A Fossil's view on blogging

Blogging?  On the computer?  Using technology?  Me????  You got to be kidding.  Or maybe you aren't.

As a creation of the first wave of baby boomers, I grew up in a black and white world.  A world with limited technology.  A world where in my early formative years, the major entertainment besides playing outside with peers, collecting fireflies in jars, jumping in leaf piles, etc., was gathering in front of the old radio in the evening with family listening to audio dramas.

TV's?  We got our first one when I was eight.  It was black and white.  Only 2 channels.  There were no such things as remotes, cable, etc. in those days.  In fact, many of our neighbours and friends didn't even own a TV yet.  They would come in and gather in front of ours.  Watching this new invention was not only a time of entertainment but also a time of bonding with friends and neighbours.

As I grew older, technology advanced.  By the time I was in university in the late '60's and early '70's, computers did exist, although they were in their infancy.  They were housed in buildings and took a university degree to operate.  A PC?  What in heaven's name was that?  Ordinary, regular people buying and using one on a daily basis?  Impossible!  Not gonna happen.  The world wide web?  What in tarnation was that?  Everyone knew that webs were made by spiders - most of having grown up on books like Charlotte's Web.

As a fossil, writing, for me, was always done in long-hand usually on yellow, legal pads then transferred to paper using an old Royale (black with gold lettering), manual typewriter.  I don't remember if it was the vintage Rolls Royce of typewriters but it surely was the Sherman tank variety - in terms or sturdiness and weight.  We must have had it forever.  I lived in the days not only of manual typewriters but also carbon paper.  My first typewriter was an Adler.  Much lighter.  More streamlined.  Easier to use. But still manual.    If you wanted anything in duplicate or triplicate,  you put in the requisite number of sheets of paper with a thin piece of carbon paper between.  Erasing mistakes was problematic.  The delete function did not exist on those old manual typewriters.  Trying to correct a mistake in triplicate was an exercise in futility. Thus, the objective of the exercise was to type perfectly with NO errors.

These were the skills and mind set I brought into my first attempt to blog. First I had to find out how to blog.  Here my IT cub-in-law became an asset advising me to set up an account on blogger.com.  Then I had to figure out how to set up the layout of the page.  That was pretty much beyond me.  So for a long time I did nothing. Wrote nothing.

Initially, I looked at other blogs on blogger and they seemed so professional.  So centered.  These people really seemed to know what they were doing.  Where they were going.

I felt intimidated.  These other bloggers may have know where they were going, but I hadn't a clue not only of where I was going but how I intended to get there.  All I had was the title:  "Ramblings of a Deranged Mind".

And that was as far as I got.  A blog title and a blank page.  No picture.  No biographical material.  No nothing.


 Cublet#1 decided to start blogging several years back.  I read her blog with delight.  Marvelling at her use of words.  At how she shared her thoughts with her readers.  At the comments she received back.  I became a firm follower of her blog.  And my desire to start my own rose once again.

Once again, I opened up my file on blogger only to get stuck once again.  This was too complicated for this poor, historical, ancient, fossilic Bear.  Too technical.  How was I ever going to do this?  So, once again, I quit the application and didn't return.

Then, someone offered me an opportunity to blog - for money.  I was given all the applications I needed.  I only had to write three test blogs.  I never got there.  Again, my dinosaur-ness showed.  I was afraid.  Afraid of failure.  Afraid of needing too much help from my new employer, because frankly I needed a lot of help just to get started.  Just to figure it all out.

The contract was cancelled even before I began.  Not because of my neediness and ineptness, but rather because of economic conditions. In retrospect that was a good thing.

I decided that this time, I was actually gonna do it.  I was actually gonna make a profile.  I was actually gonna start this blog.  On my own.  Just for me.  Just to learn.

And so I did.  Each blog for me is a new experience.  An adventure.  A learning experience.  I learn something on a daily basis.  I'm having fun.  Fun with words.  Fun with creativity.  Fun with sharing.

Life is good.

Even fossils can learn new things....