Numbers Up

After all these years of having Internet at home (around 30 I would guess) I still haven't gotten into the habit of the Internet as a go to. This after many successful forays onto it for truly useful things and ideas (and a lot of time wasting). It may be information overload in a lot of ways, but there's good things out there.

I've struggled for months - months - trying to figure out the simple task of adding page numbers to my books, so that I might set them up on Amazon by my lonesome (those writings of mine available were not configured by me). I think it's a talent I need to acquire if I'm to write and look professional. But for a half year or better I simply could not get page numbers added to my new books.

This past Monday a thought hit me: are there numbered book templates I might find online? A quick web search for free book templates brought me such a thing in seconds - seconds - and a simple copy and paste along with a few formatting corrections gave me a fully set up book in about an hour. I was happy, yet I felt stupid that I hadn't thought of that before.

The Internet is your friend. If you focus on how it actually helps you.

Oh-Kay

Yesterday, seeing as I was running out of business cards, I hopped online and ordered new ones. Everything was fine until it came to complete the order. Even then there were no real issues, but I had to stifle a bemused chuckle at one point. 

The company requested my address, which of course I wanted them to have precisely so I could get my order. I duly typed it in the spaces provided for such important nuance. Hitting enter, a window immediately opened, proudly proclaiming that the Internet Powers That Be had found a better address to use than the one I had offered. How much better? It added 'Street' after my street name. That's all. Instead of my order simply coming to Avery, it could apparently come more efficiently to Avery Street.

Good catch there, Internet. What would I do without you?

Algorithm by McDonald's

I fully understand that the Internet is driven by algorithms. I know that an awful lot, indeed probably more than we realize, of our personal information is out there in the ether. There's no need for this to be too much of a concern, really. Quite a bit of it is public knowledge anyway; my birthday is a matter of public record, me Great Grandpa James once said. For some things, there simply is no point in worrying about who knows them.

Still, when I opened up Facebook yesterday to find an ad about how 61 year olds can earn an easy $75 McDonald's gift card well, I was a tad shocked. I know they know (and they know that I know that they know, and you can keep it going from there) how old I am. But as I have never ordered McD's online, have they made a connection I am not aware of (or, yes, forgot about, as I am 61) between myself and the Golden Arches? It concerns me just a bit.

Any way you slice it, that gift card better get here soon. I'm hungry.

Silver Linings

Yesterday morning just before five o'clock I left da UP of Michigan figuring to get home in time enough to do a few hours work and make my golf league. Just after 6:30 I was sitting on the shoulder of southbound Interstate 75, north of Grayling. The pulley had decided to dislodge itself from the power steering on my van. What to do, what to do?

You look for silver linings. And In fact yesterday I saw several.

First and foremost was that we live in an advanced internet age. I took out my phone and searched for 'Grayling road service'. A tow truck was picking van and Marty up within 35 minutes. Not knowing where to take the old girl, the tow driver suggested a good local mechanic. We were there by 7:45 and, happily, they could have my van fixed in a few hours. Cool.

Of course, I hadn't planned on taking my morning walk yesterday, but by then I had the time. I hiked the almost two miles into Grayling proper to a nice little restaurant and had an Irish omelette: Corned Beef and onions. Then of all things I was able to meet up with a good friend I hadn't seen in about ten years. He happened to be in town for work, saw on facebook where I had lamented my predicament, and said he had a few minutes, let's meet and catch up. And soon enough the van was finished. I was home by five in the afternoon.

Yeah, it's a little bit flippant, but when bad things happen we do need to look for those silver linings. If we do, we'll find that sometimes they're very bright too.