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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Can You Teach an Old Dog?

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I'm proof that you can, because I've never taken a computer course, but I've picked up enough skills to do my blog, add hyperlinks in the comments section, crop photos, publish a newsletter using Windows technology, etc. But I'm on the verge of ulcers today as I work with two computers side by side. My techie son-in-law advised me to get a more up-to-date machine and he's been so helpful setting it up, transferring data, etc. However, I'm still very dependent on my old computer because the new system is so different it's exasperating. I can't find my email address book. (Really, why isn't it listed on the left with the inbox, outbox, sent items, etc.?) I can't figure out how to easily delete e-mails so my inbox is growing by the minute. I haven't figured out how to open a tab so I can work on a page and do research on another. All this is making me pull my hair out and I have none to spare.

My son-in-law assures me that once I learn how to use it, I'll be delighted. It will be faster, I'll have more storage, etc., but at present I'm praying for patience and getting plenty of opportunity to practice it. My guardian angel is keeping his wings over my mouth. I suspect my husband is downstairs chuckling. He does very little on the computer and is probably the better for it. But since writing is my apostolate, I'm just offering this up and hoping it will get me a little time off in Purgatory. What a terrible prospect to think it might result in added bench time in the steam room. Please pray that this old dog can be a quick learner and things will be back to normal soon!

4 comments:

  1. I'll pray for you. Sometimes dealing with The Machine can be torture.

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  2. Practice makes perfect! One of the exasperating aspects of the information age is how they change the technology in ways, that while it may make it faster, with more memory, with greater abilities, it also makes you relearn everything every time. Microsoft keeps changing Microsoft Office in ways that drive me nuts.

    I spent quite a while today fooling with making a histogram in Excel and it doesn't work like it used to. Trying to find the various underlying defaults drives me nuts. People always are telling me how wonderful something is, but forgetting that it took them a year to become proficient. And I teach computer science. It's crazy!

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  3. Sure, you can teach an old dog new tricks...but it takes longer, and the old dog keeps asking "Why bother?"

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