Waterblogged

It's not that I am a Luddite. I am, in fact, quite the techy. I have a
several computers (even a laptop), a PDA, a web-enabled cell phone, I record
music on Minidisc, and I have all sorts of audio and video equipment
with the corresponding abundance of remote controls.The problem is not that I hate technology, the problem
is that technology seems to hate me.

As I noted in my very first piece, the idea of being able to formulate my
ideas and then be able to cast them to the Universe with a single push of a
button was most appealing. However, as always seems to be the case, life in
cyber space is never as simple as it should be. No sooner were the first pixels
illuminated by my words, than the helpful suggestions started rolling in.

 You need to add an e-mail link. You should  link your web site to
your blog. Real bloggers use this provider You need a place for
comments. Here is some software to help you out. Everyone was suddenly just
overflowing with great suggestions and helpful hints.

Uh huh. See the new e-mail link up there? FOUR HOURS! I am told that this is
like the easiest thing you can put on a website and it took me four hours to do
it. First it would not appear, then it moved everything else down a line,
finally, it decided to be orange. Not black like its complacent fellows, no. It
had to be bright blaze orange. Don't ask me, I have no idea why. I checked the
code, I verified it against my provider's tech support information, I even
copied it to an HTML editor. By all indications, it was fine. It looked exactly
like the other links but, no, it had to be orange.

Then, suddenly for no apparent reason, it decided to be black. Now it is gone again.
Look in the code and wou will see it there as plain as day. It simply refuses to work

My website is stranded on a sick computer that lets you go through the
endless agony of logging in and, when you click on an icon, it maliciously
reboots itself. It can play this game all evening long. The provider for
"real" bloggers is not accepting new accounts. I can barely get my own
stuff on here, let alone those of my readers. When that "helpful"
software started out wanting to know where "Perl" was, well,
that  frightened me so badly I accidentally deleted the installation file.
As you can see quite clearly, technology hates me.

I learned long ago when I traded typewriter ribbon and correction fluid for
the cool, friendly glow of word processing that I was going to have to endure the sweet
sadness of unrequited technological love and I have come to accept that. So I
set aside entire afternoons. I gird myself in the armor of resolution, take up
the sword of determination, and heft the shield of purpose. Then, I close the
door to the Loft so the rest of the family will not be singed by the language I
am about to use and I attack whatever dragon the whirling electrons decide to
invoke against me.

Some day this will be the bloggers blog. It will comments and links galore.
The visitor will  pictures and hear  MP3's and all of the things a
good blog should have. I just ask for a little patience in your part.

Okay, a lot.