The Magic Box

I am relatively new to the world of computers. Five years ago, I didn’t even know how to turn one on. What started all of this? About that time I was taking a creative writing course at the university. Being the only person in the class using a typewriter for writing & my assignments, I had no idea what I was missing.

Then a friend called me one day to tell me he was giving me a computer. Scarcely believing my good fortune, I began with Windows95, which was even outmoded by then, but for me it was a luxury model. He told me he would be my tech, and told me I could call him if I ran into problems. I learned a lot about the computer on my own, determined to find out the mystery of where some of my short stories had gotten to.

My learning was completely self directed, I had the Windows95 resource book chalked full of labelled sticky note bookmarks. Mistakes were my teacher. I had no internet at that time, and at the three month mark I had the people come to install internet, and found my magic box wasn’t going to cut it.

Armed with a used computer from the surplus store, I moved on to internet. My writing took a back seat to all of this computer stuff. Determined to learn everything I could about this magic box, I quickly became addicted.

The worst thing that happened was wiping out my ini files, which rendered the computer useless, until I took to the repair shop. For me the best way of learning is jumping in, reading the instructions later.

Although I have no fancy piece of paper, I can do so many things now, some I will share, along with my process. I am still addicted by the way. The benefit of this approach, is what you learn, you learn really well. More next time.

computers, web design,