Goldies' Computer Camp 2009

Hi,

The Goldies' Computer Camp 2009 marked the end of the ICT month in Sabah. It was a 2-day camp for seniors aged above 55 and 40 of us were selected according to a list of criteria. There were some husband and wife couples attending too.

This weekend was spent learning about FaceBook, the most popular form of social networking.

The venue was at the Sabah Skills and Technology Center and the camp was sponsored by the state government.We were bussed to the Center each morning and in the evening,back to where we had parked our cars.

It was a great outing as we not only learned how to social-network but we also made new friends. On top of that we were fed every 2 hours!! We felt really pampered as the food was good and there was plenty too. The organisers were the Sabah Computer Society and they did a fantastic job.

The lecturers were great and the facilitators were ever so patient with the bunch of us, as we all well know, our senior brains have somewhat slowed down a bit and it takes some time to grasp new things.

The internet connection, however, was below par and our patience was sorely tested as we had to wait for what seemed like ages before we could upload or download ( which is the correct term????)a page.

Nevertheless we learned how to create an event, search for a picture on the net and upload it, invite people to be friends, how to find friends, how to find groups to join, how to create our groups, how to create a page, etc etc etc.

To be given such a learning experience, hands on, and all free to boot, is something we are very grateful for. It also makes us feel that we are not forgotten, or left aside as dinosuars in the present technology-oriented era. As one of the participants pointed out in his speech at the closing ceremony, our children who are so adept with the computer, are not patient enough to teach us and we often get scolded for being slow to grasp things. So this opportunity given to us to learn some skills with the computer is really heaven-sent.

Indeed it was a weekend well-spent, even though it was tiring. We met old friends and made new ones at this camp. Hopefully, we will be selected again to participate next year.

Oh, by the way, I emerged as the first prize winner. I received the champion's trophy, a home media center media player, a mobile hard disc and an optical mouse. There were 3 major prizes and 10 consolation prizes. Everyone left the camp, very happy and satisfied as we all had learned something new. All of us were also presented with a goody bag at registration time on the first day so everyone had something to take home. The blue T-shirt I'm wearing is also given to us so we were wearing "uniforms" so to speak. The minister of the sponsoring ministry gave away the prizes and officially closed the ICT month.

Yeah...!

Hi,

A big yeah.... today. I want to share that my granddaughter, Chloe, announced at dinner time that she has included me on her Facebook!

Wow! Such a lovely surprise it was.

Did I tell you that it was she who calmly told her grandfather that if he wanted to find out anything, he should always ask Google?

And she's all of ten years old. She turned ten in September.

She loves tuning into YouTube where she looks for her favourite singers, gets the lyrics and sings along with the singers.

When I was ten years old, I was still playing "masak-masak" ( playing with toy kitchenware, pretending to cook!!)with my siblings.

Today's generation is amazing. My niece is already teaching her almost 4 year old daughter how to handle the computer! She may yet turn out to be a computer whizz kid.

The youngsters pick up things very quickly while these old, tired brains have a hard time trying to figure out where something she downloaded had disappeared to!

Another incident was even more disheartening. I was in the process of sending a file as an attachment to an email to a friend who wanted to know more about Twitter, when it suddenly disappeared and I can't locate it anymore, not even the original file. So the poor guy won't ever get the Twitter file. I just can't locate where it went. Must be orbiting somewhere in cyberspace. So my friend, if you are reading this, please know that I was sending it to you a second time since you said you didn't receive it the first time. Now it has disappeared forever and I won't even have something to refer to when I forget something. You know what it's like...senior lapses are more often than not, occuring these days.

Talk about forgetting where the car was parked in Mid-Valley ( a huge shopping complex with an equally huge underground carpark )during my last trip to Kuala Lumpur. My spouse was not much better. He remembered the number but not the alphabet preceding it. The car is an old one so we had to use the key to manually lock it, not the type where you just pressed a button and the car would give off a sound thus alerting you to its whereabouts.

Suffice to say that it took us a long time plus a bit of female intuition before we finally located it. My brother then advised," You should have taken a photo of the car and its position with your mobile phone." I wonder how much good that would be. I will try that out next time.

The Beauty of Refreshers

Hi,

You know,there is nothing better than the second time around.

I'm attending a refresher course for basic internet marketing. Why is it better the second time?

You get to revise what you've learnt before and you are able to fill in the blanks where you've missed the first time around.

Understanding and new insights into the topic make it a more pleasurable learning experience Not only is the learning experience better but I also get to make new friends.

So I would recommend that whenever you have a chance to attend refresher courses, go for them. You won't regret it.

Please go to my website http://www.peggy-chan.com to get your freebies.

Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated my younger brother David's birthday. He has turned 54.

How time has flown. It doesn't seem that long ago when he was a toddler, with a tuft of fine baby hair, following the cows back to their cow sheds. We got a good tongue lashing from our mum when she realised that we had been busy playing marbles out on the laterite road instead of keeping an eye on our little brother.

Now he is 54 years old, father of two teenagers.

It was a wet evening with horrendous traffic snarling the roads in Petaling Jaya but my daughter was very skilful in manouvering her way through and we got to the restaurant in time to see my other brother and his family just about to enter the lift.

We had three large tables set in a big room so there was more than ample space for the two little boys Aidan and Ishan to run around in. The rest of the new generation were unable to make it because of prior engagements.

As is the norm for Chinese dinners, it was a gastronomic banquet with course after course of deliious food. The only dish that I didn't partake of was the escargot baked with cheese. I don't take cheese but fortunately my niece Lali didn't mind having my escargot. There was Peking Duck, herbal kampung chicken soup, cod fish, prawns fried in salted egg, the baked escargot, longetivity noodles followed by a dessert of a sea coconut concoction and steamed cake.

He had two birthday cakes last year but this year he had three! All of them had rich chocolate toppings and one came with little cupcakes surrounding it.There was so much cake and food left over that we had quite a few bags of "tah pau". So those who were unable to make it also had their share of the cakes and the prawns.

As is the case, when sisters get together there was lots to talk about especially when we don't all live in Kuala Lumpur. Janet is here having come in from Melbourne, and myself from Kota Kinabalu. The younger generation had their own table where they had their own pow-wow. Of course the two members of the new generation had a whale of a time, running around amusing the older generation with their antics.

Lots of photos were taken and mine have already been uploaded to Facebook. This was an evening to remember and fortunately the roads were also clear of traffic when we headed for our respective homes.

The New Generation

On Sunday evening there was a party to introduce the new generation. My sister Janet had flown in from Ozieland with her two children and two adorable babies who were making their debut in Malaysia.

Joshua Ray and Jade de Run were introduced to their Malaysian family members from both the de Run and the Lim clan. These little ones were the stars that night. Another little 'un had earlier flown in from Hong Kong, Foo Ishan while two others Scarlett and Seth drove up from Singapore with their parents. Aidan Lim is located in Kuala Lumpur. Another little boy, Dylan Uncles is in Melbourne as his mum had just delivered a baby girl Lara. Amelia, Janet's other granddaughter was not able to make the trip to join us. All these youngsters are below four years of age, the new generation.

             Joshua

                    

                                                       Ishan and Jade

                          
                                                                      The Older Generation
                Seth

The older generation has passed on while we, the middle-aged grandparents have taken over that status.

Our sons and daughters are now the younger generation, replacing us. Some of them have yet to marry and begin their families but that will come in time. It is amazing to see how the family tree grows and expands into branches and off-shoots.

It was such a joy to see the little ones making their acquaintances with one another. They bring such joy and are truly blessings from God.

They grow very fast and as we watch the phases they grow through, it also reminds us that we ourselves were once at that stage. Now in the autumn of my life, I wonder how they will turn out.

However I'm confident that with the good values that we, as parents, have imbued into our children, they in turn will pass on those values to theirs. So they will certainly grow up well, guided by their parents. The only regret is that we, the older generation, may not be here to see them when they come into their own, in adulthood. But who knows? God may yet bless us with that opportunity.