Marilyn's Musings

Today I'll be flying from Bakersfield to Nashville TN to attend Killer Nashville. So while I'm doing that, I thought I'd leave my thoughts about the Blackberry and the iPhone. I started out with a Blackberry and I loved it. I loved the keyboard that it had and it was easy to use. I was able to set up everything on my own. Time passed and I used the heck out of that little phone--except not much as a phone, though I didn't have any trouble using it that way. Some thing went a little haywire with it after a lot of use, don't really remember why, but it was time for an upgrade so I marched myself down to the ATandT store. The goodlooking young salesman told me it was time to have and iPhone. "You'll love it," he said and she showed me all the wonderful things I could do with it. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me how to turn it on. A friend of my grandson's stopped by the house and showed me how to turn it on. However, neith...

I switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and though there were tons of features on the iPhone that I liked, I hated the keyboard. And first, I have to say when I got it I couldn't even figure out how to turn it on much less how to make it work. I had to go to my Internet provider to get my email set up, then I had to find someone else with an iPhone to figure out how to turn it on and how to type on the keyboard. Finally, I got the hang of it, but then it wouldn't do something the Blackberry did, it wouldn't take email message off my big computer. I hung in with the iPhone but it began acting wonky. It wouldn't show that it was charged even after I'd let it charge all night. I took it to the store where I bought it (AT&T) and they fiddled with it finally saying I'd have to take it back to Apple. The nearest Apple store is nearly two hours away. I made the decision to go back to Blackberry--and I'd had my iPhone long enough that I had an AT& T ...

Some of you probably figured out already that I've been gone on vacation and that's why I was doing all the advertising about my books. I'll soon be back in front of my own computer and let you know all the exciting things we've been up to and I hope with photos too. I've been having issues with my iPhone which is what I use to take photos. No problem with the picture taking, takes the best photos I've ever taken, but when I started my vacation, I couldn't send any messages or photos. Grrrr! I'm hoping I will have resolved my problem by the time this comes out. Because I've chosen to have new content on my blog everyday, sometimes you'll just have to realize I really didn't have anything all that interesting to say. Marilyn

These photos show the surf, in one picture you can see the spray coming over the sea wall, in the others, it's the surf on the other side of the rock. We watched surfers as the caught the waves that were coming one right after another. Because of standing out in the wind and spray, all the work I did fixing my hair was for nothing--but most of the time my hair looks like I didn't do much anyway. After our night in the cheap motel we found a wonderful place to have breakfast--The Coffee Pot, right on the beach. We've eaten their before and knew we'd get a good meal. I had a California omelet with avocado, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Outstanding. Then we drove out to Morro Rock where we wandered around and I took my photos. Sure love my iPhone. Takes far better pictures then any camera I've ever had. Finally it was time to head to the Morro Bay Library and the Central Coast Sisters in Crime workshop. We had six author instructors and seven attendees. When we divid...

It's become obvious to me--and my husband--that I'm greatly influenced by what people say about their electronic toys. My first cellphone was a Blackberry. I used it mostly to receive my emails when I was out of town. While at a mystery con, Mayhem in the Midlands to be exact, I was with one of my good mystery friends, Sara Weiss, and she showed me her new, updated Blackberry. As soon as I got home I got myself one just like hers. Of course I still mostly used it to get my emails, though it was easier to get on the Internet. It had its limits though. When I was out of town, I always looked for a hotel computer so I could post to my blog, of course that cost money in most places. People began talking/writing about their mini computers online and I thought that would be great, a mini computer I could take with me on trips. How convenient. Of course I got one and it's really cute--but it's so sensitive that at times it drove me crazy trying to type on it, or go to the onli...

My first computer was purchased from a catalog. When it arrived, I opened it up, followed all the directions, but couldn't figure out anything. (Of course this was in the beginning days of personal computers. No one else had one, but I knew it could make my writing life easier.) Two a.m. I woke up and told my husband we were sending it back. We had a church friend who was selling Kaypro computers. I told him I'd buy one if he helped me learn how to use it. The first one had two floppy disks and I mean floppy, one for what you were writing, the other for the program you were using. The poor man suffered through many a phone call. I bought two more computers from him along with new word processing programs: Word Star then Word Perfect which I still use a lot. Because my publishers all want Word, I have it too--though I don't like it nearly as well as Word Perfect despite the extra features. I've hired computer whiz's to help me switch from one computer to the ne...

Today my Blackberry quit working. I couldn't get the trackball to go up and down. So I took it to the AT &T store to have them fix it. Anyone who knows me knows I never go anywhere without my Blackberry. While there the young salesman (they were all young) talked me into getting an iPhone. Why on earth I succumbed I do not know. I hate learning how to use new things. It looked so easy while he was doing it. When I got it home, I couldn't even figure out how to turn it on. Oh, he put all my information in it, but left it up to me to configure the email. Of course I couldn't do that either. I emailed my Internet server and they emailed me back what to do. Tomorrow my grandson's friend who has an iPhone is coming to show me how to use mine. When all else fails with gizmos and gadgets always find a kid to help out. I'm sure once I play around with this for awhile I'll catch onto how this all works--but I don't need iTunes even though the salesman tol...

We leave on Wednesday for Las Vegas NV. We will be driving--not looking forward to it, it's a horrible drive. Too much traffic, boring scenery. I plan on editing the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree novel which is all done. Once I get it polished, I'll send it on to my publisher then I can get back to Rocky Bluff PD novel in progress. Our first stop (not counting the potty stops we'll have to make because we always begin our trips with an iced flavored coffee from McDonald's)will be at my sister's in Vegas. I love conferences in Vegas because it gives me the opportunity to visit with my sis and her hubby. We'll stay the first night there and leave after lunch for Epicon. What is Epicon? It's the conference for electronically published writers. I was published in e-books long before there were any readers like iPhones and Kindles, even before the first Rocket E-Reader, when to read a book published electronically the only ways to do so was on the computer. Romance ...