Short Circuit: Why It’s Good to Know People Who Know Technical Stuff

Recently my abilities on the world wide web doubled.  While attending the DFW Writers’ Conference, my roommate and Twitter extraordinaire, Julie Glover, taught me how to resize a photo.

Now, my twitter profile picture actually looks like me!  It was kind of fun though, having an online makeover.  I went from long hair and bangs to a short pixie cut!  And of course, Julie ran wild with it on twitter, telling everyone she cut my hair in the hotel room last night.  LOL.

Actual picture of Me and Julie at the DFW Conference
(image from avclub.com)

With a little help from Julie, I was feeling brave and clicky!  I went to edit my profile and figured out how to upload a photo of mine as my background!  Now when you view my twitter page, you can see the view from the bluffs, overlooking Myrick Marsh!  A favorite hiking spot of mine.

Then there was Jillian Dodd, who taught Julie and I about Search Engine Optimization.  She links her name to her book title, or to key themes of her blogs, as well as the phrases themselves to best help people find her online.  We got into an interesting discussion all about SEO.  I’m still no expert, so if you want to know more about it, read Kristen Lamb’s post Search Engines – Your Personal Genie to Build Your Author Brand.

Jillian invites me over the SEO Darkside!
(image from wikipedia.org)

Jillian also shared with us how much of her blog reading and twitter comments she does from her phone!

Eh? What’s that you say?
(image from cracked.com)

I know, right?  Using your phone as your office on the go!  That’s ingenious!  She must work for Apple.

So, now, yours truly downloaded the WordPress app, and I’m loving it!  Now, I use my lunch hour at the dreaded day job to read and comment on your blogs!  Or to reply to comments I receive!  Now, I don’t feel like I’m running to my computer to catch up anymore once I’m home.

But, I didn’t stop there!  Oh no!  I downloaded the WP app for my kindle, and also downloaded the Kindle for PC app on my computer.  I needed it when I had to try to transfer a .mobi file onto my kindle and after wasting an hour, *head desk*, realized I couldn’t do it cause I didn’t have the adapter plug in.  However, I can now access those files and all my downloaded books on my computer as well as my kindle!  What sweet, sweet ease!

Now I can start plotting to take over the world! (image from google images)

Lastly, more thoughtful advice came from Julie when I asked her how she learned how to do all this stuff?  I always feel so clueless.  And I won’t lie, I am totally that individual that won’t click on any buttons they don’t know cause I BELIEVE my computer will self destruct.  I’m that paranoid cautious.

You know what she does?  She YouTubes it!  She looks for tutorials or blog posts that walk you through how to do it.  I LOVE THIS IDEA!  I’m such a visual learner!

(image from izismile.com)

I don’t know why I never thought of that, but I’m so happy Julie did.  And I’m even more happy that Julie shared it with me.

So, what’s my guilty pleasure this week?  It’s people.  People who know Technological-techy-computer-kindle-phone stuff.  They’re good peeps. 

What’s your latest guilty pleasure or tech lesson?