Getting started

For some reason, I’ve decided that I need my very own blog.

During my vacation this summer, I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and thinking, “I could do that!” Of course, my next thought was invariably, “But I could never do it as well as [whomever]!” Then I’d start thinking about my own privacy, other people’s right to privacy and that whole thing about sending personal information into cyberspace and never being able to retrieve or edit it… on and on. Darling Daughter has been blogging forever (okay, maybe just seven years, but that’s a third of her life already) and she kept saying, “Mom, you can write! You know you can! Stop worrying and write!!”

So I’ve swallowed my apprehension and here I am.

DD graciously consented to help set me up, even going so far as to design the header for me. It actually wasn’t the first one she came up with, but it was the only one that wasn’t intended to completely embarrass me, so that’s why I chose it. My only stipulation was that there had to be pink in it, and she, being quite adept at PhotoShop, played around with colours and designs and who knows what all else for a grand total of four minutes in order to create several prototypes for me to peruse. So THAT’S what she does till 2 a.m. every day…

Of course, the bigger issue turned out to be my ancient computer, a 2001 vintage iMac. This thing is so old that the site kept crashing, meaning that there was no way I would be able to post unless DD let me use her laptop. Fat chance of that! But she rode in on her white charger to rescue me yet again. Her advice was simple: “Mom, you’ve GOT to upgrade. Buy that laptop you’ve been drooling over already!”

I sighed. It’s true, I have been drooling over MacBooks this summer as well, but really, other than crashing every time a graphic-heavy site (like eBay) is opened up and being unable to access most of YouTube and being unable to download very much and waiting FOREVER to open up most of my apps, this computer works perfectly well. Besides, the nearest Apple store is currently closed.

On to Plan B, which was for DD to download BlogThing and link it to my new blog so that I could post away happily. (I didn’t even know that programs like BlogThing existed.) I’m so glad my progeny is so computer-savvy! I mean, I can work my way around computers reasonably well (I do spend a lot of time on them, both at home and at work), but she was born knowing more about them that I can even imagine existing!

So, as I said, here I am. I’ve started a blog. And I need a new computer. Already.