Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Why blog?

There's a long answer and a short one: long answer first.
Back in the 60's my high school maths teacher yearned to introduce us to the brave new world of computer science, so she organised an excursion to a local government office that housed A Modern New Computer. Off we traipsed, 30 pimply, bright eyed hopes of the future, in the care of Miss Smith and her misplaced expectations. At the "computer lab", we were able to view this marvel through a glass wall, and were accompanied in turns into its presence. The thing occupied a whole room, banks of shiny metal and blinking lights from floor to ceiling, attended by nerdy chaps in white coats and severe haircuts. These beacons of knowledge informed us that The Computer could solve any equation presented to it. To prove this, the nerdy chap boss produced a fistful of greeting sized cards, all with little holes in different places (binary code) and fed them to the computer. They were promptly sucked into the computer's innards, accompanied by flashing lights, beeps and shudderings and spat out at the opposite end. Nerdy chap boss then peeled off the top card and proudly announced "Correct! 2b + 7b= 9b!" I was not impressed.
Fast forward 40 years to my first job interview since giving birth, and all was going swimmingly, except that I possessed no computer skills, and if I wanted the position I would have to acquire some. Again, I was not impressed.
However, on the job training was offered to me and I accepted the challenge.
Thus it was that in 2008 I deserted the company of computer illiterates and have since joined the virtual masses clogging up cyberspace, surfing the net, googling til the lights go out and blogging like there's no tomorrow.
And the short answer to "why blog?"
Because I can!

No comments:

Post a Comment