I wanted to spruce up my blog, since it's boring and basic. Blogs have come a long way since I started writing mine years ago and I wanted to change with the times. Maybe get a little more "personal" with my site and a little more "professional" with my writing. I spent an hour or so yesterday playing around with layouts only to be frustrated and annoyed. Nothing worked like it was supposed to and I don't know how to make it work.
For once, I don't think I can blame my Mac. I've been technologically flustrated (flustered and frustrated) alot since I got the new Mac. I have been a PC user since I ever OWNED a computer circa 1990. When I got the Mac, the first thing that rushed into my brain was my 7th grade computer class with the open and closed apple. Apparently, technology has advanced since 1988 and no more are there open and closed apple commands.
I took a friend (Hi AJ)'s advice and watched some apple.com tutorials. Wha...Who..Wha? I'm not even sure what they said and my mind was reeling. Always had the same feeling in math class! :) For as much as I HATE being talked "down" to (I am NOT an idiot, YES I turned it on and YES it's plugged in!) I would've loved a "turn on the computer and let's walk you through the pictures (Dock) at the bottom". Or like the overenthusiastic Apple geeks that sold me the machine "See? If you click here, and get this you can do X,Y,Z". VERY helpful. Things like "if you are using files in the 'cloud' and not saving them locally you're an idiot" are NOT helpful. I hear (or read, in this case) NOTHING after that because I'm trying to figure out what's the cloud. Did I miss it? Do they mean the Internet? Cyberspace? Is there some icon I haven't found? Some hardrive space I should know about? If I lose files in this cloud, how will I find them? If I put too many files in the cloud, does it rain?
I managed to find my way to my free "geek magazine" (as I fondly call it, other normal people may refer to it as MacWorld magazine) subscription. This I enjoy. I pretty much skip the articles because sentences like "You too can be a Mac genius. Troubleshooting isn't magic. It's a skill that any experienced Mac user can cultivate" doesn't come CLOSE to understanding my PC brain challenges. :) I like the Mac Gems. It tells me new things I can download to my Mac to do things I didn't know I can do with a Mac. Things I may or may not already be able to do on here and I can't find them. (I think the cloud eats them.) I am glad I didn't skip over the "Genius Bar" sidebar article because it was WONDERFUL! It told me I could take my Mac to a Genius and have them fix it! I have to make an appointment, but honestly, this is my kind of article. PLUS I figured I was a Genius for reading it! :) ;)
I try hard, but all in all, my brain reacts to "computer geek" the same way it reacts to anything more complicated than addition. Because I AM a Genius AND Jenn experienced, I know better than to think I can overcome this feeling of my brain swirling down a psychedelic black hole and need an alternative plan. I HATE feeling incompetent but I also hate feeling like I'm using a fabulous fancy expensive machine and only doing 1 stupid, basic thing on it. I want to explore it's potential (before the cloud makes it rain. I hope it thunders and lightnings as some warning before the rain starts. Wouldn't want to get wet.) use it as Jobs intended. Right now I can play my iTunes, get to Facebook and Open Office has been a godsend! Command N rocks!!! As does learning how to set my touch pad to "right click" AND the little ridged right corner to make my pages the size of my screen! Rocks!
I think my Mac doesn't like me as much as I'm frustrated by it. It takes forever to "load" things on a website. Just sits there going "Really Lady? Another freakin' Facebook quiz? I do SO MUCH more than that! I'm dragging my feet so maybe you'll play around while you're waiting for me and figure out something better to do!". When I was debating buying the Mac, I LOVED the enlarging and shrinking windows with your fingers or scrolling with two fingers running along the touch pad! So Cool! Like a lover scorned, but Mac refuses to respond to my touch, leaving me to scroll while depressing the keys along the sidebar and just re-starting pages altogether when they suddenly shrink in font!
I'm still hoping to be creative. To feel inspired by my Mac to do something great. To figure out what all these freakin' Icons do. Instead I feel stymied by the PC brain running my MacBook. Since the bar on my Blogger page with which I'm supposed to be able to find the template I have downloaded on my computer and upload it to my blog, is missing on my page, I am left trying to figure if it's me, them or us (the cloud and I). I have a vision for a Blogger page design and feel "I am using a Mac. Shouldn't I be able to whip up some HTML or CSS code (whatever that is) and crank out a new Blogger layout no problem?". Synapses being what they are and cellular memory being unproven, I have not yet whipped out a new layout (as you can tell), nor have I grasped this "cloud" thing. So for now, Facebook, email and iTunes prevail. My Blog remains personally written and aesthetically boring. Until I can attend a "free" clinic at the Apple store, rotten apples to you all! :)
-Song by Alice In Chains
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