Why can't all computers work the same

What a day.  Started out by meeting a very interesting young man who is studying the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the children of Veterans and Genetics of PTSD.
Ken has an interesting site here Intergenerational PTSD and if you are a child or grand child or related to a Returned from Active Service Veteran, you should read this page.

After meeting up with Ken I headed off to the Gym and did my combined program and chat with the Team.  I find the Gym good in a couple of directions.  1. when you leave you can feel the energy within after doing a good workout.  You buzz.  If you don't buzz, then you haven't worked out hard enough. 2. the social aspect of mixing with people with a like mind all doing something about their health and fitness.  I workout at the Goodlife Health & Fitness Rockhampton in Robinson Street next door to the North Rockhampton Police Station.  A great team of friendly instructors and personal trainers and very chatty smiling staff, always willing to help in any way that they can.

In the afternoon I headed over to the Rockhampton Library to Tutor the U3A Computer Club week 4.  Now there is just something about computers, they never display what you see at home.  We were lucky today we had Maxy, who had worked with Blogs before and was able to provide great assistance to eager students.  I go over the notes for the day, check the web and ensure the notes will work on the day.  But not todays notes.  Whether it is something to do with Vista or XP I don't know.  So todays class was very badly run, in a mix match fashion with some students successfully making a Blog, while others created then lost and started again and because of Bing, one student ended up composing her Blog in Wordpress.  Not that there is anything wrong with Wordpress, but the choice of the day was to get people Blogging on Google Blog.

For those keen to move on, the Class notes are on the U3A web site  as Classnotes and you can download a PDF copy of the notes if you wish.

These lovely flowers came from Carolyn and Barney - Thankyou

So lets hope next week is better
Cheers

Time to take stock on what life means to us

You have read before that my mother broke her femur.  She would have been 86 in April this year.  But sadly on Sunday at 10:30PM Australia time I got a call from my sister Amanda that Pam had passed away. 

Amanda has been a pilar in the whole saga, she has been there for Pam as well as holding a high pressure job at one of Aucklands High Schools.  Manda has been on hand while my other sister Elizabeth lives in the UK and I'm over here in Australia.

It has all come at a bad time, Helen is not well, I've got this Clot problem with my left leg and with the earlier February news of Helens best girlfrind dieing in a house fire,  all round it has been a bad month.
Photos top to bottom - Pam sitting down for dinner and her garaden at home and Helen & Pam looking at the quilting squares that Helen was doing ready for the next quilt.

All the photos were taken 20th October 2009

So it it time for us all to take stock of what we are doing and look to the future, and ask ourselves are we travelling down the right path?

Isn't nature wonderful

Today before mowing the lawn I found this little flower growing from a rapidly spreading weed in the lawn.  Wonderful colours, ornate little flowers, but it is a weed.
Mowing today was hot, the lawn was heavy and damp, but it is all done now and looks so much better.
My mother has had her femur operation and she is not happy at all.  It was a long operation and only time will tell as to how successful the job will be and whether she will beable to walk again or be wheel chair bound.

You might wonder why Cats, Dogs and Computers

Well the answer is ...most of us have had a pet cat or a pet dog, well now you have a pet computer and like cats and dogs it needs you to tell it what to do.

Just been outside, and believe it or not but it is still raining.

 The time at the moment is 2345 Saturday night and a bit of excitement, the rescue chopper is buzzing back and forth over the north side at a low level and the big search light was swishing about.  It must be very important for the chopper cost to be warrented

Mrs Pee Wee

Right outside our dinning room window is the third family of Pee wees nesting.  Three years or so ago we had 5 pee wees in a nest and all survived.  In early Feb 2010 a second nest was started, but it rained part way through the construction and the nest was damaged.  Maybe the same pee wees have rebuilt the nest they are sitting on.  Amazing to watch them build and line the nest with mud, smooth it out and let it dry.  Then come back and lay the eggs.  Both mum and dad build the nest, sit on the eggs and later feed the young.  When it rains one will sit with its wings spread to cover the nest and contents.
So we'll keep you posted with the nesting in progress.

Problems with two blogs

I thought I was logged into this Blog when actually I was logged in to my other.  So this is one good reason to use the Follow command provided by Google Blogs, You can see what is going on very easily on blogs that you follow
Just a little hint

You wouldn't believe it....

It is raining!
But I got some worse news today.  Had a text from my sister to say my mother has had a fall and broken the femor 2" below the hip joint.  That is serious at 86 years old.!  They can't do anything for her until the warfarin she takes is out of her system, so how painful will that be.  This photo was taken in New Zealand in October 2009.  Mother is sitting bottom left as you look at it.

Todays Rain

The rain is getting lighter and today we had 13mm, but it all adds up 75mm from Monday to Friday.
I had a good workout at the Gym and did need to be a little careful with the left leg, it was swelling slightly around the knee, BUT it is good to be walking again after a month off.

Another WET day

We've just about had enough rain!  Everything feels damp, and outside it is turning into a quogmire (however that is spelt).
This morning I have typed up Week 4 notes and sent them off the the members.  At the moment I'm typing up week 5 Notes.
Computers will never fully be understood, their capacity to perform is way beyond our knowledge.  At our U3A classes we are only touching on a puff of what they can do.
Look at the engineering industry, with design of the Boeing 787,  media and communications, NASA and space technologies, the list goes on and they are all using the same computers that we have at home

That is something to dwel on

Big event coming up

In April Helen's niece will be getting married and over the last few weeks there has been a flurry of activity. Helen had some input and she was able to use some of her card making expertise with the invitations. This picture is Tamara and Helen folding and putting the ribbon onto the 80 invites

Up dates for U3A Rocky

This year there will be some rather large changes in the Journal produced by Rockhampton U3A. Our new editor has some great ideas and his views are fully backed by me. I have always batted for a colour Journal and to have it emailed to members. By doing it this way, you can printout a page or the whole item.

How many read it and toss it?

At the moment the CQU is paying for the printing which now is done in Yeppoon. The completed Journal is Emailed to the printer.

The March copy used up 6120 pieces of paper or 12.24 reams of paper. If you were buying the paper for the club it would cost about $55 for paper only, plus ink, stapling and transport back to the Uni.

Modern Communications

Just imagine how Captain Cook would have felt if he had all the modern day gadgetery in communications? Some of us live in a lucky world, safe, warm and dry, but Jessica Watson is out there all alone in the Southern Atlantic Ocean and we can all live her dream day by day, roll by roll via one of our man made satellites and modern day communications. Keep Blogging Jess
February 16, 2010 7:50 AM

Just a little message I left on Jessicas Blog

Memory loss, or doing too much

Yesterday, when was that?
I went over to the Vultures for a blood test, collected the mail and headed back to the northside of town to go to Coles. Half way over the bridge I thought I should have collected the mail. Thinking about which lane to get into to get off the bridge and back on, I looked out the passanger window and there on the seat was the mail. Cuckoo... I'd already collected the mail.

I parked at Coles, did the shopping and returned to the car to find the drivers side window OPEN. I always check that the windows are up and the car is locked, BUT obviously not today. Nothing was missing, how lucky was that!

Then last night I did the household rubbish and put the bins out for collection. Sat down at my computer to continue the letter to my mother and couldn't find my glasses. Looked everywhere. So I thought I wonder if they fell in the bin? I pulled the bin back into the light and started pulling out the rubbish and there they were at the bottom of the bin!

Yesterday afternoon I took Helen to the Doctor. It poured with rain, very high humidity, stinking weather. When Helen came back we headed back home. I had driven about 500 meters and suddenly realised that I didn't have my seat belt on. I tell you CUCKOO!

There is always something to learn

Last week I thought I had the answer, but when I visited Bill the program I brought with me was not what was needed. So it was back to the drawing board and more reading on Google.

Just say you have a file on your computer and you can't get it to open.
Go to Google and along the search window type in a *, then a fullstop . and then the 3 letter file extension ie *.psf and search
Now is the time to get the reading glasses out and sift through the sites dealing with opening a PSF type file.

The best I found was at http://www.xnview.com/en/downloadwin32.html

Where should we start

I hope we have all had a pet, like a Dog or a Cat. Cats have servants and dogs have masters. Now you have a Computer and as much as many think differently, the computer only does what you tell it to do