this morning for the first time in a long time. I didn't get out of my house until about 9:55 (I work at 10:00) because I was trying to talk about some computer stuff with my mother. She often doesn't know how to ask her questions, which is frustrating enough (I make a bad teacher because I get so annoyed so quickly), but what really drives me up the wall is her inability to generalize from one thing to another. For example, it took her quite a while to get the hang of navigating around in a "Save As" dialog box to find the folder she wanted to save a file in, or create a new one, or whatever. (Now she has built up a huge, complex organization system that even she can't find things in sometimes, which just proves that her file and folder names are not descriptive enough, but that's somewhat besides the point.)

This morning she was complaining that she always had a hard time finding the Firefox install file after downloading it because of "where it put it". It took me many minutes to get it through her head that "it" wasn't putting it anywhere, because she did not have Firefox set up to always save to a single folder, and that if the file wound up somewhere she didn't want, it was because she had clicked "OK" and she had full responsiblity for where files downloaded to. She had not been able to generalize from navigating in the Save As boxes in Word or Photoshop to navigating in ones that Firefox presented. Somehow she thought they were different and that the program was "putting" files where it felt like it without input from her.

I also don't know how to get through the concept of searching through menus to try to find options or actions, rather than just saying "I don't know where it is" when she hasn't even tried to find it. I know that she may not always recognize that a menu option performs the function she is trying to perform, but she should bloody well recognize "Preferences" or "Options" by now.

Hrrurgh.

There was something else... oh yeah. Today I found another crow feather on the ground near the ATM. Last week sometime I found one in almost the exact same spot, actually sticking upright out of the space between two of the slabs of concrete. Some time before that (but still this month) I found yet another in my path as I walked out to my car after work. I believe they are all of the same orientation, contour feathers from the right wing. It's been a long time since I seemed to be finding crow feathers all over the place. The last time was uh... well back in college.. probably in the late 90s. I am not sure if this is just chance, or if Someone is trying to tell me something.

Also, I am tired of being on the net all day. I would not be doing it if I were not wasting my time sitting at work all day long after having finished whatever real tasks I had. I would much rather be out scouting camping locations, or really, out on a short hike or something, with a picnic lunch on one of the ridge tops. Yeah. That'd be good. I am probably going to get up bloody early Saturday morning and scout locations, though, since some of them are way up in the north bay, nearly two hours even if the traffic were perfect, and there is no such animal when we are talking about driving through San Francisco, so I figure I will do the best I can by trying to go through SF at oh... 8 in the morning on a weekend. *rubs eyes blearily*

computer frustration, crow feathers, and cabin fever

I was late to work this morning for the first time in a long time. I didn't get out of my house until about 9:55 (I work at 10:00) because I was trying to talk about some computer stuff with my mother. She often doesn't know how to ask her questions, which is frustrating enough (I make a bad teacher because I get so annoyed so quickly), but what really drives me up the wall is her inability to generalize from one thing to another. For example, it took her quite a while to get the hang of navigating around in a "Save As" dialog box to find the folder she wanted to save a file in, or create a new one, or whatever. (Now she has built up a huge, complex organization system that even she can't find things in sometimes, which just proves that her file and folder names are not descriptive enough, but that's somewhat besides the point.)

This morning she was complaining that she always had a hard time finding the Firefox install file after downloading it because of "where it put it". It took me many minutes to get it through her head that "it" wasn't putting it anywhere, because she did not have Firefox set up to always save to a single folder, and that if the file wound up somewhere she didn't want, it was because she had clicked "OK" and she had full responsiblity for where files downloaded to. She had not been able to generalize from navigating in the Save As boxes in Word or Photoshop to navigating in ones that Firefox presented. Somehow she thought they were different and that the program was "putting" files where it felt like it without input from her.

I also don't know how to get through the concept of searching through menus to try to find options or actions, rather than just saying "I don't know where it is" when she hasn't even tried to find it. I know that she may not always recognize that a menu option performs the function she is trying to perform, but she should bloody well recognize "Preferences" or "Options" by now.

Hrrurgh.

There was something else... oh yeah. Today I found another crow feather on the ground near the ATM. Last week sometime I found one in almost the exact same spot, actually sticking upright out of the space between two of the slabs of concrete. Some time before that (but still this month) I found yet another in my path as I walked out to my car after work. I believe they are all of the same orientation, contour feathers from the right wing. It's been a long time since I seemed to be finding crow feathers all over the place. The last time was uh... well back in college.. probably in the late 90s. I am not sure if this is just chance, or if Someone is trying to tell me something.

Also, I am tired of being on the net all day. I would not be doing it if I were not wasting my time sitting at work all day long after having finished whatever real tasks I had. I would much rather be out scouting camping locations, or really, out on a short hike or something, with a picnic lunch on one of the ridge tops. Yeah. That'd be good. I am probably going to get up bloody early Saturday morning and scout locations, though, since some of them are way up in the north bay, nearly two hours even if the traffic were perfect, and there is no such animal when we are talking about driving through San Francisco, so I figure I will do the best I can by trying to go through SF at oh... 8 in the morning on a weekend. *rubs eyes blearily*

I'm Space Ghost. Should I take my clothes off?

When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;--
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around--
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air--
Comes a still voice--Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears.

This is an excerpt from "Thanatopsis", by William Cullen Bryant. Why do I know it at all? Not because I have studied poetry, or even idly read much of it. No, I know this bit because it was set to some simple acoustic guitar music in the episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast entitled "Terminal".

See? TV's not good for nothin'.

I'm Space Ghost. Should I take my clothes off?

When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;--
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around--
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air--
Comes a still voice--Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears.

This is an excerpt from "Thanatopsis", by William Cullen Bryant. Why do I know it at all? Not because I have studied poetry, or even idly read much of it. No, I know this bit because it was set to some simple acoustic guitar music in the episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast entitled "Terminal".

See? TV's not good for nothin'.

wifi in the woods

On the website of one of the possible gather places I'm researching... I've been to this park before, and I think it is probably too popular to offer enough space and privacy, but I thought I would give it a shot anyway, as it is very pretty and close by and all:

"Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park now offers SBC FreedomLink Service! This service enables park visitors with wireless enabled laptop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the Internet."

So, for those of you who always wished you could waste your time among stunning redwoods by surfing the net, there it is.

I know people sometimes say they wish they could check email while at gathers so they didn't have to come back to massive amounts to sort through, but somehow this just strikes me as "off". I do wonder if there is a technomagical way to, like, interface with the redwood spirits by WiFi, but overall I'm just like "oh, come ON. You are missing the point."

Another amusing bit:

"Where is the tree I can drive through?
It's about 90 miles south of Eureka on Highway 101 in Myers Flat on the Avenue of the Giants."

In other words, "Nowhere near this park, you moron. Redwoods cover a lot of area in this state. If you are in Henry Cowell looking for this tree, you have missed by about 250 miles." I guess they must get a lot of people who haven't done any research before going off to try to see this tree. (I assume this is "the place where you can drive through the middle of a tree" mentioned in "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota".)

wifi in the woods

On the website of one of the possible gather places I'm researching... I've been to this park before, and I think it is probably too popular to offer enough space and privacy, but I thought I would give it a shot anyway, as it is very pretty and close by and all:

"Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park now offers SBC FreedomLink Service! This service enables park visitors with wireless enabled laptop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) to access the Internet."

So, for those of you who always wished you could waste your time among stunning redwoods by surfing the net, there it is.

I know people sometimes say they wish they could check email while at gathers so they didn't have to come back to massive amounts to sort through, but somehow this just strikes me as "off". I do wonder if there is a technomagical way to, like, interface with the redwood spirits by WiFi, but overall I'm just like "oh, come ON. You are missing the point."

Another amusing bit:

"Where is the tree I can drive through?
It's about 90 miles south of Eureka on Highway 101 in Myers Flat on the Avenue of the Giants."

In other words, "Nowhere near this park, you moron. Redwoods cover a lot of area in this state. If you are in Henry Cowell looking for this tree, you have missed by about 250 miles." I guess they must get a lot of people who haven't done any research before going off to try to see this tree. (I assume this is "the place where you can drive through the middle of a tree" mentioned in "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota".)