Trick or Treat
Mother with teens and all the woo is me thoughts I encounter - mine and my childrens!Friday, November 22, 2002
Mom We Have to Have A Computer
My three children (male; 18, female; 15; male; 11) let me and my husband live with them, sometimes peacefully, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 18 year old may or may not graduate from high school this year and we may or may not let him live with us much longer! The 15 year old daughter is a dream; straight A's and H's (some S's-I have to get on her about). She's a little on the quiet-shy side everywhere but home! The little guy just got through with his third season of football and now he is back with his Saturday mornings dance lessons with Ballet West. Football and dance, go figure!
After years of "Mom, we need a computer," and months of reading all the tidbits of information on computers, even amid all the talk of Apple's financial problems and possible departure from the computer world, I bought a Macintosh at Sears. About that time I remember reading an article in the newspaper business section about the return of the all-in-one computer and then the iMac was born and then the iBook. I would tell people if I had invested the money in Apple stock instead of buying a Mac, I would be rich, but then I would have missed the dance.
Through this computer, my daughter and I did two years of research for the National History Fair. The first year we did her research on computers and the Internet. The next year we did research on satellites and the space race, which is essentially the same research because ARAPNET - the start of the internet - was started for the defense of our country after the Russians flung that threatening piece of tinfoil - SPUTNIK - into space.
I am a thrift store browser. I collect - everything - right now I am into retro computers! My 15 year old daughter and I have a thrift store circuit we travel on Saturday mornings. We find computer systems and hook them up. The good ones we buy and usually give to family or friends who need a computer, but even the so-so systems we leave hooked up are usually bought by someone else before we even leave the store.
I do wish that I could remember those pre-computer days, but I now know I gave up more of my life with the purchase of that first Macintosh than I did with childbirth. We have at last count a menagerie of 9 (give or take a few) computers with four of them routed up to a cable internet connection
© November 2002
Trixie McGuire (This one's for Erma "B" in 2003)
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
My three children (male; 18, female; 15; male; 11) let me and my husband live with them, sometimes peacefully, on the west side of Salt Lake City, Utah. The 18 year old may or may not graduate from high school this year and we may or may not let him live with us much longer! The 15 year old daughter is a dream; straight A's and H's (some S's-I have to get on her about). She's a little on the quiet-shy side everywhere but home! The little guy just got through with his third season of football and now he is back with his Saturday mornings dance lessons with Ballet West. Football and dance, go figure! I am sure after you read some of my rambling you will soon realize, I live a vicariously-contradictive life through my children.
I do wish that I could remember those pre-computer days, but I now know I gave up more of my life with the purchase of our first Macintosh than I did with childbirth. We have at last count a menagerie of 9 (give or take a few) computers with four of them routed up to a cable internet connection. My favorite saying goes something like this: "You have to get rid of what you don't need to make room for what you really want." Just like all you out there in cyber-Macland: "I would possibly cut off my little toe for a dual G4 and I would let the other little toe be lopped for a 23-inch high resolution monitor."
I PhotoShop, ride the QuarkXpress, and let Bbedit! Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what flavor your choices are: trixie@mymac.com
© 2002
Trixie McGuire
Sunday, November 17, 2002
I am a thrift store browser. I collect - everything - right now I am into retro computers! I've been the depression glass etc. . . route -but- and there always seems to be a butt - doesn't there - when you have one or two or three of everything - you need to move on!
Today I set my mother up with a windoze '95 computer so she could take advantage of the three free months of @aol.com we signed her up for. My mother is 77-you've got to keep those neurons working in the brain! We have a cable internet connection, but - here I am at butt again - CompUSA had a deal we couldn't pass up - three free games (cheap ones we'll never use - butt. . . ), three free months of AOL and 50, yeah 50 CD-R's Anyway - back to my mother's other computer - I should say Thee Computer-Macintosh - Quatra 840AV - nice computer -butt- she couldn't get dial up - so we gave it to my 10 year old nephew. An older nephew was there at the time and laughed about the old Mac and says - hey I wouldn't even steal a Mac - and me - I have four right fine Mac's all networked together - I handed him a piece of paper and says - make me out a list of what you wouldn't steal and I will go in on one of my Mac and type up a list and pass it out to family and friends - titled: Things to Keep in Mind for Future Purchases!
Let's talk thrift store or hand me down computers: We as a family are voyeurs of the files people leave on computers they no longer need. My favorite is a apple laptop from a person at Novell with secret company documents from 1995! Another one was from the BYU Computer Science Department. The best one was a computer that was owned by a group of college graduate students. Some great school projects on that computers! We gave it my ten year old son and the two older kids were irrate when they discovered that he had deleted all the files before they got a chance to look them over. My 15 year old daughter and I have a thrift store circuit we travel on Saturday mornings. We find computer systems and hook them up. The good ones we buy and usually give to family or friends who need a computer, but even the so-so systems we leave hooked up are usually bought by someone else before we even leave the store.
The only thing, in my humble opinion, Bill Gates has over Macintosh is Windows Solitaire. Especially when you play and win on an old computer running 3.1. I love to watch the cards bounce across the screen. In fact that's the reason I play! I don't play it on the newer faster machines because the cards move too fast. Technology seems to move forward a couple of steps and then comes back and kicks you in the teeth! Let me back up and explain that statement: I had two windows PC's that I put ethernet cards in to route up to our cable connection to download some upgrades before we found good homes for them. Solitaire stopped working. Who wants a computer that doesn't play solitaire? A window pops up accusing me of performing an illegal operation and tells me it's going to shut me down! That's pure slander and I should sue Microsoft for that! None of my Mac's has ever insulted me like that! I had downloaded a Pop-Up Stopper to stop the advertising while online and quess what - it only stopped solitaire from popping up!
Let me know if you have a computer with interesting files to donate and I'll send you the a copy of: Things to Keep in Mind for Future Purchases!
© November 17, 2002
Trixie McGuire
Electricity: What Is It Good For?
We have two Macs and a year-old Compaq, routed up to a cable Internet connection through AT&T.
Last month, our power went out as a result of weather. Yes, there were downed power lines—not near us—but they were down, etc. I heard the same story from every power company customer service representative each time I called to report that our power was still out! Power was back on all around us. We just happened to be one of the many “small pockets” still without electricity.
I live in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, and our power was out for over 40 hours. For heavens sake—the world came here for the Olympics. What would the world have thought if the power had gone out while we were playing hostess to the mostest? A few years back, Utah Power and Light was up for sale. It was merged with Pacificorp, which is owned by foreign (Scottish) investors (if my sources are right; please correct me if I am wrong). The Utah Power and Light trucks that were a common sight during my childhood were replaced by sub-contracted electricity trucks.
I could go on and on about big corporate mergers and lack of true customer service, but the real reason I was upset is that the power went out a half hour after we had cable TV installed! Have you ever had to deal with a 17-year-old male who for years has begged for cable TV—and when he finally has the cable remote in his hot adolescent hands, the power goes out and stays out for 40 plus hours? I am here to let you know: that is something you do not want to experience. Then he realized that he would not be able to get on battle.net and play StarCraft. Well, you don’t want to go there either.
But that was not the real problem. The real problem, in our household, was that my 15-year-old daughter, who has grown up with a computer always there, had started a lengthy report for school. All her notes were on the suddenly powerless computer! When the power went out she was in her room watching a video that she needed to watch in order to finish her report. Mom was forced to call the power company outage number almost every hour on the hour for her own sanity—as if a mother with teenagers has any sanity. (Oh, but they were cute as little babies—let’s have another one!)
So, the night before the report was due, we packed up her TV and VCR and drove her four blocks north to sit in the basement at her grandmother’s house to finish the video, so she could rewrite her report. All the time we were hoping that the power would be back on when we got home. It wasn’t, and it was 10:30 PM, so we packed all her scribbled notes and headed for Kinko’s, which is only four blocks south, and spend 20 cents a minute for computer time plus printing. Total cost: $17.82. So I am forced to ask: we have two Macs and a year old Compaq, routed up to a cable Internet connection. Without electricity, what are they good for?
Copyright © 2002 Trixie McGuire
Memories of My Life Since Buying an Apple Macintosh 6500/250
I wish I could remember those pre-computer days, but I think I gave up more of my life by purchasing a computer then I did when I gave birth. After years of “Mom, we need a computer,” and months of reading all the tidbits of information on computers, I bought a heavily discounted Macintosh at Sears, even amid all the talk of Apple’s financial problems and possible departure from the computer world.
About that time I remember reading an article in the newspaper business section about the return of the all-in-one computer—and then the iMac was born—and then the iBook. I would tell people if I had invested the money in Apple stock instead of buying a Mac, I would be rich, but then I would have missed the dance.
Through this computer, the family has enjoyed two years of America Online, two years of a local ISP (Networld, Salt Lake City), and now we have two Macs and a year-old Compaq routed up on a cable Internet connection through AT&T. I want to thank Steve Case, founder of America Online, for introducing us to the Internet, but if his original idea was to make the Internet easy, he is missing the mark with his 7.0 village. The village is too darn big, and all people want is access to the outside Web.
Also through this computer, my daughter and I did two years of research for the National History Fair. The first year we did her research on computers and the Internet. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about ARPANET, ENIAC, Ray Tomlinson of e-mail fame, Honeywell, UNIVAC, TCP/IP, Ethernet, the gang at Bell Labs, the abacus, Blaise Pascal, Charles Babbage and his girlfriend Ada, Big Blue started by Hermie Hollerith (who by the way started the big competition buyout fad still going strong today), vacuum tubes, transistors, Texas Instruments, Motorola, operating systems, Mosaic, Netscape, LAN, CPUs, Texas Instruments, Motorola, XEROX, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Apple, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Andrew Groves, Intel, AMD, Lawrence Ellison, Oracle, Ann Winbald, Ester Dyson (whose name I include because I would like a charity-based subscription to her newsletter and an invitation to her elite get together), Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon, Linus Torvalds, Linux, and Jerry Yang of Yahoo!. I have a little homepage just I set up and never finished for the in-laws, after I took an online HTML course.
The next year we did research on satellites and the space race, which is essentially the same research because ARAPNET was started for the defense of our country after the Russians flung that threatening piece of tinfoil—SPUTNIK—into space.
Through the years, besides lusting after an iMac, the only thing I have considering purchasing for the 6500/250 is a Sonnet CPU upgrade card. We are still churning out great work running Mac OS 8.0, only because every time we tried to upgrade to 8.1 the system crashed. Now I figure, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
But if there is a God, and Steve Jobs happens to read this and is swayed by flattery (“I think he is as cute now in suits and long hair as he was in holey blue jeans and long hair”), I would be willing to accept his donation to my children’s education of a shiny new dual-processor G4. And while I am at it, he could throw in one of those high definition 23-inch Cinema Displays that smacks me in the face every time I visit Apple.com to get info to keep this machine up and running!
Copyright © 2002 Trixie McGuire
We've got to stop meeting like this. People are going to get suspicious. I have always wanted to say that to someone and really mean it. But I use it as a joke! Because sometimes - actually - most all the time my life is a joke! I have never set goals! Or if I had I don't think I would be any where near the family I am related to. I would have done something with my life. Yeah right - I am where I am and that's all I am!
Tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of my life! Yeah right - I am up late on this damn computer - typing to no one in particular - I guess I am typing to myself - well duh! and to finish the starting statement - I will sleep late and when my children come in from school . . . I will be cranky!
I have these big dreams of studying all these foreign languages and politics of the world and becoming President of the United States! That in itself is funny - I am as my eldest son tells me - "lethargic"! Who knows someday I will quit smoking - don't say that - it is my only friend - and do something wild and crazy - like go back to school at 51 or 52 or 53 . . . Yeah right!
Monday, November 18, 2002
You know me or someone just like me - I know a little about everything and a whole lot about nothing! I can converse on any subject! If I don't know the particular facts . . . well, I can pert near make it sound like I do! The only problem I have is my children and they are way smarter than me and they let me know it every chance they get!
Enough on that tidbit of motherhood - Let's venture into Christmas shopping. No let's not! That is a personal matter. My children are older and they should be easier to shop for. Get them a car and maybe, just maybe they will drive away and never come back. Yeah right - They need gas money - insurance - and they still don't know how much a jar of mayonnaise is!
I just got offered a monthly job of writing for an online Mac magazine. So if anyone out there in cyberland ever reads this - my entries from this point forward will not - as if they ever did - will cease to make any sense - because . . . I will be using this as a journal of thoughts that might tickle someone's funny bone.
God must have Erma Bombeck as one of his right hand men - this little part of my life - I dedicate to her and I hope she reads it: I had my first child at thirty+ so after the third I had my tubes tied. My then 7 year old son started laughing when he caught me and his father kissing. When we asked him what was so funny, he snickered and said, "You and dad can't have sex anymore, because Mom had her tubes tied up!" The next funny thing is when my youngest was also about seven he walks up to me with his measuring hand on his head - and says to me "look mommie I am as big as your boobies!"
Until next time.
Sunday, November 17, 2002
I am a thrift store browser. I collect - everything - right now I am into retro computers! I've been the depression glass etc. . . route -but- and there always seems to be a butt - doesn't there - when you have one or two or three of everything - you need to move on!
Today I set my mother up with a windoze '95 computer so she could take advantage of the three free months of @aol.com we signed her up for. My mother is 77-you've got to keep those neurons working in the brain! We have a cable internet connection, but - here I am at butt again - CompUSA had a deal we couldn't pass up - three free games (cheap ones we'll never use - butt. . . ), three free months of AOL and 50, yeah 50 CD-R's
Anyway - back to my mother's other computer - I should say Thee Computer-Macintosh - Quatra 840 - nice computer -butt- she couldn't get dial up - so we gave it to my 10 year old nephew. An older nephew was there at the time and laughed about the old Mac and says - hey I wouldn't even steal a Mac - and me - I have four right fine Mac's all networked together - I handed him a piece of paper and says - make me out a list of what you wouldn't steal and I will go in on one of my Mac and type of a list and pass it out to family and friends - titled: Things to Keep in Mind for Future Purchases!
