Learning New Things

I was going to title this post "Learning New Tricks," but my brain rebels against  the word "tricks." So I settled on "things." Anyway, here's the "thing." The older I get the harder it is to learn something new. Take creating a blog. This doesn't come easy to me. I'm not a "techie" like my grandson and his daddy. I'm having to struggle to learn some of the jargon and often have to read and reread the "How To" directions for doing things  like creating pages or customizing my design. I spent hours last night trying to switch the design of my blog. After much trial and error, it's still not quite the way I want it, but I'm getting there.

I'd ask my husband to help me out on this, but he's a "classic grouch" and isn't happy when I ask for his help. Just this morning I finally asked for help in resizing a better photo for my header. "Not now!" He not only didn't want to talk about it, or do it for me, no, he didn't even want to listen to my question in the first place. I told him it makes me so mad when he does that. He never wants to listen. I told him I'm going to start calling people on the phone until I find someone willing to talk to me. His response, "Why don't you blog about it?" Of course, he would never think I would dare to say something negative about him.

So here I am writing about this, the frustrations of learning new things, when my brain only wants to deal with old comfortable things. I still keep notebooks and write stuff down, thoughts, notes, books I heard about, songs, maybe even a poem. I know I could do all this on my laptop, but I still like the feel of a pen and paper in my hand.

It's the same thing with my new Kindle (the 6" one) which I got for my birthday this summer. I really really wanted a Kindle. The thought that I could carry around hundreds of books in one purse-size, lightweight devise, was a concept I couldn't pass up. So I got my Kindle and absolutely love it. I take it with me everywhere, even when I go see the grandkids and know I won't have a moment to read while I'm there. It's just knowing that I have all these wonderful stories right at my fingertips. So yes, I do love my Kindle. It's everything they claimed it to be and more. Now I can't imagine not having it.

My daughter got her Kindle (the 9") months before I did. Now she's systematically going through her bookshelves and giving away bags of books. She plans to read all her books on her Kindle. Well, now when she heads for work each morning, her Kindle is in her briefcase along with her laptop and iPhone.

I wouldn't even consider giving away my books. The Kindle is great, convenient, mobile. But I need real books too. So I'll continue to buy real books along with downloading books on my Kindle. Some of the "old things" I just can't give up.

Now back to learning new things. I have a laptop, a camera phone and a digital camera. I've learned how to use them. I really like this latest technology. But I've only learned how to do limited things with them. I know they have capabilities I haven't even dreamed of attempting. I'll just learn this new stuff a step at a time. Training an "older" brain is at times a slow process.