Tuesday 4 - Internet

The Internet Age

 Welcome to another episode of Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we are challenged to answer 4 questions on different subjects each week. Thank you to Annie for hosting each week.

Maybe we could talk about the internet this week?  

1. When did the  home internet age enter your life? How much impact has it had?

It took awhile for the home internet to enter my life as I don't usually jump on any 'fads' as soon as they arrive, lol. I honestly cannot remember when we started using the home internet on a regular basis because I was using laptops and desktops at work for word processing and limited internet use for a few years before we had these at home.  I think it was in the early 1990s, possibly even a bit earlier when we had home internet installed.  In those days we tended to use it for learning something as opposed to entertainment, blogging and other things.

2. How powerful an influence if your phone?  For instance, do you feel guilty not answering when you are busy? Do you text back immediately? Does the phone own you? Do you friends feel they should be able to monopolize your time by demanding to know where you were when you didn't answer?  Is it intrusive or welcome?

Cell phones are a powerful influence and I often wish we didn't have them. It is intrusive because that is where I get too many notifications and unwanted phone calls which I tend to ignore.  I subscribe to too many things so there is always something new. I often turn off notifications for a time and I could eliminate most of them but then I'd totally forget about certain things I don't want to forget about.  As it is, I spend a good part of time throughout the day deleting things & trying to identify and keep the things that are most important. Every now and then I cull the subscriptions I have and delete a lot of extraneous email.

I don't get that many phone calls on my cell phone unless it is a service like a dentist or some other service provider, and a lot of crank calls, spam calls or marketing calls. The cell phone reminders about appointments are useful but I get annoyed when service providers call both the landline and the cell phone to leave messages.  Some of them are just trying to ensure that their customers get a message like an appointment reminder or a change in appointments. But spammers and marketers really annoy me when they keep calling and don't leave messages. Friends and family mostly know not to call me on the cell phone and tend to only call my cell phone if they can't reach me otherwise. They know I prefer getting a call on the landline.  In the beginning some people acted like I should always be ready to answer the cell phone just because it rings. Well most of the time I don't even hear it ring or I can't get to it in time. I've explained that I only have a cell phone for my convenience and also for safety reasons, not for having heart to heart talks with people.  Most things are just not that urgent. They generally understand or at least I think they do.  When we do get to talk on my landline it is a much nicer visit and in the comfort of my home.  However, the cell phone is great for keeping in touch with my friends from abroad in Kenya and other countries through WhatsApp and for making quick calls when out and about.

3. What places do you frequent on the net and by phone or PC etc.?  (pc. personal computer, laptop, etc.)

I frequent all the usual places: FB, YT, IG and email. Other than that, I spend time reading blogs, news,  googling directions and travel times and various other things I might be interested in at that particular moment. For example, today I watched a YT channel from Kenya, downloaded statements from the bank, sent email to my bank investor, contacted a local organization about a zoom call for tomorrow and cancelled a physio appointment. I also spent time preparing this blog post and watching a few You Tube videos. I also use the internet a lot for participating in church services, bible reading, questions about spiritual matters and learning more about the work of Christian organizations and other charities. 

4.   Wikipedia is editable and biased  because anyone can edit the articles. Algorithms also determine what you can and cannot find on the interest.  So, how much stock do you place in its information? 

I am aware that Wikipedia is biased but I think all information is biased to some degree. I use Wikipedia a lot especially for fact based information when researching authors/celebrities and their work projects or books, maps and important information about various countries and cities, public figures like politicians and business people I want to know more about, and so on.  I check other sources as well and do a lot of online research in general.  So far I've found the information on Wikipedia fairly accurate for my needs and I do my bit to support the website's efforts. I also supplement the information I find on Wikipedia with other information found on line. If I'm really not sure about something especially with all the fake news these days I try to look at fact checking sites.

I found these questions interesting and I hope you found the answers interesting too! Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your visit.

The Past Week

Happy Sunday everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I've been busy this week; mostly with reading, running errands and grocery shopping, dealing with financial stuff, dealing with family needs, connecting with friends from far and administration concerning the community garden plot for summer 2023. 

Recently completed; all equally good.

In progress, a quirky but well written book.

Cooking always takes time as most of you know but I limit my cooking to one main meal a day and something lighter to start the day. Due to high food costs I'm trying to shop less and use what I have. In the past, I really did buy far too much and I need to use it up or give it away.

Saturday dinner was roast beef, broccoli and roasted potatoes and onions.

Sunday dinner was Chicken Cordon Bleu but covered in flour rather than bread crumbs. It was good but next time I'll try it with bread crumbs and use toothpicks since most of the cheese melted into the baking pan. Looking at the photos I see the dinners were too carb heavy so I need try and correct that but as I mentioned I'm trying to use up what I have and vegetables and fruits are always first to be used up.

I've got a lot of paperwork and tidying to do. So last night I decided to get started on some cleaning in my office area and get everything set up again but after I started reconnecting everything I discovered the modem wasn't working and that meant no television or internet services.

So today was an unexpected day of dealing with technology issues. I don't deal well with them at the best of times but since I had no communication services or television whatsoever I had no choice.  The only thing working was my landline.  I was fretting a bit because I have a very busy week ahead.  I was also anxious about how much time it was all going to take because the telecommunications company I deal with is notoriously slow to connect you with a live human being. They always want to direct you to online services and it is usually the online services that are giving me an issue. 

Thankfully once I connected to technical support I was able to get everything up and running again. I also asked to speak to someone about a new service plan. I had been trying off and on for a few months to do it myself but their system only let me see a deal that was not suitable for my needs. Again, I was able to get great customer service and get a deal for a much better price. My monthly bill will be $55 per month less ( for the exact same services ($660 savings for the year).  Plus they gave me a theme pack of news channels (3 channels) completely free for one year (savings of $95 Canadian).  Total savings is $756 Canadian in Year 1 and $ 660 in Year 2.  I only wanted one news channel for my DH but the channels come in packages so we now have 3 additional news channels.  I feel very blessed by the outcomes.

Altogether the time it took for getting things working and looking for monthly cost savings took about 2.5 hours of my time. Not too bad because I've sometimes waited that long just to talk to a live human being about an issue.  Overall I find it very frustrating dealing with the company when I need them so today was a nice surprise and a real blessing. The bonus is that I don't need to have a technician come to my home or wait for new equipment to be delivered because both of these scenarios would have resulted in loss of services for as long as it took to get help.

In related technology matters I'd been having problems in trying to access a Kenyan missionary's blog for some months. Try as we might we could not seem to find a way to give me access to read and comment on her blog.  Today we gave it one more try and thankfully it worked! That is another blessing because I love reading about her family's work and ministry in Kenya.  I've been reading about their work in Kenya for about 10 years.

My good day was topped off by my being able to connect my wireless printer and get it working.  I had been postponing the job due to internet and wi-fi issues which started a few weeks ago and culminated in lack of internet service last night.  Today was the right time and everything is now in working order. Whew!

I do have a few more outstanding technology issues.  My brother had installed extra drives in my old computer and instead of wiping them clean he will remove them and save them for me in a special case. I also backed everything up on a new external hard drive I bought late last year.  Fortunately I culled a lot of my old documents and photos before backing them up. A second issue is figuring out how to wipe the old printer clean. I didn't realize that I needed to do that otherwise I would have done so before disconnecting the old computer. Actually I hadn't even given the printer any thought as I was most concerned about the computer because the former one had been on it's 'last legs' for so long. Anyway it will all get done.  These things tend to take me time especially when I've got many projects on the go.   Everything moves at a snail's pace because my brain can only deal with one big thing at a time.  But there is a saying 'Strive for progress, not perfection' so I try to remember that.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm expecting delivery of an artificial tree for a spot in my living room. I hope it isn't too big. I did read the dimensions of the tree but it's a little hard to know how it looks and 'fits' until I put it in place. It will prevent me from wasting funds every year in buying a tropical plant that doesn't do well in my draughty home if it fits into the space I have for it. I have several appointments this week but I'm most looking forward to a visit from two cousins of mine, both of whom live out of town.

I hope you have some great plans for your week! Thank you for stopping by.