Queen of the Luddites

Um, did you guys (who are over 40 like I am) know there's a whole other world out there?  There should be a class or something.

You can make money on blogging and youTubing and there are things called "Blogged?"  And everything seems to be interconnected!  Making money on it is the least of my worries, which is why I am ad-free.  Just figuring out how to sign back in is paramount at the moment.

Picasa and Flickr and Facebook and Twitter and Blogged and Google Buzz and eBay and and and...

There should be one called BOGGLED.  'Cause that's how my mind is right now.  Boggled.

This will have to go on my list of things to research.  If I can figure out where I put the blasted list.

The one thing I've figured out so far though - do NOT have more than one identity.  If you can't remember what email address/username/password you used for Picasa, STOP and find out.  If you use a different one for Google, you're basically screwed.  Then nothing is interconnected and you have to start all over.  But by all that is holy, DO NOT start over.

What a mess.

So I follow blogs from my google ID and have different followers for Flickr and still different ones for Picasa. Who knows about Twitter and Facebook.  Well, at least those two are still connected to each other.  And one or the other photo-hosting sites are tied into my blog.  I have no idea what "ID" I used for eBlogger.  Thankfully I had the presence of mind to check the "keep me logged in" box when I signed up.

I don't know if I am Sheila, Scottishlass10, Scottishlass1029, Irishlass, Irishlass1029 or WHAT.  It's not like I tried to "be different people" or anything. I don't spam or troll or hide.  I just have a hard time remembering my ID because sometimes Scottishlass is taken already and sometimes it's not. Could I BE more confused?

Does anyone know my email address?  I might need it later. This isn't as easy as it appeared.  The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.

Now where did I put that list...

Another Quirk Rears its Ugly Head

Seriously?  I'm almost 45.  You'd think I'd be aware of all of my quirks by now, right?  Apparently not.  This time it's Twitter!

I've known about a lot of them for a long time.  I have many, MANY of them that surround food.  I no longer eat raisin bran because it reminds me how crazy I am sometimes.  When you start counting the raisins and on which side of your mouth you're chewing them, it's time to stop. I'm not eating fungus.  Or brains.  Or any "innards" for that matter.  And nothing that has to rot first like cottage cheese or sour cream.  And if it's green, it had better be some sort of green apple flavored candy. Yeah I know, veggies, blah blah blah.

And please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT move my stapler on my desk.

But Twitter?  Yep.  I have discovered that it drives my crazy to wake up to hundreds of tweets that I don't have time to read.  I hate missing stuff!  I can't just jump in where I am.  I have to scroll back and read ALL of them.  Then I get frustrated and don't even pull it up.  Only to find over 1000 when I finally do.  What if I missed something good???

I don't like to miss dialog or scenes from movies or TV shows either, but Twitter?

Ugh.

Image property of Duane Hoffman/msnbc.com

You're never too old to learn...

Okay, so I'm a pretty open-minded person.  I have my own views and if I've really put considerable thought into forming these views, I generally stick to them. But I try never to close my mind off.  I purposely read content with opposing political views.  I don't ever wanna be "that guy" who is so closed-minded there's no room to learn.

I'm this way in nearly every aspect of my life.  Except one. Politics?  Nope.  Religion?  Nope.

I am a closed-minded MUSIC SNOB! *hangs head in shame*

I don't know why it happened or when it happened.  But it happened.

"New music is crap."  Um, what?  Yep.  That's what I said.  Now how would I know this, considering I only listen to old country, big band, some jazz and "easy listening?"  Well that's the thing.  I wouldn't know.  Because I'm a music snob.  Of course Ray Price and Perry Como are the greatest singers ever born on this planet and I'm not likely to change that.  But to completely shut out not just individual singers and song writers, but also whole genres?  Wrong.

So what opened my eyes?  Well, it's the strangest thing. It happened on Twitter. And what unlikely person caused it?  Are you sitting down?  Rosanne Cash.

Craig Ferguson said to follow her and well you KNOW how I feel about @craigyferg. *swoon*  So I did.  And she is funny and witty and makes me laugh.  Hmmm...not what I expected.

So I fell down the youTube rabbit hole for a while, listening to a few of her songs from "The List." And you know how youTube works...while you're listening, you're browsing the other "related videos" along the sidebar.  So I listened to an interview she did in September 2010 called "The Hour: Rosanne Cash."

To tell you the truth, I've never liked Johnny Cash.  I've never appreciated his voice AT ALL.  I didn't even  see the recent (I watch '40s movies so "recent" is relative) movie about his life because, well, "I don't like him."  In the interview, they mentioned Johnny doing "Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails - whoever the heck THEY are) so of course I youTubed it.

Wow.

Rosanne mentioned something in that interview that really struck me.  Like HARD, right upside the head. She talked about watching it for the first time with her dad and noticing that he viewed it with "an artist's eye." That started me thinking about why I can see a work of art on canvas and HATE it and still appreciate the talent it took to create it. Or why I can read something that doesn't interest me in the least and still be able to see the talent it took to write it.  WHY, then, can't I do that with music?

Watching that video of "Hurt" actually brought tears to my eyes.  And it also opened them. And you know what?  Johnny Cash was awesome.  Yes, I said it.  And you know what else?  So is Rosanne.  I've spent the better part of an hour just listening to HER songs and that woman has some SERIOUS talent.

So Rosanne, wherever you are, thanks for opening up a closed mind.  And you wondered why you were tired today? =)

Now I'm off to see what Nine Inch Nails are...