Uhming and Ahhing

The first computer I ever had was an Amstrad. Boyfriend (now Husband) knew that buying the Amstrad was a mistake; he was using Apple Macs in the laboratories, but they weren't offering students interest free loans to buy Macs. I think lovingly of that Amstrad because I typed my dissertation on it. This was a lot less work for me than it was for my peers because I could type. I had learned to type in a gap year between school and university.

My Amstrad further endeared itself to me by having a primitive spell check. You couldn't add anything to its dictionary, but I didn't know other computers could do that so I was none the wiser. I forget the title, but my dissertation was about the Jason and Medea myth, so there were plenty of Greek names that got highlighted. Every time it checked my spelling it would pick up the word Argonauts and ask if I wanted it changed to Arsonists. Oh, I laughed every time.

I got a job using an Amstrad immediately after University but fairly swiftly moved onto PCs. I used them for years with word processing packages like Word Perfect, Microsoft Works and finally MS Word. At home we had a PC but it was boyfriend/Husband's since I couldn't see for the life of me what anyone would do with a computer.

Finally I went to work at a university where I discovered Macs. Reader, I fell in love. But we couldn't afford a Mac and anyway Boyf/Husb had a PC and they couldn't talk to each other in those days so it would have been daft. We stayed with PCs because they were cheaper and easy to build and upgrade. I'd kinda got used to them.

Until recently.

Both our January guests had Macs. In that mad 21st century way in the evenings we sat in our 'family room' with our laptops on our … well, our laps; and talked, showed each other youtube funnies, listened to inspiring TED talks, updated our blogs and facebook and emailed our friends. We saw the Apples in use. God, they are so sexy.

Husband and I began to think about buying a Mac. My current laptop was showing signs of wear and tear. We ahhmed and ahhed; I emailed my computer guru, Andrew, and to my surprise he said 'yes, but it must be a macbook pro' so I said 'let's do it' and then I'd look up some reviews on the internet, think of the reality and say 'No! Don't.' I went through that process over and over and then finally said, 'Oh FI, let's just do it.'

So here I am. I reckon this is how my mum feels every time we try to teach her to use a computer. I'm confused, cack-handed and struggling. I have two left feet and am all fingers and thumbs. I can hardly do anything. I had to buy a book 'Apple Macs for Very Slow People' which is helping a tiny bit.

I played with the Mac, whooshing my fingers up and down the tracker pad, watching those sexy icons do their dance but whenever I wanted to do something I had to use the PC. I had to think so hard about what I was doing on the Mac, that I hadn't got enough brain space left to think about the task I was trying to do. *Sigh* Eventually I realised I would never get comfortable with the Mac unless I actually started using it and now, step by infinitesimal step, I am getting there.

LSHTM and Reuters

I was brought kicking and screaming into the computer age by Husband.

My first flirt with a computer was in 1985 at secretarial college between A’Levels and University. We learned to type on electric typewriters, but then we were taken off to a simulated office and shown how to use the computer. Nobody explained to me what it was for … and I didn’t like to ask.

My next proper relationship with a computer (some might argue about applying the word computer here) was with an Amstrad in my final year at University. I purchased it on some kind of interest free credit student scheme in order to type my dissertation. My subject was ‘Jason and Medea: love or expediency?’ Jason is he of the Argonauts and Golden Fleece. Every time I ran the spell check it asked me if I wanted to change Argonauts to Arsonists and every single time it made me chuckle out loud. My Amstrad and custard creams got me through that dissertation.

Now that I’m here in the IT world I do rather love it. I could get obsessed. I am obsessed.

I’ve kind of learned enough to be doing a webmaster job with a charity here (let’s be honest, it’s a good job it’s a voluntary position, they wouldn’t want to pay me for it) but I still get upset at the thought that I can’t work out Facebook. I wonder if I’m going to turn into my mother, who’s just about worked out fax machines.

Anyway, my latest obsession is with the statistics and after KevinK requested info about a couple of his regular readers (one of which was me) I thought I’d do the same. I hope it doesn’t get lost in the Saturday post. There are visitors from two places that I’m intrigued by. One is from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (where my sister used to work) and the other is from Reuters.

If either of you are reading this? Would you think about delurking? Introduce yourselves? Do I know you or is it coincidence?