Was hoping to blog while the sun was up for a change. Unfortunately, while I had the time to blog, I was using a wi-fi network that blocked just about everything. Guess that's what you get for free wi-fi in waiting rooms.
Waiting rooms. I spend a good deal of time in them, and not all of them have wi-fi. Today was different though, because it wasn't a doctor's waiting room. I finally managed to talk my grandmother, who is a proudly stubborn woman, into going for an oil change in her car. I've only been trying to get her to do that for 3 months. (Not being sarcastic here, usually it takes longer to get her to do something.)
I'm sure people are wondering why I don't just do this stuff for her with or without her consent. Well, while I am her sole caretaker, I've learned that doing something like that is the best way to get her to do the exact opposite of what I'm trying to get her to do. Which, since she's in not so great health, is a recipe for disaster. The last thing anyone living in our area needs is for her to get ticked at me and deciding to take the car for a drive. (She does still have her license, but unless she's on a stubborn tear, realizes she shouldn't drive.)
While waiting, I pulled out the trusty handheld, figuring the wait would be tolerable, since there was free wi-fi. Since someone had tuned the TV to MSNBC, I thought I could just blog and tweet instead of watching that. (While I am a news junkie, cable news tends to just annoy me.) Start the trusty handheld, and load the Twitter program. Nothing. So I thought maybe Twitter was throwing a tantrum again. Open the browser, try to go to the Twitter site. Get a page about the network block. Okay, fine, I can still write a blog, right? Open the software and start writing a blog about how I'm pretty sure I'm in the wrong waiting room, which is full of Corporate America types on laptops and cell phones. And they're all trying not to stare at me. I'm not sure if it was the ripped out knees in the jeans or the Invader Zim hoodie, or maybe it was the nose ring, but a lot of eyes kept shifting my way. I get done typing out the blog and hit the upload button. Get an error message about the server not connecting. Still not a problem, because I can save a draft, I think. Start looking for that option in the software. There isn't one. Go to the browser again, thinking maybe I can just copy the text from the program into the blogger site. Get the page about the network block again. So now I can't tweet and I can't blog. The wait is going to be on my nerves now, since not only is there no tweeting and blogging, there's nothing to do but watch MSNBC. And I've lost a pretty funny blog to boot. Just as I'm deciding which staring idiot to stab with my handheld's stylus first, luckily, the service techs are done with the car. And then, we go on with the rest of the list of stuff we had to do. And I completely forgot about blogging. And by the time I remembered that, I forgot everything I'd written earlier.
Portable blogging may be my friend, but free wi-fi sure isn't!
Technology is one of those things that I hate to love, ugh! And Twitter still isn't my friend. Completely confusing my Gah!... and portable blogging. hmmmm interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have a Nokia N810 internet tablet, for the times when I'm not home, or I'm just too lazy to turn on the full on computer. It's about the size of an iPhone, but isn't a cell phone (And has a slide-out keyboard. Good for fast typing). It also runs Maemo Linux (my geek is showing, isn't it?) and has pretty much everything I need, except for a button that makes my coffeemaker bring me coffee. I'm working on that though.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Twitter ever becomes your friend, beware the Twitter addiction. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the poster child for the rehab facility they wind up starting.