footer and ficker

I do not give enough attention to solving computer problems. It would be sensible to consider them rationally and to generate specific questions. This would generate systematic ways of finding answers. Opinions include Google, Wikipedia and Youtube to get an overview of the problem area and to find links to detailed information.

BUT, more often than not, I impetuously click on menu bar items that I usually ignore with the vague hope that the machine will sort the problem.

On a clear day I will consult the ‘help’ system associated with the problem area.  Sometimes this will include tutorials and there may be pointers to a forum where footering folk like myself share their idiosyncratic solutions to a common problem.

As a last resort there is the surprisingly effective technique of  - switch it off, count to ten, and switch it on again. OR, more severely, switch it off, remove the battery, have a cup of tea, replace the battery, and switch it on again.

If that does not work you can read the manual. And, failing that, get in touch with the geeks in the local computer shop.

It is useful to keep a hard copy notebook where you record your various user names and passwords and make notes about how to use various parts of various programmes. It is best to keep key information in a hard copy notebook so that that it is accessible even if the computer hangs or will not boot.

May your fickering and footering bring solutions and joy.

winter woman

A song written in 1969 - click HERE

garden pyjamas

If I sit here long enough a story will appear. 

There is constant brain churn. It keeps track of a vast amount of incoming sensory data and matches it to stories of stimuli and responses from times past. 

Time is interesting. I have often written about it. [I could put links to the more worthy examples. I could do that now or later. Which is it to be? Time will tell.]

The sun room is brilliantly bright which means that I am not in it – the daylight obscures the screen of the lap top. So I am sitting under the low slung ceiling of the gloomy living room of a small windowed, 17^th century, stone cottage. 

The cottage is older than me.  Big time spans are composed of lots of short spans. Thoughts of the cosmic zoom. 

Quantum entities give rise to 103 elements (atoms) and these combine in many ways to form an enormous range of micro and macro molecules. Some of these (biochemicals) join to form cells which combine to form organisms (plants and animals).

The big bang was about 13.8 billion years ago. Planet earth came into being 4.5 billion years ago. Life evolved on the surface of planet earth about 3 billion years ago. 

Humanoid apes evolved only 15 million years ago and the first people were foragers. Then 10000 years ago farming was invented. And then city states and empires. And now computers, the internet, and men on the moon.

In the early 1980s I was  part of the Technology and Industrial Studies Group (TISG) in the South Sudan. The youths gathered thoughts about a man on the moon project for Juba. This was thought to be unrealistic so there was a wooden bicycle project instead.

It was a warm and bright pyjama day today. I tidied the shed and the utility room and then sat for a while. The main mood was gratefulness. I also photographed some flowers (weeds?), and dosed.

How is my life spent?

A Nokia mobile phone, two Kindles and a Samsung galaxy tablet. They all need to be charged and have small, delicate USB sockets to facilitate the process.

My ICT stuff serves several purposes. Email, Facebook, and Twitter deliver the incoming local, national and global news. Google and Wikipedia provide timely links to an ever growing database on a wide range of topics. Amazon is my on-line shop which has figured my interests and presents me with relevant stuff – especially books.

I contribute to the internet through my blog and various web sites. Nothing has as yet gone viral but the main blog gets about 40 page views per day and they come from all parts of the world.

The content of the posts tend to be personal reworkings of cutting edge ideas. There are also some posts with links to ‘Wow’ content. For the last few years on each blogpost there has been a doodle which is intended to make the posts stand out from the crowd.

The computer is also used to make new versions of my old songs. This involves working with the band and then editing.

The gadgets fill my time. The Parkinsons Disease slows my use of them. But I live alone so it is not a problem.

It was while coming up the road from the Coop with a 20p plastic bag in each hand that I was inclined to notice how I spend my life and how other people spend theirs.

In the Coop there were two old men whose wives died a short time ago. One member of a couple will die before the other. When there is dementia or other long term ailments in the partnership it will be rough for the ‘healthy’ one. And there may be children and grandchildren who live nearby or far away.

The Buddha noted that in life there is pain and suffering. It may be tough fighting the pain but the suffering is man made and can therefore be unmade. The process involves sitting quietly and watching the thoughts, feelings and moods arise from the unconscious, hang around for a while and then vanish.

The ancient Buddhist world view has a lot in common with modern, cognitive behaviour therapy. The contents of any mindbrain are rooted in nature, nurture and chance and are constantly busy processing data from the sense organs and thus reworking a covert and/or overt understanding of reality and the self.

Passing thoughts, feelings and moods. With practice I have reached the stage of being able to switch on the non judgemental witness to the coming and going of mental stuff.  And, as a bonus, I find that I am often in non-egoic flow. It is true, what they say, “no self, no problem”.