Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)

Posted on July 23, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with one comment

BTO – It’s not what you think!

(Thanks to Pete for the photoshop)

 

Lud.dite

1. A person opposed to new technology or ways of working.
2. A member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs.

What makes the human species special is our ability to adapt. There is always something new on the horizon. We are creatures of habit and any change to our lives or routines can be upsetting but if we are going to navigate the modern world, then adapt we must.

We’re problem solvers. Long before computers came along, most of our problems were of the human kind. We learned how to solve these with face to face conversations which occasionally became fist to fist confrontations. I think my computer thinks it’s human the way I swear at it by times.

I won’t bore you with the details but after penning in excess of 1400 stories and posting them on my website, I have the drill down to a science. My stories are shared on a number of platforms including Facebook. Last week was no different except when it came to sharing it with Facebook, things went sideways. It appeared that FB was having a bad morning. Maybe it ran out of coffee.  Try as I might, it would not allow me to post my story in the usual way.

Now my loyal readers are also creatures of habit and a handful of them are early birds and they simply can’t get their day underway without reading my words of inspiration. And pigs fly. I was muttering to myself as I tried to troubleshoot. I did a few Google searches, and in the end, I uninstalled FB, re-installed it and created a shortcut so that the site would appear on the home page of my laptop. This took me the better part of an hour to figure out. A 5-year-old could have done this in under 2 minutes.

I was justifiably proud of myself. I shared this small victory with one of my daughters. She cheekily suggested that with my expertise I might win the Boomer Technology Olympics. BTO. Not to be confused with Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. When I got my first laptop and started to learn how they operated, I was easily flummoxed, to the point where I threatened on more than one occasion to stand at the top of a very tall building and toss my computer to the ground.

There was a time that I thought I had to physically be near my computer in order to post my stories. When I taught in the north where internet connections were spotty, I would stand outside my apartment at 5:30 a.m. with the temperature hovering around -45, to make sure my story got posted. I must have looked completely ridiculous to my Inuit friends.

I am fortunate that I have 4 children who grew up with this technology and more than once, they kept me from stepping off the precipice.

I have learned how to cut and paste. The only other time that I tried to do this was in Sister Mary Roderick’s art class at Morrison school. I know how to scan and e-mail. I can edit a post. I can create a Word document. I can create shortcuts although I have been doing that most of my adult life. I can refresh a page and can do track changes to a document. I can make a PowerPoint presentation AND… export it to a USB drive. (flash drive, thumb drive, memory stick – take your pick).

Bravo, Len!

I’m not convinced that any of these remarkable achievements will guarantee me a podium finish at the BTO’s but surely, I will garner a participation medal.

I am not a Luddite, but I have a warm spot for those woolen mill workers.

“And I’ll be taking care of business (every day),

Taking care of business (every way).”

Takin’ Care of Business – Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Have a great weekend.