Two Dads: One computer-maniac, the other computer-phobic.
I have two Dads. That sounds strange doesn't it? One is my
genetic father, and the other is my geneticist father. The
genetic Dad I've only ever lived with for one year when I was an
infant, while the geneticist Dad is what you would call a
step-father, but I've lived in close proximity with him for more
than 20 years. I feel close to them both. I connect differently
with each of them but on a pretty much equal level. The reason
I'm sharing my personal information with you is because I've
just had a realisation about my fathers in relation to the area
that I work in: computers and the Internet. It's really quite
interesting.
One father is a computer maniac. Whenever a new technology,
software, gadget, or website emerges he is one of the first to
grab it up and evaluate it. My other father has an old
piece-of-crap box that looks something like a computer, with a
tediously slow dial-up connection to the World Wide Web.
Compared to the wireless, broadband Mac personal computer and
mobile-connected Mac laptop of the enthusiast, they couldn't be
from further parts of the galaxy.
Then there's me. I could be construed as being a walking
paradox, an enigma, or just plainly twisted when it comes to my
relationship with the computer and Internet sphere of life.
Nature/nurture, genetic/environmental...For whatever strange
reason, I have turned out to be a combination of the two papas.
I work as a creative writer for an Internet web-hosting company.
I love the ideas and valuable functions and tools that the
Internet has brought to humanity (or was it humanity that
brought it to the Internet?). However, I have issues and
challenges when it comes to using these awe-inspiring machines.
Currently I am away from home in a different city visiting my
girlfriend. At home (I am currently living with my
parents-Mother and geneticist, as I'm going to live overseas
soon) all I have to do to get on the Internet is open up my
laptop and I'm on-line. If I'm at work, I go to my PC and all of
my settings are stored and ready for me to use. While in a new
place, things haven't been running as smoothly as I would've
liked. The answers are probably simple and easy to do, but this
is one of the kinds of challenges that cause me to stumble.
Although I am deeply interested and have a true faith in this
new technology, I am a real novice when it comes to getting
things done on someone else's computer.
I brought my laptop with me. My girlfriend only has a dial-up
connection which she uses with her laptop. I could use hers' but
she's Chinese so a lot of what comes up on the screen is
illegible to me. I don't know how to change her language
configuration. I'm used to doing it quite easily on my Mac, but
her computer is a PC and I'm not as practiced in this other
format. That's one of my problems. I only have so much patience
when it comes to working these technological issues out; it
could be a trait passed on by my ice-age father (No judgement is
being laid here. He just doesn't feel that he can work new
technologies out. He's had a digital telephone answering machine
for two years which he still hasn't set up. He feels bad about
it but his manual one does the job, so he sticks with it.). I'm
also a little afraid to hook my laptop up to her dial-up line as
I know from experience that I'll have to change some settings of
which I am not confident about doing.
So the next answer was to go to her university where she said
people use their laptops wirelessly in the library. That sounded
cool so I went in and tried it out. I even tried changing the
settings to get it to work (It took courage.) but I couldn't get
it to work. I was weary about asking for help because I wasn't
really a student at that particular learning establishment.
Instead, I've been using the library's computers. This is OK,
but since I can't walk away with the files I create (I borrowed
my girlfriend's thumb-drive but an experience from the past of
not being able to transfer information from PC to Mac deters me
from using it-again, an irrational fear. I know it, and I will
give it a try this week. I've resorted to saving my files in my
email account as attachments. It's not conventional, but it
works.
Another issue I've had is getting onto my messenger service. The
university computers don't have it on their desktop, and when I
tried to download an on-line version I was told that I didn't
have the authority to do so. I went to an Internet caf