This post will read more like a diary entry. Don't expect it to be anything wonderful, clever or terribly insightful. Don't expect too much and you might find at least a keeper in there somewhere.
Today is, I think, March 26th, Tuesday. I think I'm a pretty smart guy. One of my hobbies is playing shogi. I like to say I'm the best shogi player in Australia, neither knowing whether that is actually true, or more to the point, has any meaning whatsoever. It's like saying someone is the best Polish speaking ballet dancer in the Australian rugby league team. Or wow that is the greenest kangaroo I've ever seen. In other words, if those other entities do exist, there aren't too many of them.
But I like shogi. Its a Japanese game that's a bit like chess. Its an example of what are called unsolved games. A simple example of a solved game is something like Tic tac toe or noughts and crosses or maru batsu or whatever you want to call it. Even as a child it didn't take long to figure out that there must be a perfect strategy for tic tac toe, one which would result in never losing, and always capitalising on the other person's mistakes. Unsolved games, in contrast, are games where no-one knows what the perfect response to any one move is. To determine the best way to play a game, computers generate a list of the best possible moves in response to others, following through the various counter responses as far as computer logic permits. Western chess is getting pretty close to being solved, as demonstrated by Garry Kasparov's loss to a computer program called Deep Blue. For those unfamiliar with Kasparov, he has had the highest number of ranking points of any chess player at any time in history. And he held those ranking points, and the position as the world champion for well over 10 years. By any measure, he would be considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Yet, on those days, he was unable to beat the computer. The most famous unsolved game is Go and shogi, Japanese chess, probably sits in between the two in terms of difficulty. There are a couple of reasons why shogi is in some ways harder than chess. The main one I think is this: after capturing the other person's piece, it is able to be used against the opponent. It's like capturing a rook and being able to place it on the board again, in any place, and at any time. This means the board is never really simplified. And I'm good at this thing. I do mating problems at my coffee shop, as a hobby. I play a pretty good game of shogi.
So what am I doing here? Am I simply boasting? No, I'm not. I want to make a point. If someone as logical and intelligent as me can't use a lot of new technology without experiencing frustration and in fact anger, a lot of people must feel the same. You should see me kicking the table, but not hard enough to hurt myself, or shouting at these machines or gently coaxing them to perform. One day I'll tell you about how I broke the laminating machine on my last day of work, accidentally of course. Importantly, no lasting damage was done. My vice principle and the curriculum co-ordinator helped me get the job done, with me acting mainly in a supervisory capacity. Basically, I had no idea what to do, so I watched these two wonderful men fix the machine. They sacrificed their time and put all other duties on hold, just so I could remake Mario Certificattes for my students Fu and Ayaka. Oh, I just told you.
So what kind of difficulties do I experience with technology. Let's just start with the websites I'm trying to use today. So, I've strated this blog now, but who knows that it exists? Who is reading it? Not too many people given the lack of comments thus far (thanks friends and family :) please let me know I'm not all on my own here with this thing- just write some comments, please). In the Internet world, generating traffic is the key to success. Exposure is what its all about. One suggested way of doing this is to link your blog to Google + or so I have read. Yes, I can read. I was trying to do this, as well as to get my photos up on my blog, and so far without any luck. So, I thought, well, I'm trying to write about social media, about one technophobe's journey down the rabbit hole of the web- let's see what else is out there. I've already been through this process once before with gmail and my other server. It tends to end in disappointment. I guess the other reason I want to start another blog is because I have a lot of projects I am interested in doing. I would like to do something quasi heroic like read a book a day for literacy, and to publish on that topic as well. Kind of an A J Jacobs thing, if you know who that is. For those who don't he wrote one book called my year of living Jewishly, or something, and another about reading the Encyclopedia Brittainica over the course of a year. It's not bad stuff but becomes a bit much, over time.
In any case, next I tried to join Wordpress which comes highly recommended. The first limitation comes when you want to give your blog a name. A lot of the things I was interested in calling the blog were already taken. Next, I have to make a password. All of the Passwords I suggest are said to be too weak. In another words, they don't have enough @#%&*! symbols, to steal a little bit of Aimee Mann. The1y ne5ed67 mo43e or4 w8nt mo59e @#%&*! numbers. See, those are the best passwords: the ones you can't remember. Oh I foRgOt, it'S alSO a GR8 ideA to have lots of random small and capital letters. So then, I finally made a password, something like ToyPoodle4 Eva, and I wrote my first entry. Just generic stuff, about myself and why I'm writing the blog. Then I pressed publish, and wala, away I was, I was actually doing this I HAD CHOSEN TO FLY! with Wordpress! Except, I had a couple of small problems. I had the blog, it was mine, I had rewritten my first entry, ALL RIGHT,... but I couldn't find it, sigh. Oh, well.
My actual page looks a bit like this
< > 4 grantseraph11.wordpress.com/ Yahoo!
grantseraph11 Smile! You're at the best
WordPress.com site ever
A Beautiful picture of a fcouple of fricking leaves
Not Found
Apologies, but no results were found.
etc...
Actually, the whole title of the Aimee Man album I am talking about is called @#%&*! Smilers
and I have tried to become one, I really have. I even ended my first Wordpress entry with the ill chosen words, or maybe decent enough reminders to self and others to "Smile a little bit : )!"
After my initial failure, I wrote another entry, a longer one, about half a page. That didn't turn up either. So I switched from my Ipad to my Desktop and tried to log in to my new Wordpress account. I couldn't remember my password. Actually, I think I remember it perfectly, but how on earth can anyone verify that. It must be close but what with the symbols (1), the capitals(3) and the numbers(1), I must have got something wrong. I think they are trying to protect my account from being hacked into. Well, what would a hacker do with it? Probably read it, maybe, hopefully. My pass word is zxcvbnm1, there you go, that's one of the weakest ones on the net, please break in and read my thoughts, quickly, before I change the password.
So then, I tried to reset my password. I received an email telling me "Someone recently requested that the password be reset for grant seraph11 (Uh, I 'fess up, man. That would have been me, actually. Yes, I did that. I'm sorry. I won't do it again: but what happened to the smiling: ) ?) Anyway, I'm glad I'm onto that one now. So all I have to do is "click this button" The blue one, that says Reset Password. Click. Done it. A new screen comes up. I have either Lost my Password or am Unable to Reset it. I might read the guide to resetting password because I can click on that now. So let's try that. Click.Wow, now I have entered the
Support page section on Passwords. I think I've lost mine, so let's click Lost Password. Click. Good, now I've got two options 1) Visit the Lost Password page or 2) Get New Password. Let's try both. Behind door number one. I'm back to the old page, and I can read the guide again. Bugger it, Let's just go the box that says
Username or Email
................................................................................
Get new password.
Allright, let's do that. I will enter my password and click the box. I think I'm behind Door Number 2 already. On the next screen, I have to enter my "Email or Username" and then my "Password". But what will happen if I do? Do I enter a new one, or the one I can't remember? That's a fairly legitimate question. Let's try a new one. After that I should click Log In. I have a new password, for all you hackers out there, it's called WhateverMan#1! Let's try. Done with the details. Click Log In. No, I have made an "ERROR: The password (I) entered for the email or username grantseraph11 is incorrect. Lost your password?" I am helpfully asked. Yes, I'm sorry about that. Let's click on that one because I clearly don't know what my password is. Click. New screen. The Lost password page. Follow three simple steps 1. Enter your WordPress.com username or email address etc 2. I can wait for my recovery details to be sent 3. Follow instructions and be reunited with my WordPress.com account.
But, if I want more help they have a full guide to resetting your passord. I like reading, so I'll do that. Yep, I'm back at the Support page. Let's go back to the last page Down the bottom it says Username or Email, so do I do that again, and then click Get New Password. Probably not. I think I know what will happen, but I can't see any other options. I am reading and writing down this process as I do it on my Ipad. So using my I Pad, I will give my email. Next Screen. I'm feeling excited because it says "Check your email for the confirmation link. Please choose your password carefully, using these tips. Whatever man, I'm number one. No actually, I won't use that one but a very simple one I won't forget. Down the bottom, it asks me to enter my email in one bar. Done. And a password in the bar below ************** Done. Now click Log In. Done. New page says Server maintenance and asks me not to touch my browser for a few minutes. Now that's funny. This is all true. I'm going to have a coffee now, and to wait as I have been told.
POSTSCRIPT
I can be somewhat impatient, and finally I received some concret help from the good team at Wordpress. I am not trying to hate on them in this writing. If one reads reviews of blogging tools, Wordpress is often recommended as the number 1, 2 or 3 tool of choice for bloggers everywhere. I do think though in this world where literacy itself is an issue, in a world filled with beautiful, smiling, friendly, open, warm and caring Special Needs children, we should be making this process as simple as possible. I went to live in a world where the web is for everyone, even plebs like me, and ended up in this one. (Originally went was just a typo, and I meant to write want; just thought I'd say something clever.) Smile a little bit : )!
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