The Girly Anti-Geek

 This site is just wrapping up the first month and what a perfect time to share some linky love for the first Top Dropper day, over at Entrecard.  Well, maybe it’s not the FIRST one for EC, but it’s the first big event for this Girly Anti-Geek. 

Speaking of Entrecard, I think I was supposed to register my blogs somewhere for this big event, but alas…when I clicked the link it took em to the home page.

I wish I had the skills to pull each and every EC Card pic that you all have, but I’m not there yet.

Hey!  Did you notice my other site is 3rd from the bottom?  Proof I’m NOT online everyday.  You’d think I would be able to be my own top dropper.  Oh well, I made the cut eventually. 

Thanks to my other NINE!!!

Okay, as I tried to get my post in for the day, I was thoroughly enjoying sharing some linky love and giving thanks to the lovely bloggers that stopped by to help me.

I was actually finally having a blog post that didn’t involve the categories of “HUH?” and “Challenges”.

Then…well just look at the font!  It was HUGE!!  The font got progressively HUMONGOUS!! 

I have tried to fix it many times.  I must have gone in and deleted some silly code that was associated with the text because I couldn’t move the dang embedded pic to where I wanted it. 

::sigh::  

Just when I think I’m making progress…I take one step forward and 12 steps back.

Wrong 12-step program, I know.  But is it?  Blogging is an addiction, but not one I can do correctly I suppose.

First I would like to thank all those popular folks that stopped by my site to give me their hints on what makes them successful.  How awesome that they took the time to come see lil’ ol’ me and share their wisdom of popularity with me.  THANK YOU!!!

What wonderful tips and tricks of the trade!! 

dreadpiraterose said that making 300 EC drops a day is a must, in helping to get a following.  I regret that as soon as she said that, work started to explode in front of my eyes and I have barely been able to see straight, much less getting to drop a single card.  YIKES!!!  Must work on that.

bill_finger suggested I post some pictures.  I wonder if he meant my own, or those I come across.  Either way, I must get better at making sure each post has a relevant pic in it.  I will work on that.

Matt concurred with Bill, and saw his traffic increase as well with pictures.  I get it. 

tonsblogger went over and above and even included my site in an EC Blog Community. 

I must say that the blogging community that have stumbled into my new site is gracious beyond all my expectations.  That’s very exciting indeed.  I will work very hard to grow up and be like you all some day.  Until then…Thanks for the pointers.

Oops!  Almost forgot my pic!

Please, each of you that commented here, take this award for yourselves. 

When I went to my sister’s place last week, I was very excited because I knew there would be a night where we would all be sitting around with our respective laptops.  I could ask questions about things, and we could share funny other things.  It’s a geek-challenged person’s dream to be able to hang out with her own little IT department.

Well, when my BIL directed me to a YouTube video I realized there was something missing.  My speaker had a big X over it.  It said that I had no sound system program thing in the laptop. 

 Zero volume control???  Really?  It was there when I left my house?  It’s not like it’s like my car keys or something, where I could just mis-place it.  What the heck?  Why am I feeling like the technology gods are mocking me??

My BIL looked at it and couldn’t figure it out.  HUH?!?  I don’t know that I have ever stumped him before. 

So…sure enough…when I got home on Friday the speaker was back to normal.

Of course NOW I can’t find that YouTube video he wanted me to watch. 

Bummer!!  All I know, is I rarely use the sound in my laptop but when I didn’t have it…it was missed.

Now I need to learn where to chain it up the next time we go on a playdate together.

This blog has really forced me to look at things differently.  In the past I always dreamed of knowing how people stumbled onto my other blog.  Thanks to the likes of LJ, I now have a shiny stat counter over there, and I’m learning more about who comes to see me, and from where. 

I stumbled into the stats page again, to see how my stats here are comparing to the other today.com sites.  Well folks, I’m not doing too shabby although my numbers are down 30% from last week (WTF?).  I’m getting 47 people stopping by per day, which isn’t bad because I’m still in the first month of this blog.

 Well what I’m trying to figure out is…what are those other people in the top 10 doing?

I have lots to learn…that’s for sure.  Maybe I should start with finding out how long they’ve been there and just be happy with the ones I have in this short time. 

Thanks all!! 

The word “challenged” doesn’t only apply to technology in the lovely Grandy-land.  I am also all of the following:

* Domestically Challenged = I cook, clean and work hard…I just seem to never make a dent.

* Vertically Challenged = Yeah, I’m afraid I’m a little short.

* Directionally Challenged = Oh man… I am one of those people that couldn’t find her way out of the same entrance/exit door at the casino, if left to her own devices. 

We once bought a Chevy Blazer (my first winter in the snow when I needed the 4-wheel drive) and my husband excitedly says, ”Hey look honey!!  It even has a navigation thing that tells you what direction you’re heading!”  My response to that?  “Yeah, well that’s all fine and good honey…if you know what direction you’re supposed to be going.“ 

Well two years ago I got my new cell phone, and that was when I discovered the glorious Verizon Navigator.  For $10 per month, it will point me to where I need to be from my cell phone.  IT’S AMAZING!!  Now granted, it took some getting used to.  For instance, the first time I used it in San Francisco, I hadn’t set it to direct me as a pedestrian and so it either freaked out on me while I walked against traffic or it sent me clear around the block when all I had to do was cross the street a couple times.

For that very reasonable $10 per month, I have been saved countless minutes and hours traveling to client’s offices and even family attractions.  It will do a local search of the area if you are looking for something in your proximity.  Low on gas?  It will point you to the nearest station.  If you are in need of some java, you can plug in Starbucks or “coffee” and it will direct you to any coffee house as far as you want it to. 

The Verizon Navigator on my cell phone is really a piece of technology I have thoroughly embraced.  Rather than have a Tom Tom GPS that stays in my husband’s truck, this goes with me so if I have to walk through downtown to multiple destinations, it will stay with me and guide the way.  If I wear my bluetooth, it will even whisper sweet directions in my ear. 

I’m staying at my sister’s house for a couple days, while I’m in the area on business.  I absolutely LOVE my twin sister, her hubby, and her 3 glorious boys.  It’s one of the few places I can hang out, relax, and play on my laptop freely without gettinghey grief for it.  They have their his and hers laptops also.

So last night (when I was supposed to be posting here) I was visiting with them both, and they had me giggling in a fit.  My BIL knows all the funny websites and we just have a good time catching up. 

As we were talking, he was telling me a funny story about how he and his co-workers (all computer geeks) make sounds and then save them as wave files, then set their ringtone as those sounds.  Mid-way through me giggling with him the thought crossed my mind…Who thinks of this stuff?

One makes fart sounds…decides to record it…and then saves those fart sounds as a ringtone? 

I looked at him and said, “This is yet another example that YOU are a total geek, and yet another sad example about why I am not.”

I’m so grateful for them both…and who couldn’t use their own personal IT Hotline? 

As I visited some blogs tonight, dropping my Entrecard, I stumbled onto Double X Geeks who had a Geek test on her site.  It asked, “What kind of Geek are you?” Well I thought that would be a cool quiz to take.  This anti-geek is going to find out what her style is.

Well that test said I was a Chic Geek.  That’s all fine and good, but then it started talking about some things I didn’t understand.

::sigh::

Then I went to one of my old staple sights, Blogthings.  They typically have basic fun quizes that can be pretty funny.  Except tonight.  Tonight I searched their system to see if they had anything that showed a quiz to test my geeky-ness.  They had questions like:

1. General Geekiness:

• You regularly play chess
• You’re very attached to your scientific calculator
• You primarily use Linux / BSD
• You type in dvorak

::sigh again::

Is there no hope for me? 

Where is my “none of the above” option?

It never ceases to amaze me when I happen to come across something I AM capable of doing and am NOT limited by my technical ignorance, and it doesn’t work.  UGH!!

I am supposed to be on “standby” for Jury Duty starting Tuesday.  I couldn’t figure out, for the longest time, why they would start me on a Tuesday, and then I remembered, “DUH!  Monday is a holiday that I don’t have off but most everyone else does.” 

Well, on my jury summons, it gives me a juror number.  The form tells me that I can go online and check my status as early as the Friday before my report date to see if I actually have to show up.  Sounds easy enough…one would think.

Oh no, it’s NEVER that easy where Grandy is concerned… NEVER!!    Here’s how it plays out in a Grandy world.

Website:  Please enter your six digit juror number.
Grandy:   XXXXXX8
Website:  Please enter your date of birth
Grandy:   XX/XX/XXX2
Website:  System error.  Please try again later.

I checked out my summons.  Wouldn’t you know it, my juror number has SEVEN digits.  Surely the system knows they’ve issued juror numbers with SEVEN digits.  Right?  Maybe I’ll just call…

Automated phone guy:  Please enter your six digit juror number.
Grandy:   XXXXXX8
Automated phone guy:  Please enter your date of birth
Grandy:   XX/XX/XXX2
Automated phone guy:  I’m sorry, but there is a system error.  You will have to try again later.

What?  Later?  Does he not know that tomorrow the courts are closed?!? 

It gets better.  I must report by 8:00 am.  The live people are available at 9:00 on the phone. 

Fair enough, right?  I’ll just plan on showing up to the courthouse to see if I need to be there.  I’m a smart girl…I can overcome this.

One slight problem though, they have given me directions to THREE DIFFERENT COURTHOUSES. 

You all have been keeping something from me.  I had no idea.  REALLY!!

You see, I’m very new to this format here at Today.com (which I believe is a Wordpress site but can’t be completely certain) and am still figuring out what all the little buttons above my text window mean.  I know what many of them mean, but don’t exactly know how to use them.

Ok…if I work my way from left to right I have:

• The undo arrow - Don’t we all wish we had one of those in our daily lives?
• Maybe then the forward do - to undo doodoo from the undo.
• Then we have the typical cut, copy, paste, and a couple extra paste buttons.
• Then there’s a find/replace button - Can that button do anything for matching my socks?
• A remove formatting - which when I learn how to format, I’ll know exactly where to go to remove it.
• Next is the “cleanup messy code” button - can you point me to the “cleanup messy room” button?
• Spell Checker - a must have.
• The emoticon guy - Are you related to the dancing ball at Wal-Mart?
• The Insert Pic the size of a thumb pic - I must get better at using that one.
• You Tube - I like this one and you will see more of it.
• Embed Flash? - Huh?
• Embed media links? - Huh Huh?
• Now we have the text format buttons:  BOLD, Itallics, Underline, Strikethrough,
• Then the layout Oops…forgot to turn off the strikethrough. 
• The layout buttons - Indent with bullets, numbers, indent period - Would that be an Undent next to it?
• Left, center and right right justify - Is it really justified?
• Text Color
• Next we have the Insert & Edit Link buttons
• Then the split posts - why would I?
• The font is easy enough, but then the horseshoe, greek symbol thing.  Huh?
• Then there’s a horizontal rule, insert date & time buttons, and some chart stuff.

For a week I have been doing the text link thing the hard way.  I couldn’t figure out why the buttons wouldn’t show that they would work.  So each time I linked I would go into code and try to do it the old fashined way.  After the first few days I got lazy and stopped all linkage.  No one told me that you have to HIGHLIGHT the word!!

So…what else aren’t you telling me?