Thence a short burst of retail therapy which found me in Smiths where I browsed the books/magazines.
I recalled that (like many of us) the Mayor of Tamworth is a keen social networking fan and sees this (again like many of us) as a useful way of keeping in contact with others both for business and pleasure. Ages ago, the Mayor mentioned to me that he had seen a book in a bookshop (where else?) which usefully brought together many of the tools to assist in social networking. Within the last fortnight I had stumbled across Tweetdeck (I'd read an article about it in a good old-fashioned newspaper) so looked it up. I downloaded Tweetdeck and started to experiment with it.
Now, in Smith's, I was thinking about this as my casual glance alighted on a magazine about Social Networking. As is my wont, I glanced and then went to the back cover to see the price! Ouch, nearly £10! "All this is available, free on the internet, if I only knew where to look but it will not be gathered together in one place" I said to myself under my breath.
I bought the magazine. The good old-fashioned hard-copy magazine or book "brings most of it together in one place" and is portable and easy to use. Surfing the internet offers too many distractions and I'm soon lost in too much detail and often forget what I've started doing in the first place.
Then back home for a cup of tea and a snack and a more detailed glance at my new acquisition. "Is this the sort of book which the Mayor told me about some time ago?" I asked myself. Yes, I know that I'm given to asking myself a lot of questions. There it was a section on Twitter and Tweetdeck and lots more all neatly gathered together with some attractive eye-catching pictures.
So, as an enthusiastic novice and silver surfer, I hove to my computer and resolved to Blog this experience. Because I've not blogged for awhile up pops a menu demanding my password. Out comes my file of passwords all kept in neat order (essential, I find - there are so many of them) and after a couple of goes I stumble upon the right one which lets me in to my dashboard. This constant necessity to "log in," I understand, is meant for my protection but it is still a chore when it is frequently having to be performed. When I first started surfing and "experimenting" it constantly put me off but a file of user names and passwords for my sites has helped me no end. I get over the logging on hurdle again and here I am.
"Can I add a picture to this quick blog?" No time, I want to get this off my chest and back to my social networking magazine. But wait, though retired, I have some work to do - generated by emails no doubt and then I have meetings to attend in less than a couple of hours time so perhaps the magazine had better wait to be enjoyed and absorbed at my leisure.
Modern life dominated by the computer is something I never dreamed about when I was a young or even nearly middle-aged adult. Now I am in my mid-60s, I cannot avoid it nor do I want to do so - it is exciting and new possibilities open up continually.
"Well done, Bill Gates" I said to myself as I listened to him on Newsnight on TV earlier this week, when he was discussing his current project to spend some of his vast wealth generated by his ideas for the computer on less fortunate folk.
So, I'm really back where I started this morning - give generously to the Lifeboat men or others less fortunate than yourselves and be thankful for what you might have, health or relative wealth and, if you can, take advantage of the modern technological revolution which includes social networking to keep you in touch with what is going on elsewhere in the World.
