Slave to this Thing

Who'd have thought it? I remember when a child drawing a picture of me as an adult with short hair alongside a computer as if I would be employed working with computers. It was as big as a wardrobe.

Now I sit in front of a keyboard and screen with speakers, and the computer is wired up to a tape-CD-radio stereo or a video recorder/ player. I will get another Freeview box wired in as well.

I sit and make CDs for each Sunday and this includes using Unitarian choir CDs, downloading public domain organ music, other sources and even, as necessary, transcribing music from a hymn book or a .MID file using a computer music score writing program that also produces the music itself. I can convert and edit files. I have headphones that plug into the speakers that allow me to see that the edits are clean.

So that has been added to the word processing and spreadsheet efforts. My memory is good enough and appointments too few to keep a diary, but I have a few.

I text process, and that means throwing text around as needed and clips (different from word processing, which is formatted text). I still write in HTML for my website (I upload the list of hymns for example, which is my own created webpage).

A pad and a pen are connected, which means now most of my drawing is directly on to the computer screen. My camera dumps its photos on the computer, and they end up on CDs.

I use Skype so I can speak with video to a very few people, and then there is the live text chat either via Skype or via Facebook.

My CV is online, and increasingly applications are made online, and I am at Facebook, also on a schools list website (that has added Facebook-like features) and I reveal myself on my website itself.

I get information from the web whereas I once had to go to the library, and if I go to the library I will want 30 minutes on a computer.

So much of these activities are highly individualistic, although many communication based websites are becoming near monopolies.

The only thing I can't do on a computer is buy, because I don't have the proper card. If I did I'd have bought more books and I don't get a card because can't spend on anything much beyond a basic budget.

I also use the computer to express my opinions and read that of others, and grab the news both general and specialist. I receive and send messages and hardly now receive letters.

None of this was predicted! No wonder I hardly get off this thing. That's why I did the census on the paper and posted it.