Afraid of My Computer

And here I thought I was getting along swimmingly with technology (except for the usual once- or twice-per-year disasters, each of which involves 2-3 days of fooling around with the stuff, followed by paying around $1000, usually, either for new software or new hardware or some tech guy to make a house call).

Then I decided I would get my own internet site, and switch my blog to the supposedly superior Wordpress software. Turns out that my skills are somewhere around kindergarten level... I kept trying to do things that (I thought) should be simple, such as upgrading to new versions of the software, or putting links on the page... and I would, after much effort, find helpful directions explaining cheerfully that each of these tasks WAS in fact very easy (!), and then the "simple" instructions would be set forth, entirely incomprehensible to me. So I went to Amazon, and bought "Wordpress For Dummies." It has been sitting on my desk, open to the page that explains FTP, for about a week now. I admit that I am afraid of FTP.

Not being entirely undone by my fear of FTP, however, I next decided to fix my internet connection so that the two of us who live in this house could each use the high-speed connection on separate computers. Lovely idea; seemed easy enough. Accordingly, two very nice guys arrived this morning, and then they left, and now I have all kinds of additional cables and wires on my desk, and on the floor under my desk, and a new box sitting amidst the clutter, sending out (for all I know) all my passwords and credit card numbers, and so forth, to anyone who wants them, 24 hours a day. Plus I keep getting error messages saying that my IP address is no good and I will have limited connectivity.

However: Don't bother sitting in my driveway tonight with your laptop, OK?. I have unplugged the new box, and am awaiting further assistance.