Grannymar

Now hold on a minute! I never said anything about killing folk. That is not in my nature. I am talking about health here and keeping everything soft and supple.

A chair that does all this:

Real massage chair mechanism

Shiatsu and Rolling massage: 4 independent rollers travel up and down back

Targeted relief of any back area

6 programs: full, lower or upper back in either massage style

Spot Shiatsu massage: massage action just where you need it!

Adjustable roller width to comfortably fit your body

Vivid LED illuminates massage mechanism

I saw one of these last week and just had to try it. It was wonderful. Elly was with me and of course she had to have a go as well. It was good that there were two chairs in operation at the time because I was not about to stand and watch her have all the fun!

Apparently I was moaning and groaning with pleasure! My daughter kept telling me to be quiet. In fact the words she used were ” Mammy, please! Anyone would think you were having sex!” What a thing for a young lady to say to her dear old mother! Chance would be a fine thing!

Well you know what’s coming…

“Well, it is the nearest thing to sex that I have had in a long time” says I.

There was only one solution for it. I bought one and took it home. I have it here on my chair by the computer and twice a day when I need to think and rest I sit back and switch it on.

Pure heaven.

Just like a Toyboy dancing up and down my back!

Is it any wonder I have a smile on my face.

So you want to know what I did.

I attended

I did, and it was fun!

Andy puts us on the list!

Apart from the Tekkie Presentations I learned….

The story of Good Coffee

How to shave by

How to improve my life

Conference Essentials: Water, Internet, Coffee, Electricity,Signs and I will add Loos.

How Mogulus.com works the system used by Richard Jolly to Live Stream the events of the day.

Phil & Davy check the light.

I had the chance to network (did I get that right?) with new people and made new friends, now I have new Blogs to follow.

In the afternoon Darragh Doyle and I led a conversation on Blogging:

What it’s about, how you should (and shouldn’t), how to enjoy it, sharing your stories, selling your brand and ideas, building your audience. Using blogs and social networking together, for your benefit

Quotes from the day:

I really enjoyed your conversation technique. I wouldn’t have said anything otherwise… ~ Phil O’Kane to Darragh.

Barcamp Belfast was great fun yesterday, the event, the presentation, but most of all almost everyone engaging at the event is what made it ~ Davy Mc

Andy, Phil and others put tremendous effort into the preparation for and all during the day. I know that we attendees appreciated their efforts. Many thanks

I came home with booty:

A new T-shirt (Elly have we swapped lives?), a laptop bag, badges and money!

Thanks Andy for the bag it will be put to good use. I found the four ‘AU’ badges and the penny inside one of the pockets, no tenners I promise! I will keep them until the next photo walk.

Darragh I will wear my ‘Hugged’ badge with pride.

P.S. Darragh suggests that all the Toyboys who received ‘A Grannymar Toyboy’ badge should have a photo taken wearing it and post it on their blog and link to me… That boy has some funny ideas I still have a few to pass on.

I look forward to the next BarCamp and hope to see you there.

Twitter is not twittering properly.

Amazon is not amazing.

Google Mail is acting up.

Since the unmanned Phoenix space probe made its successful landing on Mars on 25th May, the Interweb has wobbled

Image courtesy of BBC News

Until it settles you need something to think about!

Have a nice Weekend!

I sat on my fury long enough.

You saw this picture and caption here on my blog the other day. I was annoyed not alone for myself, but also for Grandad and indeed for all older bloggers. If we were really weird, a major company like Microsoft would not have offered sponsorship for this category at the Irish Blog Awards.

Tonight I decided to deal with my fury and confront the Irish Independent with the email below.

Dear Editor,

On Thursday last I received a phone call encouraging me to read that day’s Irish Independent. On Page 18 of the Business section I discovered my photo. The surprise was not the photo, because it was taken at a public event.

The shock was the heading! ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ The caption was ‘Senior citizen bloggers known as Grannymar and Grandad tied for the award of the best personal blog at the Irish Blog Awards 2008’. Congratulations, you managed to get our names correct. Now before you make any more mistakes we are not married and met for the first time at the event.

I sat on my fury for a few days hoping that it would abate. It didn’t.

Please explain what is weird about older people blogging? Further down the page was a picture of two other Bloggers, young ladies half my age, I know that since one of them happens to be my daughter! You would not dare put a caption - ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ above them, I guarantee if you had, my daughter would have your guts for garters!

Am I wrong in assuming that the heading and caption were written by a young journalist? Why is that once silver threads begin to appear we are written off or thought to have lost our marbles? Let me tell you, neither Grandad nor I have lost our ability to use modern technology. We are both familiar with computers, email, blogging, Podcasting, Levelator, Skype and indeed Facebook!

I consider the term ‘WEIRD WIDE WEB’ an insult to all older Bloggers and hope that you will apologise to Grandad and I on page 18 of the business section next Thursday.

Sincerely

Grannymar

‘It was a one of those days’ the song says, alas one of those days for me, is no more like the song than I am like the Kerrygold Butter Queen!

I had a post up on my blog but it was the worst thing I ever produced. I felt I let Jefferson Davis down. Reading a couple of other entries for the meme that he set us I was annoyed with myself. I wanted to remove it. In fact I wanted to close down the blog altogether and never look at it again!

Everything I touched took on a mind of its own. The computer froze - I rebooted Firefox froze so I rebooted. Meanwhile I went to do some chores. Things I wanted to move refused, but the things I wanted to stay put, fell from my hands or from where ever I put them.

My head was fuzzy but I was determined to work it clear. There would be no giving in today, no going back to bed!

The Post man arrived with a big box. It was the long awaited external Hard Drive. The instructions for installing seemed so short and clear. Just what I needed; a new toy to concentrate on! I cleared all the gear from my desk and pulled it out. The mass of multicoloured cables scares me. They always seem to be a twisted mass no matter now many times I sort and tie them. In fact they were like my brain felt, twisted and mixed up!

I sorted a socket for the new drive and then connected the USB lead to my USB hub. A light came on a then NOTHING! Zilch! Removing the USB I tried another hole (very un tekki term but you know what I mean!) it didn’t work and the third didn’t work either.

Brilliant I am down to one.

So the one connection worked – that is the one I use for Podcasting or Skype. It works so stop complaining Grannymar!

Well I will have to be like a man for a few days – one job at a time! That last remark was not a good idea ‘cause the ‘puter heard it, and of course computers are Male! It froze again!! I gave up and shut down! I put on the electric blanket and headed for bed. I lay in the warmth and listened to a play, read a few pages and drifted off into a peaceful sleep. A couple of hours later I came too feeling so much better. I cooked my dinner and had a fresh go at the computer. Everything except the USB port was working and I went ahead with the installation of the new hard drive. IT worked!

Now why don’t I do as I preach to others – ‘Listen to your body’!

Today the sun is shining and all is well with the world. Nick came to my rescue. he called me mischievous and accepted my tag for the meme. He came up with a wonderful idea and I look forward to following the progress.

Nick said:

My thought is that it seems a bit of a waste to keep dreaming up new characters. What I fancy doing is one of those continuous stories, in which one person starts it off and then the next person continues it. I rather like the Pricilla character so I’m sure I’ll soon have some ideas about something that happens to her.

So visit Nick and keep an eye on how the story develops!

There is nothing better than friends coming to visit. Blogging friends are so much better. They come when you are ready to receive them, stay for as long as you wish and leave no mess behind for you to clear up.

Blogging friends won’t be aware of the six inches of dust everywhere, the fact you are still in your pyjamas with hair that looks like your fingers are stuck in the electric socket!

Now don’t start thinking that is how I am every day. I would hate to give you a fright, so I am titivated and elegant with not a hair out of place. Please don’t ask, I have no webcam. My beauty might blind you…

Now where were we…

Talking about my blogging friends. Once I have cleared up each morning, I like to pour a proper cup of coffee, pull up a chair and invite my virtual friends into my living room. I listen read what they have to say and then reply add my comments.

In a previous life (last year) Grannymar happily blogged away at Oldbones which was housed with Blogger.com. I we Elly suggested it was time to make a move to WordPress, so here I landed. Now you have to understand that my life is a series of “Mum try this!” or “Mum you need to install that!” It might be a verbal message by phone, a link by IM or an email. Don’t tell her I said it, but she is usually right!

So I use Firefox. Audacity, Levelator (thanks to Conn) and Windows Live Writer that I found myself and installed - I like it! The latest tekkie thing is something called Open ID. I was frustrated trying to leave comments on Blogs using Blogger. They seemed to want to control the world and insisted in giving the punters a Blogger ID.

Now this Open ID worked well to begin with, but now I find a problem with the first comment I leave in the day. I write my gem of literature, click on ID window and make sure my correct info is there, then hit publish and the whole thing explodes! Well to be correct I get a large blank page with a Google 400 Banner. It is a real slap on the knuckles to a little old lady like me. Anyone would think I was planting porn. I click on the back button and not alone is the comments box gone AWOL but the whole blog has gone as well. Now I have to remember to save that first nugget of wisdom until I am sure it has wound its way across the ether.

Am I the only one this happens to? What am I doing wrong?

~+~+~+~+~

Something rattled my cage this morning and poor Elly had to listen to me ranting on about it. I will share one quote I made, so you might understand how cross I was:

The F-ing Twenty Majors have only one round the houses number printed, and with all the 57 options there is nowhere to complain!

More strong coffee is called for…. on my way to the kitchen I discover a sideways flying bird has left a load of bird flu all down my dining room window! Ugh!

Should I go back to bed?

Nah!

I’ll go visit some Bloggers instead.

Dear Keith, the man with the rib crushing hugs!

My Elly has gone mad altogether! It must be all this Christmas Spirit.

Her latest suggestion is for Me, yes little old me to offer my help with Creative Camp in Kilkenny on Saturday March 8^th 2008. *(GM thinks - Toyboys, plenty of Toyboys)*

Now I ask you why would you want my help and anyway what could I do up here in Norn Iron?

Now darling, if you think of a way to use my talents… don’t tell the daughter or she might want to interfere!

Ever faithful,

Grannymar

Now Ladies and Gentlemen just stop right now whatever you are doing!

Are you over 30? Nearly forty?

Then the signs are not good!

I was checking my RSS Feeder this morning and while reading through the postings of my regular blogging friends I came across this little Gem:

Facebook founder/media-golden-boy, 24-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, had this advice for aspiring technology entrepreneurs while speaking at a tech conference last spring “I want to stress the importance of being young and technical,’ he stated. ‘If you want to found a successful company, you should only hire young people with technical expertise… Young people are just smarter.”

Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By has a very interesting post on the ‘delights’ of Facebook with comments that stretch almost across the Atlantic. They are all worth reading.

I hope that in 20 years time some young buck still wet behind the ears, stands up at a meeting to remind Mark Zuckerberg of these words!

Maybe I will still be around to smile!

Do you remember 1895? Well old and all as I appear, and never mind what Elly says, I don’t remember it either. I am sixty and not 112! So what am I going on about?

Guglielmo Marconi an Italian inventor proved the feasibility of radio communication when he sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895.

By 1899 he flashed the first wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter “S”, telegraphed on 12^th December 1901, from England to Newfoundland. The signal was sent via a 160ft/52m aerial in Cornwall, England, and Marconi received it at St John’s, Newfoundland, where they used an even higher aerial kept aloft by a kite. This was the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message. At the time the feat was applauded on both sides of the Atlantic.

So today, the 12^th December as we phone, text, blog, podcast and Skype to one another across the world, may we not take it for granted but celebrate the life, vision and the work of Guglielmo Marconi!

Podcamp Ireland took place on Saturday 29^th September 2007 in the Ormond Hotel, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Some of the people I met

Krishna De

Ellybabes

Clare

Martha

Now the Toyboys:

Conn

Martin ‘GD’

Dennis

Dean

Keith

Neville

Brian

Michele

Tom

Bernie

Will

Ken

Niall

Spudshow Music Podcast

There were more, (hugs & squeezes at the back of the room!) lunch and coffee friends, but my lips are sealed