Thursday, April 20, 2006

Bless my Little Scanner

I can use my scanner! I can use my scanner!

* giddy grin and excited hand waving from Spider Girl *


I'm not a Luddite. Regular readers of my blog would have to surmise that I spend a fair amount of time communing with my computer after all. And I'm quite fond of my camera, and my DVD player, etc.-- all those entertaining little gadgets that make life more complicated and more fun.

But I sometimes have a hard time warming up to new technology. Even old technology for that matter. I have to be convinced of its worth. I don't want it to be an unholy headache figuring out what buttons to push. Said gadget needs to earn my love by being child-like in its simplicity.

In this case, my poor scanner has sat to the left of my monitor for time out of mind: untouched and unloved, looked upon as an unfortunate waste of space and money. Once upon a time I had owned another scanner. Oh! I had so many plans for it!

But let's just say it was not user-friendly. Henceforth, all other scanners appearing in my home were to be on my "Bah!-I-can-do-without-it" List. Until....

Last night, as Jeff watched me painfully cutting out felt pieces to make a felt-board story for my preschool story-time, he suggested I just scan the pictures from the storybook and glue them onto the felt. He suggested it would save time. He suggested it would be easier.

I suggested I was skeptical and not terribly keen to learn.

But he was right! It's not hard to use at all. Boy, am I feeling sheepish. My scanner is no longer an extra shelf- to- put- things- on.

I stayed up past my bedtime fiddling with my newly-beloved technology.

Now I can scan old photos...the picture in this post was one taken before the days I owned a digital camera. (Yes, the conversion from film to digital was painful for me too. Now I promote digital photography with the religious zeal of the newly-converted.)

It's a photo of me taken by my friend Tai on our back-packing trip around the British Isles in 1999. I am sitting among the stone columns in the Roman Garden and Hypocaust in Chester, England, a shady, peaceful park next to a ruined abbey and the remains of a Roman amphitheatre.

I've been hoping to put more travel journals on line eventually and I can't help but hope this new scanning ability I have is going to be helpful. Oh, I'm just so tickled. :)

17 comments:

Zambo said...

Hi Spider Girl!

Glad to hear that you're embracing the new age of technology! (I remember being somewhat reluctant to learn how to use computers back in the day...It was a "fear" of technology for me, I guess...Movies like "The Terminator" and "Maximum Overdrive" kinda freaked me out a little...I'm OK now though)...

But enough about me...Looking forward to seeing your scanned travel journals!

Take care out there!

Your Pal,

Zambo.

Mathieu said...

Good for you, scanner girl.

nicki said...

yippeeee!!! scanners are FUN!!!

Crystal said...

Technology can be a pain in the beginning, but a blessing in the end. I'm in your same situation of having a lot of analog pictures taken during previous trips, and this has forced me to get familiar with my scanner.

Josh said...

Glad you have gotten past the difficulty. Can't wait to see all the older photos.

Phil said...

Aaaaah! The evil technology has sucked you in. You are one of us now. The others in the cult will be pleased.

K. said...

Sometimes I feel intimidated by new technology too. And then after I use it, I'm like, "what was all the fuss about?" Gosh I can be silly sometimes.

Pol* said...

hooray for you! A whole new dimension of computer enjoyment now awaits! What an amazinly peaceful image by the way.

Tai said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tai said...

Jeff...your job here is done.

The Miner said...

Good for you!

Mz.Elle said...

YAY!!
That's awesome!

Dagoth said...

I've always been a tech-addict. It's hard to believe it's been twenty-five years since I bought my first computer. I can't even tell you how many computers there are in this house but the one thing I've always had problems with is scanners. They always seem to break or just stop working without so much as a hint as to why. The error screen I fear the most is "Scanner Not Found"....I hope you have better luck than I have had and I look forward to seeing a lot of new pics spider...

Anonymous said...

I have a scanner as well, but I rarely use it. It was one of those impulse buys. I swear someone should just take my credit card and lock it away for my own good.

blackcrag said...

Isn't it cool when you finally use something that has been cluttering up your desk for so long?

"Oooohhh... so that's what it's for!"

Happy scanning, Spider.

JM said...

I'm somewhat like you. Although I love new gadgets and the convenience they offer, I hate having to learn something new. So at first these new gadgets may somewhat be cumbersome.

Ian Lidster said...

Dontya just love Chester? Almost a surfeit of half-timbering and it all works. I like the scanner idea, and don't have one. I have a ton of old photos I'd love to use.