I couldn't fall asleep last night; probably because of the cup of coffee I drank in the afternoon. I intended to have decaf, but I think I just asked for coffee. I tossed and turned, got an inspiration for a difficult email and got up to work on it, closed the computer and my eyes and still didn't fall asleep. I think it finally happened about 4 am, but I was up before the alarm rang at seven, couldn't open my eyes and stayed in bed listening to NPR for an hour.
I usually drink tea, although I love coffee. Twenty years ago, while I was in Alaska with Raja, I began to feel very ill--upset stomach type ill. I couldn't figure it out--this never happens to me. Finally I realized that while I was shopping I was drinking the coffee available in each shop we entered. It seemed a great way to warm up and the coffee smelled wonderful, thick and black. I stopped drinking it, felt much better, and finally switched to tea. I still drink coffee, but only very rarely and usually only when I am assured of a good cup. Since I moved to Pittsburgh and started back to school I find the coffee very attractive. Somehow school and coffee seem to go together, but I guess it's another practice that has to stop.
I'm not interested in teaching blogging, but I would sure go to your class if I lived in Pittsburgh. There are many "little" things I'd like to learn, although I'm proficient enough to get along by the seat of my pants in a manner of speaking. I've tried to get the powers that be in our Osher community to do a blogging course, but so many in our age group are computer phobic. It'll be interesting to hear more from you about how the class goes, and I will go back to Silver Streakers to learn there too.
Posted by: Alice | January 06, 2009 at 09:56 PM
I think your expectations of the class are greater than I have for myself. I have expertise in Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXpress (which I haven't looked at in five years) and InDesign, but my blogging expertise, like yours, comes from doing it. I am happy to have you "sitting in" so to speak, but I'm sure there are things you could teach me. For instance, I have no idea how you get the falling snow.
Pitt Osher had that Blogging 101 course last year, which wasn't hands on (no computers in the room), and I think he anticipated having students who were more generally computer savvy. He gave a lot of info about developing an audience, RSS feeds, etc., but there seemed to be some confusion about how to start a blog. I hope I'll get to RSS feeds, but if I don't, it's OK. My goal is just to get people to write.
If you have specific questions, I'd love to hear them. They might give me ideas to pursue. I'm still working on my curriculum. I'm planning to keep it very flexible and bend in the directions indicated by the class.
Posted by: Ruthe | January 07, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Yes, just writing is the key. I've always kept a journal, and discovering internet journaling was a light bulb moment for me.
Using the computer. Most folks our age I know use the computer, but I am the only blogger among us here locally. Even with urging, only two of my friends will visit my blogs.....no matter the ease of accessing the blog host.
Finding somewhere to blog was an exercise in futility in the early years. I read. I researched. I tried all sorts of things. Finding Open Diary was eye opening, and discovering that Open Diary crashed continually was also not at all interesting. :)
I could go on for hours on this. Yes, have to have interest in Journaling, have to have interest in computers, and once you have that it's easy to put the two together with modern wysiwyg editing...which I don't use.
Yes, I will stop over to your other page. Why not duplicate the entries here too.
Posted by: Mage B | January 07, 2009 at 10:31 AM