Day 38-39-40 Blogger and Starman

Sat 4-25

In the middle of the night, as my mind is hard at work thinking about how I want to teach Blogger on our YouTube show on Sunday, I thought it would be a nice touch to interview someone else who uses blogger for their life story. I thought we might invite someone to be our guest on Sunday's show, but we often have problems and I get a little scattered during live interviews. I know! I could interview someone over Zoom and record it - then we could edit it and just play the video on Sunday,. Yes! That's what I want. But ... I should have thought of that a while ago right? After all, today is Saturday. I decided to go for it anyway and I emailed Judy, whose recent blog post I had just read. She responded and said she was available today and would be happy to do it. Cool! I interviewed her on Saturday afternoon and gave the recording to Jim to edit. Doing creative work like this energizes me. I also made 4 new videos on using blogger, and I even did my exercises!

Sun 4-26
Show time.
Here's the link to Episode 190: What is a Blog and how does Blogger work?

Bad news

Sat 4-25
US Covid-19 cases 953,000 Deaths: 53,625

Sun 4-26
US Covid-19 cases 985,000 deaths: 55 383
Mon 4-27

??

Good News

If you missed the 60 minutes episode about how Ford and GM have stopped making cars and started making ventilators and other Covid-19 related equipment, you can see it here. What struck me the most during the episode were the people in tears because they were so happy for the opportunity to help. It is a feel-good story that reminds us how much we all want to be helpful.

It reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Starman, where Jeff Bridges says, "You want to know what I find beautiful about the human race? You are at your very best when things are worst"

I'm so happy to see a NEW Blogger

I've been keeping this blog on Blogger since May of 2003, and I've written nearly 2,000 posts. I can't think of any web-based computer product that has been around anywhere near as long. My first experience with the web was with CompuServe and Netscape, neither of which exist now. Well, CompuServe actually does exist, but it was originally sold to AOL in 1997, when I stopped using it. 

Blogger is owned by Google which is famous for killing off products. The only way to know if a product is still in Google's good graces is to see that they're making changes to it, updating it. Blogger has been wonderfully stable, with very few changes over the years. That makes it a wonderful product to use, it is worrisome to think that Google may stop supporting it. So, when I noticed the "try the new Blogger" button. It made me very happy. 

Not only would I miss Blogger terribly, but GeeksOnTour has taught many other people to keep their personal journals using Blogger. Some of them still post nearly every day, like Rick and Kathy Rouseau  or Sue Hepler with her Palm Creek Update blog. and others use it as their annual letter, generally posting once/year like Roxie (don't you think that's brilliant?!) Then, there are clubs who we encouraged to use Blogger.  

I can't say that I see any important new features in the New Blogger - but I'm just happy to see that Google Is working on it. That means the Blogger platform is alive and well.
Here's a video I made about how to use the New Blogger.

Day 36-37 #StayHome: Still Blogging after all these years

Thursday 4-23

7 am Toastmasters meeting using Zoom, gets the creative juices flowing early, but that doesn't mean it will continue. I tend to feel like I've accomplished enough when that meeting is over. I take my cup of coffee, sit on the couch and browse my old blog books. I love me old blog books. What is a blog book? It is a book made out of the posts of this blog. I've had one printed for every year we were on the road. This is inspiring me to make Blogging be our topic for this Sunday's YouTube show. Episode 190 of What Does This Button Do?

I did eventually get some work done. I found myself rifling through old Photo Backup CDs and found some photos I didn't have in Google Photos, so I uploaded them, and made a video about how to do that. See video here. 

This was my week to contribute an article to the RV travel magazine, so I wrote about Blogging!

I'm not sure what Jim did all day. He has his office/man cave downstairs while mine is upstairs. I could hear him laughing several times, I also heard other people's voices - presumable coming from Zoom calls. He's a much more sociable creature than I am. He's also constantly learning new techniques for audio and video production. And, of course, he made us delicious meals for lunch and dinner. I live in the best restaurant in town.

It was another gorgeous day and we walked around our neighborhood circle after dinner.

Friday 4-24

We start the day with another Zoom meeting, but this one is at a more civilized hour - 8:30. This is our tech-sharing group, we always learn new things. Today we all jumped on a Facebook Messenger meeting to see what is changing. With the popularity of online meetings these days, lots of companies are trying to challenge Zoom's dominance. It worked pretty slick - and the article says you can even invite people who don't have a Facebook account now.

Facebook messenger has fun AR effects

I had zero motivation for the rest of the day. I broke my record - watching 4 episodes of Homeland. 

Bad news

Thur 4-23

Covid-19 US cases: 890,000 Deaths: 50,177

Fri 4-24 

Covid-19 US cases: 923,000 Deaths: 52,234

Good News

I think it's really good news that I'm blogging again. I've never been an every day blogger, but I was pretty good at writing 2-3 times a week. For the last year or so, especially when we're home, it's been an effort to write once a month. During this #StayHome times, I feel the need to document our life again. I think it's kind of like the prisoner who needs to scratch on the wall to attest to the passage of time. fyi - this is my 1,934th post in this blog.

Day 31-35 The new meaning of "Travel"

Sat/Sun Apr 18-19

Instead of our YouTube live show on Sunday, we did a private Zoom call with our Geeks on Tour members. We tried something new, asking them to "register" for the meeting ahead of time, submit questions beforehand, and share scanned photo albums. About 60 people registered, and 50 showed up. I felt the meeting went very well. It points out how you need some kind of agenda for an online meeting to go well - just like you do in an onsite meeting - who knew?!

Mon Apr 20

Online Toastmasters contest winner

Monday evening is our Online Presenters Toastmasters meeting. Unlike most Toastmaster's clubs, this one started out in the online/Zoom format. Jim and I are charter members, being with the club for about 3 years now. This club's experience really showed in Monday's meeting. They tried something new - an online webinar contest. 6 contestants gave a 6-8 minute "webinar." That means they were to prepare to teach a skill or promote a product using visual aids and speaking. Jim took the role of timer, and I was a judge. The 6 participants gave stunning performances. Jim and I have been presenting online for over 6 years now, but I still learned something from this group. If you'd like to watch, you can view the winner's speech, or the whole meeting on this blog post. To make it even more amazing, the winner, Krishn, is from Mauritius and it was 5am his time. He's so good, he can give a speech in his sleep!

Tue Apr 21

I haven't left the house, except to walk around the block, in over a month. So how do I satisfy my need to travel? Instead of traveling from the east coast to the west coast, I now travel from the couch to my stand up computer desk. Other times I start at my sit down computer computer desk. For a vacation I put my backrest on the bed and turn on that TV.
Another idea to ease my sadness over the lack of travel was sent to me by Ana from Toastmasters: 

Wed Apr 22

Where had the day gone? Where had the week gone? Time goes so much faster when were home . I wake up with the plan to get to work on my updated photos book, but first let me just look at the computer, check email, answer a few questions.

Oohh, Jim made a delicious omelette for brunch.

A question about photos prompts me to make a little video. Then, something put a bug in my ear to go thru some old backup CDs to see if there are any pictures on them that need to be uploaded to Google photos. OMG, it's almost 3pm and time to hop on a zoom meeting with some fellow Google photos teachers. They are so much fun. The 3 other women all know each other from teaching for the computer club at Hilton Head Sun City. We've presented to their group many times over the years, both onsite, and online.

Bad News

Sunday 

Covid-19 US Cases: 764,177 Deaths: 40,591

Tuesday

Covid-19 US Cases: 816,240 Deaths: 43,921

Wednesday 

Covid-19 US Cases: 847,849 Deaths: 47,349

Good News

Wednesday was Earth Day -although it certainly didn't go as planned with thousands of people celebrating, there was plenty of good news as lots of stories covered the reduced pollution and re-emerging wildlife that are a side effect of this pandemic.

• Pandemic side-effects offer glimpse of alternative future on Earth
• Wildlife in streets, less pollution in big cities: Earth looks different on Earth Day 2020

• Air pollution falls by unprecedented levels in major global cities during coronavirus lockdowns

  
  

Days 27-30 #StayHome - the new normal

Friday 4/17

Friday is the best day of the week. At 8:30 in the morning we have a zoom meeting with a small group of people who discuss technology news and we learn from each other. And, later in the day, since the Corona virus pandemic, Elliot Masie hosts a zoom based happy hour, called Empathy, with inspirational talks and performances from Broadway starts. It brings tears to my eyes and dance moves to my feet. Thank you Elliott.

Oh thank goodness, Jim has returned from venturing into the wild. He walked out the front door to take the garbage out and check the mail. I was so happy to they he returned safely. A touch of exaggeration here ,😮

Thursday 4/16

At 7am, we have our EarlyBird Toastmasters meetingon zoom, we had a guest from Paris who told us how pleasant it was that the French people were relaxed during this crisis, no sense of panic, no runs on toilet paper. We also had a guest from Moscow, and a member who lives in Spain. I am so loving this new way of having meetings!

We got our government stimulus payments. $1,200 each, showed up in our bank account today. We really don't need it, we're fine financially, so we gave 1200 to the Broward pantry. I just can't imagine not having money for food and so appreciate the work these food banks are doing.

I sewed today. Understand, that is just not something I do, but we decided to hang our T-Shirt memory quilt on the wall in Jim's office to soften the effect of that glaring green wall, and there was one T-Shirt that was completely disintegrated, leaving the upper right corner looking very ratty. I found another T-Shirt in the closet of "Defending the Caveman." This t-shirt has never been worn, but we would not throw it out because going to that play is such a strong memory for us. A perfect candidate for the memory quilt, but how to get it done? I hunted throughout the house and found a little packet with a needle and some thread, and set to work. I am SO proud of myself.

Our Work

Jim and I hug each other and whisper "We're so lucky" at least 10 times in any given day. We're lucky to have each other, we're lucky to have a wonderful home, we're lucky to be financially stable, and we're SO lucky to have work that we can do from home and that we are passionate about. We love doing our YouTube show, and filling our website with tutorials and articles. This is what we love to do whether it was our business or not. It feels extra good when we hear that people are getting value from our work. I want to share messages we got from two different GeeksOnTour members:

Russ Manhold: Your tutorials are really something I look forward to viewing on a regular basis.  Recently I've been enjoying learning how to use my SmartPhone to capture old photographs and slides, enhance them, add them to Google Albums, and finally view them on my television screen using Chromecast.

Michael Dorsey: A very BIG thank you for last week's Button show. I have shared my Google photo albums this week with family on Zoom and by links to my Google account. A great time to do it.

 Bad news

4/15 Day 27
Covid-19 cases in US: 652,196 Deaths 28,390

4/16 Day 28
Covid-19 cases in US: 675,243 Deaths 34,562

4/17 Day 29
Covid-19 cases in US: 692,169 Deaths 36,721

4/18 Day 30
Covid-19 cases in US: 723,729  Deaths 37,841

Even Worse News:

Back on April 1, I wrote about learning that a friend, Gary Bunzer, was in a Seattle area ICU with Covid-19. Today, Saturday April 18 we learned that he died. We knew Gary from being a fellow seminar presenter at RV rallies. He was known as the RV Doctor, and we sought his advice many times on RV issues. I attended a few of his seminars in the early days. I remember being impressed with the thoughtful seminar handouts he provided. You will never meet anyone as knowledgeable, helpful, genuine, kind, and fun as Gary. He was also a musician, an excellent guitarist. He and Jim would have animated discussions of sound and amplification systems.
We will so miss seeing his smiling face at RV Rallies - that is if there will be any more of them. All but one of the RV rallies that we usually attend have been cancelled through the end of the year.
We learned of Gary's passing from the RVTravel newsletter.
And, the FMCA also posted Remembering Gary Bunzer