I haven't written in this blog for a few days because I've been frustrated with it; there are things I want to do here that I can't figure out how to do because I am -- simply put -- the Village Idiot when it comes to things like this... I just want to write, OK? I don't want to learn how to design a blog. I paid to have my website designed because I knew it would take me 2 years to learn how do it myself (assuming I even could!). You have no idea how often people say "Why did you pay someone to do that? It's so easy!" and "Gee, my 3 year old grandson and I had my website up and running in an afternoon. ANYONE can do it."
Yeah, right. "Anyone" my butt. Your grandkid must be the next Mozart and you're probably qualified to become an aeronautical engineer for NASA.
It's the same with this blog. I want tabs, lots of additional pages... I want the tabs to say "About Maureen," "About Chicago," "Favorite Restaurants," "Maureen's Books," and maybe even "The Nastiest Right Wing Nutjobs in America and Why You Should Keep Your Eye on Them..." (yeah, that's a bit too long but you get the idea).
But I can't accomplish those few seemingly simple things.
I've been frustrated, even down... like lower than a snake's ass kinda' down... this reminds me of a chemistry class I once found my sorry butt laboring in... everyone was "getting it" but me. What a nightmare. I took a "D" in that class and gladly so; I deserved worse. Sister Judine, I am convinced, gave it to me out of pity and probably a big dose of fear that I might decide to repeat the class if I failed it totally. I'm not sure why she thought that (maybe I lied and told her that just to show her how much I was determined to "get it," dunno' but the truth is there was no way in hell I was ever going to put myself in that position again).
See, I'm a big believer in Clint Eastwood's iconic line in Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations."
It works for middle-aged fat women as well.
Some wisdom is absolute!
Back to the blog: I'll give it another go and then bring in some friends... I'd hate to be the only one in America who had to actually pay someone to set up a blog. I cried about my plight in Facebook today and already some friends are trying to come to the rescue. There is no one in the world who has the wonderful friends I have on Facebook. Sadly, however, I don't even understand their well worded instructions instructing me...
I'm wondering if I could be happy with just taking a D in blogging and moving on...?
What about you? Do you find this stuff easy or what?
maureen, in high school chemistry class i somehow started a fire of spilled, flaming camphor all over the lab table. they didn't kick me out, and i comped out of freshman chemistry in college (which was a mistake. i had no more idea about chemistry than the woman in the moon, but i was a good test taker.) anyway, if you want to quit, it's your baby anyway. maybe you have enough going. still, this blog opens access for those who refuse to use facebook because of the privacy issues.
ReplyDeleteYou wanna know the secret to dealing with technology (of any kind)? It's the first thing I have to get nearly everyone I come in contact with for my day job to do. Are you ready?
ReplyDeleteJust breathe. :-)
Seriously, panic and a lack of self-confidence are the two most crippling things in the world of computers. If you can calm yourself down and go *slowly*, not expecting to do or know everything in one or two days, you'll be a lot better off. Trust me. Computers (web sites, specifically) are my professional life. And time and time again, when I can get people to just calm down and realize that they don't have to know everything right away, and they're not going to permanently break anything if they play, they can do far more than they ever thought they could.
My advice is don't sweat it. Block out half an hour, read through your friends' instructions, and just play around with it, even if you don't fully understand what they do. Don't pressure yourself, just work on it for 30 minutes, and then walk away until you have another 30 minutes. Whatever you get done (or don't), it's not like it's going away, and it's not going to hurt anything to take some extra time to learn it. No one's going to come by and sneer, "hey, why doesn't she have cool tabs?" Really, they won't. ;-)
In the meantime, just keep writing, and post the occasional post to keep people updated. Save the perfectionism for your writing. :-)
Wow, Jamie's advice is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteBack in around 2000, I could put up a few pages as a "website" and it was very rudimentary and that's just what everyone had and it was all ok. Then I started a home business and tried to get it looking all professional and have a functional shopping cart and all that, and it was just beyond me!
I'm starting a blog soon to chronicle the pregnancy and short life of my infant son, and I'm already nervous about it, so I feel your pain! LOL.