Technology

So, Anika and her brothers are a little worried that I have a blog now. All those stories I could tell....he, he, he.....watch this space!

Actually, I can't be too mean because I'm so dependent on them for help. This SINKS Mummy is not very technology savvy. A few years ago when we switched to broadband I remember sending an email to our computer tech from church. "Dear Ron, About that multiport thingy doovey that you mentioned last week. Can we buy one of those and have you get our computers talking to one another please? Cheers." Even the word "blog" means something different to me. My youngest has a tendency to add a letter "l" into words which means his special "blanket" is a "blanklet". Blog then, to me, suggests an image of the horrendous mess that Mike and Matt create in the back yard after a typical south east Queensland storm.

It's so different for this generation though. Anika is the fastest mouse clicker on the east coast of Australia. Within milliseconds of acquiring a super new computer (with XP!!!) Anika and Lloyd were changing desktop patterns and setting everything up to their liking. Within minutes the digital camera was brought into play and the first two productions of the Q family film company appeared on the computer complete with backing music. "The Ghost" and "Lady Melodrama" were held up only by the lack of actors. I'm sure that Lloyd was the same character under the sheet as the one that got attacked by the ghost at a later point. Where do they get the time to learn all this? Perhaps they need more jobs.....? (USA readers read it as "chores")

Even Mike as a baby didn't want to be left behind. When pulling himself to standing he discovered that he could reach the mouse. One day I passed the computer which displayed a window reading, "Are you sure you want to send all the system files to the recycle bin?" Now, at age 4, he is able to click on "enter" to start up the old computer, open a Word file, save it and then type into the document. I spend a lot of time deleting files with names such as "dljkjie3n ;hner" so that the old boat anchor doesn't crash with the overload.

The next blog, I hope, will contain a picture. Wow, I'm really learning. By the way, does anyone know the real name for that multiport thingy doovey?

Acronymns

This is the first blog I've ever created. As I thought about doing this blog I figured I may as well start with the story of the name.

We were all talking around the dinner table the other night about acronymns used in cyber language. There's Hubby, Anika, 16, Lloyd, 14, Matthew, 10 today and Mike, 4. Anika and Lloyd were bringing their mother's cyber language up to date. I already knew about lol, BTW and other such but didn't know about brb (be right back), rofl (rolling on the floor laughing) or velol (very evil laugh out loud - Lloyd's invention).

Hubby was telling me that there are such a lot of TLAs (three letter acronymns) and that he's definitely afflicted with UAS (ukulele aquisition syndrome). We have five ukuleles in this house but it never seems to be enough. How many ukuleles can a man play at once I think to myself? Hubby then tells me that he actually accused a fellow uke player (on a uke blog) of having UAS. The reply from friend uke blogger was along these lines: I do not have UAS. I know exactly how many ukuleles I need. I count all my ukes and add one - that's how many I need.

Hubby and I decided to enlighten our children about the acronymns of the dim, dark past. You know, in a previous age when there was no internet and people communicated by written, posted letter or telephone call. We told them about when DINKS was coined (for those of my children's age this means Double Income No KidS). We mentioned that Hubby's sister at the time had her own version of this: SINBAD (Single Income No Boyfriend And Desperate). So, why not? I'm a SINKS Mummy (Single Income Numerous KidS). For those in the USA who do not speak the same language read it like this: SINKS Mommy.