July 17, 2004

• The weekend has arrived, and with it lots of warm (actually it’s been rather “hot”) weather. Right now (after 7am in the morning) it is beautiful out. Just the kind of day for getting in the car and “taking off”. I might get together with my friend Jim and go to the Orange County Fair. I always go to the L.A. Fair in Sept. (which is not like going to a “fair” at all but rather like going to Disneyland). I was just at the O.C. fairgrounds a few weeks ago for the Scottish Festival.

  
  

  We finally got Cancerboy hooked up to the internet. It took over a week, three separate calls to SBC Yahoo (the internet provider), and finally Jim, who is a “MacAddict”, came over and “helped” by installing the “airport” wireless ethernet card in Joel’s machine, which is one of those “spaceage” Imacs with the 17″ screen that looks more like a table lamp than a computer.

  
  

  

  
  

  The PC card installs in the semicircular base and “communicates” with the modem, which is on the other side of the house in the media room hooked up to my computer, by “wireless” connection. Frankly, when we finally got the internet to “show up” on Joel’s 17″ widescreen, I was pretty amazed. He didn’t have to run a phone line or connect the puter up to an ”in house network”, which I specifically told the guys at SBC Yahoo I did not want to do. We just wanted Joel to be able to access the internet through the service I already pay for. (Joel will foot half the bill for that service now! So I save more money! He also paid for the new modem, which cost $200 bux. His puter was $1700 on sale and the “airport card” was $50. I thanked Jim for helping us. He knows a lot about Macs which I don’t know, having a PC like most everyone else on the planet. I did learn something about dealing with MacAddicts by talking to Jim after we got Joel hooked up. (The first thing I told them to “access”, of course, was AllThingsMike.)  I asked Jim to show us what the “various icons” at the bottom of the screen were, and to let Joel know how to access the programs, how to modify the windows (I’m sure they don’t call them WINDOWS!!!! ) etc. Jim calls up “Settings and Preferences”. I say “Jim, that’s sort of like the “control panel right”? “No”, Jim retorts, sniffily, “It’s much BETTER than the control panel” and he proceeds to give me the list of “differences.” When he shows Joel how to download and archive MP3 music files, I say, “Jim, that’s like Windows Media Player?” “No, it’s NOTHING like Windows Media Player. It’s much BETTER than Windows Media Player!” This went on with each application. “That’s sort of like Outlook Express.” “No it’s NOTHING like Outlook Express.” Etc. Ad infinitum. Jim is a REAL MacAddict who believes Bill Gates and crew “stole” the Apple infrastructure to create Windows, which is the dominant operating system, of  course. (It is interesting to note that when Joel asked me about which computer he should buy for his very first machine, I said immediately “Two words: Apple Imac.”) I must admit, when I saw my website on the “wide screen” I wanted to steal his screen. I have a 19″  Compaq from 2001 which is nice and large, but isn’t “wide”. With a screen that’s twice the width of it’s height, as on Joel’s new computer (which made Jim jealous too, since he bought his Imac when the screens were still square) you can put two websites side by side, or two full size applications. You can also watch widescreen movies, but Joel was puzzled about why he would “need” to “burn” a CD into MP3 files when he could just “play the CD”. You can’t explain the wonders of computers to someone who’s never had one. I should know, I try to talk about computing all the time with people in the company where I work, and our engineer (and IT guy) is the only one who shares my interest in the least. Oh well.

  
  

  When Jim was ready to go, I went out to his car, we talked for a while more, and then I came back in the house, expecting Joel to be seated in front of his “new toy”. No such luck. He’s back in the living room watching TV. I doubt that he’s spent any time on the puter at all. I even sent him a couple of emails, and told him I know some people (also with cancer) who are interested in “talking” with him. He didn’t care about that. “Don’t give my email address to anyone” he cautioned. My puter was a “white elephant” back in 1998 but in 99 when I got my first internet connection, I felt hooked up to the world. With this new Xanga endeavor I feel even more connected. True, sitting in front of a machine is not what a lot of people would consider “interacting”, but I’m older now, and sitting down is relaxing. I could be out and about (and believe me I get out and about all the time, just look at my Webshots Gallery.) I used to go out to “bars” and “concerts” and mingle with a lot of different groups of friends, but now it is nice to be able to create my website, and get to know people from around the world through the “typewriter with pictures” as I have always called the puter. Joel will eventually get “hooked”. He loves music, and I’ve told him about Launchcast, Yahoo’s “personal” programmable radio station. He’s into politics and is a news junkie like me. I’m always “breaking” stories for him when I get something from my AP or Reuters feeds from (10 minutes ago) I think he’s just in awe of all the “icons” and “buttons” to push. As with any piece of machinery, I always maintain that anyone can operate anything, as long as they learn “which buttons to push, and when”. After one learns those “basics” they can do anything.

  
  

  Well, breakfast and the day awaits me. I’ll be posting the days photos if I take any on Webshots. Yesterday I got an email from another old acquaintance from high school (I shouldn’t be using the word “old” perhaps, since we all passed the half century mark). I still remember high school friends as they were in high school if I haven’t seen them lately, and I looked up Shirley’s photo in my 1970 annual, and wrote her a nice email this morning. She got my website address by googleing “Rosemead High School” which we attended in the 60s-70s. My “Virtual Pantherama” website (Pantherama is the name of the Yearbook. Rosemead High’s mascot is the Panther.) is the fifth listing for RHS in the google search engine. Everytime I hear from an old classmate I want to “update” the site, which was another in my ambitious plans for the internet back in 1999-2000. I don’t think I’ve updated in three years. I still get connections through it though, and memories come flooding back everytime I get “back together” with someone from skooldays over the interent. Time just doesn’t stop, but memories are forever. (At least until the dementia kicks in.   Hopefully that will be a while yet.)

  
  

  It’s now past 8am, so this post has taken an hour to write. Time to get off the puter for a while and go greet the day. (He says yet again.) Cya.

  • 11:04 am
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