RSS - Week 4 task

Doing the 23 things is very time consuming and confusing. I still have trouble coming up with all the passwords, user names, and email addresses necessary to work online. I find this type of activity eats up time. I've spent four hours on this lesson and I don't know that I've learned all that much. Too much time spent getting to a site, and then fumbling around trying to figure out what comes next.

I've read that many Americans now get their news online - but that's not going to be me. I prefer sources such as the newspaper and the local television news. I don't even care for CNN. It might be an age thing, but I don't like the slick, superficial, and often biased news that is found on cable and online. I looked at Yahoo's RSS blogs that you can subscribe to and I couldn't find one that I wanted. I'd just be deleting them as they clogged up my email. So that was kind of discouraging. But I'm going to persevere - I want to improve my technology skills. Although I'm still amazed so many people find so much online to occupy themselves. I think of my computer as a tool to accomplish work or locate information - I don't think of it as entertainment.

adding the avatar

It's probably very good for me to be working on this 23 things project. I managed to move the avatar to my blogsite today. I created an avatar last week, but I couldn't get it moved. Today I couldn't remember my yahoo account information, so I had to start over. Eventually, I created an avatar again, and with only moderate frustration, managed to move it to my website.

I find it truly aggravating to try and keep up with and remember all the different passwords, user names, website addresses and special codes that you need to access the internet. Each site has its own rules about what codes are okay, and I end up with way too many "secret codes" and sign in data to keep up with.

Another frustration involves following the given onscreen directions. It always seems as if the directions I need to complete a task or solve a problem are on another page, not where I can read and follow them as I carry out the task sequentially. I have to write them down or try and recall what to type in and what to click on , and my memory is like a sieve. I'm finding that I have a very short patience level - I'm working on improving that too.

Actually it's very nice to have free lessons online to help computer users become more competent. It just seems to take more time than I really want to spend to accomplish each task. I don't want to stumble and fumble around. I want to get in and get out and get onto other pursuits. But that's not realistic. It's going to take time, patience, and persistence if I want to learn new things and improve my computer skills. So I'll keep plodding along.

23 things, thing 1

The hardest thing of the 7 1/2 traits is following through to carry out the work - the implementation. The easiest thing is planning what I should or need to do.

I firmly believe we should all be life long learners. Discovering new skills and passions give excitement and interest to our everyday lives. I've been taking classes or training of one type or another for over forty years. I'll always be a student.

Starting a blog

Step one of learning new technology: learning how to set up a blog. I don't have much experience with blogs. They seem very self indulgent. Why should anyone care what I think? Still, I do wish to build my technology skills, so I will follow the 23 steps path.