Category: Let’s talk about

Computer illiteracy

January 18, 2023

The picture was ancient. Two nice-looking girls were sitting at manual typewriters in a school room. You knew it was old because it was black & white, and their clothes were vintage. My comment to the question on Facebook “Do you remember this?” was “Yes, I am the guy behind the two girls.” Slightly out of focus and in the background was a young man with horn rim glasses and a white shirt. He was your typical nerd from the fifties and sixties. You couldn’t see his pocket protector, but I’m sure it was there.

My keyboarding career started that way. Typing class in high school. A few guys. Mostly girls getting a head start on their stimulating careers in the secretarial field. Today, I am using a laptop to write. That class at Hillcrest is not typing now but keyboarding and it will soon die because no one gets to high school without being able to use a keyboard. Most get that education in kindergarten.

Computers first came to my attention in grade school. It was the Univac that I saw in magazines and books. Then there was the IBM monstrosity that NASA used to compute trajectories for the Mercury missions. I never knew what a computer really was until I saw Secret Treasures. Who knew that people used to be called computers? We just called them smart kids.

Our first computer keyboard was on a Texas Instrument device smaller than my first AM radio. Then came the Commodore, the Atari, and the 86-format machine. That was the first with minor connectivity and its own monitor. The rest is plugged into the TV like your first video game. My first video game was brother Bud’s Pong.

I’ve run DOS and Windows 3 and up.  I have not upgraded to eleven yet, but I am sure it will happen. I have wanted to be computer literate since I was in the third grade. I used my daughters as an excuse to get our first desktop machine. I still have floppy disks with my writing files on them. I should go back and look at some of those columns and stories.

Before COVID-19 shut down I took a class at OTC to learn about Windows Office. I learned about Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and other programs that I have used for years. The difference now is I know how to use many functions that I had not mastered before.

Between video, audio, and word processing software, I feel I currently have mastery of the computer I need. What will come is a mystery to me. This is as true as it was in 1960.

©Copyright 2023 by Charles Kensinger

I Do Not Resolve

January 3, 2023

Several years ago, I made a resolution before the new year, and I have not broken it to this day. Have you made a promise this year to do something that will change your life? This is the thing to do. You may be like me and have succeeded in previous years.

Some resolve to lose weight. I was skinny as a boy and through high school and college. When I was married my wife and I were young and trim. I had heard the joke about turning sideways and being mistaken for a zipper. As I grew older my weight increased and now, I am considered obese. I am working on this problem. I have never resolved to lose weight.

Smoking, drinking, taking narcotics, or other illegal substances have never been something that I do. I have activities that I enjoy. They are not illegal and in my mind are not immoral. Some of you would say, “I would never do that.” Good. If you do not enjoy it or think it is “not beneficial” to you, don’t do it. Make that a resolution.

What I am talking about is that when you recognize something as bad for you, stop doing it. I do not mouth off to stupid people. It can get you hurt. I learned that the hard way. I still say stupid things. Only to my friends. They understand.

If there is something that you should do, like bathing more often, eating breakfast, reading, spending time exercising, or just enjoying people, do it. Do it as often as you want. Except for eating breakfast. Once a day is enough.

Waiting for a particular time to do something is not the best way to make changes in your life. A friend of mine decided he would quit smoking. For years it was his New Years’ resolution. He rarely made it through January. Someone told him to quit the next time he finished a pack. That did not help.

One day he was at a business meeting and pulled out his cigarettes at break time to leave the building to take a smoke. Someone detained him to talk about sports or something that interested him. When the next open time came, he continued the conversation.

After returning home, he left the smokes at home. If he did not have them with him, he did not buy more. He found something else to take his mind off them. When he told me about this, he had quit for five months. The process started three years before and he still had that partial pack.

Setting goals is a good thing. The first of the year can be a good time. So can any time of the year. If you slip, start again. That is how I deal with my weight. Every time I overeat or eat the wrong things, I refocus my energy to do better. Sometimes I lose three or four pounds and only regain one or two. That is better than I have done in the past.

Oh, what was that last New Year’s resolution? I resolved to never make another one. It worked.

©Copyright 2023 by Charles Kensinger

God Experience

December 12, 2022

Welcome my friend Tuesday. She is not an author. She shares stories on Facebook. She said I could share this. I hope it speaks to you as it does to me.

By Tuesday Welch

Just had a God experience and wanted to share.

Something I can’t stand is when people comment on my grocery cart, I have a family of 5 and I cook my own food, so I buy lots of ingredients. I was unloading my cart and a man made some comments about how much food I was getting. God clearly said, “Be gentle, be kind, let him speak.”

I firmly believe that if God gives a command your only response should be, “Yes, sir.” So, I did, I spoke to him and was kind. And after a little bit more of him chatting he revealed he had had a stroke and the left side of his body didn’t work right.

At first, I only responded, “Aw, I’m so sorry, that’s awful.” And then I heard God again, “That’s why. Now pray.”

I asked the man if I could touch his arm and pray, he seemed excited! He slightly raised his bum arm and I prayed. As I was praying, I felt Holy Spirit nudge me about the man behind us in line, that he was also supposed to be blessed somehow by this prayer.

Afterward, when I was outside putting my stuff in the car the man with the bum arm said to me, “God Is real and He loves everyone doesn’t He?” And he RAISED his left arm, WHILE holding a gallon of milk!

God puts people in our path, if we can learn to shut up, and shut out the noise of life we can be more open to seeing those people God sends to us. I saw God heal this man today. Maybe the man behind him in line is struggling spiritually and witnessing someone pray reminded him of a God who saves. A God who looks after and takes care of His own. He saw David alone in the field. He saw Elisha alone plowing with oxen. He sees you too, even when no one else does.

This isn’t a brag post (that would be gross) this is simply a testimony and a reminder:

Love on others, because God uses us when we let Him. Don’t give up on the strangers around you, they aren’t strange to God.

And Yes He does love everybody!!

©Copyright 2022 by Tuesday Welch

Goodbye, Meow

December 9, 2022

Some of you will not relate to this column. Others will understand and some may have had similar tragedies in their lives. Thirteen years ago, our daughter’s family adopted a kitten. Their oldest girl gave it the name Meow. This was what she answered when asked what a cat says. They had a new baby girl at the time. She is now in Middle School.

meow has been slowing down the last few years. As we all must, she died tonight. For those of you who have fur babies and children, you know how this family is hurting.

I’ve buried a number of pets over the years. My wife did not grow up with dogs or cats around the house. When we moved into our second rental house and discovered that we could keep a dog in the fenced yard, we got our first dog. Our home has been blessed with many furry friends for over forty years.

Our daughters know the pain of losing a loved one because they have had these friends die. We have lost cats, dogs, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, bunnies, lizards, fish, and even a chicken that I called dinner. That last one left our home alive. We never asked the farmer who took him what happened after he went to the farm. The first chick we took in died a few days after it was brought home.

Life goes on even when we lose human loved ones. Being able to cope with this grief can be learned by children if they suffer the pain of losing a pet. Losing a cat is not as bad as having a family member die. For children, it can be as traumatic.

My grandmother and President Kennedy both died in 1963. I do not remember being that upset by either of those deaths. When we lost our cat, princess, weeks later, it bothered me a lot more. Dealing with death is difficult for anyone. Children can have trouble coping with these feelings.

Raising children and grandchildren is often challenging. I ask that you remember this family as they teach the kids how to cope with emotions that they have not experienced before. If your family is grieving over a loved one or a pet, I would like to say that I am sorry for your loss and hope that this article has helped in a small way. God bless you.

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger