The Girly Anti-Geek

Excuse me while I giggle folks. 

Grandy has a friend that said I could go online real quick, to get this post up at my other site.  I sat down at her computer, powered it on, and it took nothing short of 20 minutes to get it completely logged on.  I tried to log into the internet and that just wasn’t happening.

“Yeah, it’s been real slow lately.”

Really?  Honey, HOW do you do this?

I ultimately gave up the battle there, but instructed her to do a disc cleanup (and I only knew how to because she has an icon for it on the desktop) and see if that helped.   Guess WHAT!  It did!!  She was so excited she had her internet working at normal speeds, and could do things again. 

Then I sat down and showed her how to upload pics to her facebook account.  I got her all set up, and she was on her way.  She had all sorts of plans for different albums and captions.  It was fun to see her excitement.

As we were leaving she is telling her husband, “I’m going to have to have my computer wiz over more often.”

 ::Grandy looking around the room:: 

Who might that be?  I wondered.

“I know you’re not talking about me.” I ultimately told her.  “I’m about the farthest thing from it.  Have you seen my BLOG?  Allow me to introduce you to my Girly Anti-Geek.”

Folks, I know it’s no secret to you that I’m NOT a computer wiz (more like a cheese whiz if you ask me) but for just that moment, it felt good to have someone think so.  I realized that maybe I do know a little bit more about this stuff than the average person… and then I wake up from that dream.

::sigh::

If you read my other blog at all, you know I’m new to Facebook.  I signed up about a month or so ago. 

It is so very cool to connect with friends from all aspects of my life. 

The thing I don’t understand is what the heck I’m supposed to do with all these application thingys?  The messages you get that say, “Denise has thrown beads at you.  Throw back!” or “Stephanie has shot you in the butt with a water pistol.  Wanna shoot back?”

Why would I want to engage all these people in a cyber water fight?  Or even send out other spam for that matter?  I don’t mind “Giving chocolate back” but what is the point of all these little things?  Is it just that it give people a chance to play cyber “tag” with their long lost friends? 

There are Pet Society invites, Food Fight requests, Water Fight challenges, A Kidnap request, and all sorts of other stuff.  What’s the point of it all?

Do you play these?  Anybody? 

While trying to learn all about these blogging terms (bounce rate, visitors, SEO) I bounce back and forth between my “night life” of blogging, and my “day job”.  Did I really just refer to blogging as my night life?  Really?  Wow…maybe some of this geek thing is rubbing off after all.

*Digressing again*

I’m afraid my day job has nothing to do with blogging.  I will admit there are times that I want to go online and just read blogs, do research on what some of this stuff means, and learn learn learn (yep, definitely more geeky than some of my friends).  However, my workload doesn’t really allow for much of that.  I tend to be kind of a work-a-holic.  My husband can’t understand how I even want to be anywhere near a computer when I work on one all day. 

I originally started blogging as a creative outlet to vent my thoughts, open my heart, and share.  I started this blog as a format to document my struggles with what comes naturally for all of you out there.  Sometimes it feels like a delicate balance with the workload, and producing “quality” posts.  Writing is my therapy though, so it’s really quite important to me and my “mental state”. 

I am so appreciative of all my readers, whether you comment or not, because I know how much blogging can take out of you and your time.  Especially if it’s not considered your “day job”.  Hopefully you all will forgive the occasional “sucky” post, and focus on the good ones. 

Can you all tell Grandy is having one heck of a week at work???

Let’s face it folks, after working on my taxes for about 15 hours on Saturday, my brain was fried all day Sunday. I did get most of it done. I need to get a couple more invoices dug up, but the bulk of it is all done.

I was definitely glad that I could post my Monday Funnies today because I needed something to smile about. I don’t know about you but going through the family finances over the entire weekend definitely put me in panic attack mode. I’m getting better, and trying to get smarter about our money (as I try with so many other things) but sometimes I just feel like I’m doing it all wrong.

Story of my life.

Maybe Grandy is just feeling a bit like a jack of all trades…master of none.

Nevermind. The brain just hurts. It’s tired. It needs some random silliness.

So today is the day I slowly kill my husband prepare our taxes.

As the wife of a self-employed truck driver that is not the easiest task.  There are self-employed people out there everywhere, and to all of you I applaud you AND your spouses. 

Every year I get a little smarter about the whole process.  Our first year, I spent 2 weeks getting all the documents into different categories and took FOREVER to figure out what categories were what.  The following year, I had a better system set up and the hardest part was still gathering all the documentation. The next year I tried my best to categorize things intermittently throughout the year, I had the envelopes done early.  What I realized though was that HE doesn’t follow that system.

This year I was smarter.  I would put everything in a stack.  I gave him a bowl for his receipts as he got them, and throughout the year I would just dump them into a big bag.  Yep…it was a trash bag folks.  My husband’s entire 2008 business documents were trashed. 

I may try to get a designated bag for next year, since the thought that it wasn’t accidentally thrown out is a small miracle.  But it did help!!  I sat down last night and sorted every tiny receipt and invoice from 2008 for his business.  This is a better alternative to spending 2 weeks tearing through every paper in the house. I really DO try to get more efficient.

Today is the day I put it all in my Excel Notebook. 

Friends have told me I should use Quicken or Quickbooks.  I found a Quickbooks free application on my laptop and downloaded and got it all set up.  Guess what…it has everything I DON’T need.  It gives me Payroll, Sales Invoices, and I forget what else…but it wasn’t what I need for what we do.

Is there a program out there people that would make my life easier for when I do 2009 taxes next year?  This year is shot, and I’m keying the excel as we speak, but is there a program that will help?  

What do you use?  Any ideas??

Today…March 19th…is a BIG day folks!!

Today my big guy turns 13!

Can you believe it??? 

Grandy is the mother of a TEENAGER!!! (note the NON-bolding on that…I’m adjusting but not really accepting this)

On this blog I tend to post about things that I screw up or struggle with.  But today I have to brag about something I’ve so far done right. 

Meet my boy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GUY!!!

Wow!  It is hard to believe it has been a few days since I’ve had a chance to post!  I had a bit of an “anniversary” of sorts over at my other site, but other than that I have been crazy busy and not able to post.  I need to re-group and get caught up on some things.

As a recap, I am working on some questions for my Tuesday Geek Feature interview, so if anyone is still interested in being a focus blog on that site, it’s not too late to let me know.  I will have my first one next week (so my target “geek” has time to get back to me with the answers). 

In the meantime, let’s cross our fingers and toes that everyone has a great week!!!

It has now been about two months since I started this blog.  When it began, I wanted to diary my daily struggles with all things technology related, while at the same time LEARN from all of you.

The other day, I found myself making the following comment in an email to my sister.  No…not the twin sister who got the geek side of the brain…but another sister who wants me to show her how to use her cell phone for text messages.  (I suppose I must be some sort of happy medium)  Anyway, I sent her this email in response to an article written about her in a newsletter.

Interesting format.  I wonder why it printed the html format.   
When you put <b>Trout and Bait</b> it means that in the final draft it is supposed to be bold.  But in your section, it wasn’t.  Same goes with <i>Speculator Review</i> (or whatever the newsletter is) is supposed to be italicized.

Somewhere along the way I lost my concsiousness and started reading things in a different light.  Funny how I might actually be “absorbing” some of this stuff.  Maybe it’s osmosis…or maybe I’m actually making progress…but watch out fellow geeks, I’m catching UP!! 

BUT… I have SO MUCH GROUND TO GAIN!!!

Have you seen this movie?

Do you remember what defined a “nerd” in this movie?

The entire premise of the movie spoke to everyone’s inner geek.  Then they get the babe at the end to boot?  Wait…I’m not ruining the plot for anyone am I?

I remember the first time I saw this movie I was just a kid.  Every time they broke into their geek speak I was confused (it started even then).  They did that on purpose, ya know.  They used all sorts of big words that were meant to make them seem smarter, and of course most of the good looking people in the movie were all dumb.

What was a Grandy to do?  I didn’t fit in with the nerd crowd or the beautiful crowd.  The nerd crowd just seemed a little more accepting.  Then I discovered nerds could look like this…

Do you recognize this hottie in his early years?  Oh yeah people…it’s HIM!!

Now you can see why a 10 year old girl longed to fit in with the nerd crowd.

Yummmmmmy!!

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?