Indeed it has been a great start to the year, and there by the grace of God it is certainly getting better, man. (Why am I inserting two post-britpop titles in that one sentence?)
This one miracle started to become clear to me in Day 4 (of this round of Fasting + Prayer for the year) that the veil that has blinded my eyes & the muffs that covered my ears has been lifted away by His power.
I shall attempt to guide my mom to blog. Yes!
[6th February]
I shall attempt to guide my mom to blog. Yes!
[6th February]
She had been writing to publishers of various types with her recipes , stories and testimonials for years; inevitably her snail submissions dwindled as years go by as even some editors wrote (and sent her letters back) to tell her to re-send a typed and subsequently in electronic .
However, I found out late last year that she did migrate to computer at a time 5-6 years ago; as my late sister taught her to use the computer and some chinese input device complete with software.
However, I found out late last year that she did migrate to computer at a time 5-6 years ago; as my late sister taught her to use the computer and some chinese input device complete with software.
Of course with the advent and abundance of tech these days there's just so many ways to go around getting your thoughts onto the screen. For much of the year I've been caught up and stuck to no avail on how to go about this, it is a given that we (hoomans, or maybe just lazy me) have been conditioned to the norm; and I've certainly given much thought on looking out for decent-sized tablet rather than the much heavier Note 10.1 ( I think) that is a bit too bulky to Ma's liking. Of course, with my being shrewder by the weeks I kind of resigned myself to nonchalantly half-eyed looking out for promotional deals of tablets/ or those lower end wide screened smartphones; and reading up on various alternate methods on the output (there was a time I considered writing on a tab and displaying on the spare telly) and even the older way of getting those USB-powered stylus pads (that didn't happen as I was pretty put off by the simplistic and shady description from the e-vendors)
Anyhow, armed with a clear vision from my meditation, I recalled that one time I showed her my weblog and I went home in a fury to tell her to clear her time the next day. We switched cooking days and by the afternoon I started my grand scheme when she was ready. She was absolutely delighted and of course both of us were astonished that it was just lying around in front of our eyes and not to see it on how easy the solution was.
A month down the road; she has been pretty constant in her weblog of her various recipes and of course; I am still trying to get her to start to blog about something else rather than recipes,ie; her many stories, her many testimonials of the wonders of Christ , etc.
I am surprised at her keeping up the habit and resolution to write a single piece a day, something that I can't do and will (chiefly because I'd justify that mine needs timing and structure) and of course, hers are composed of simplistic instructions (as rather my nonsensical comments folded onto most of my recipes anyway) but I suppose that works; keeping it simple for people to actually read. Oh well.
To date, she has about 18 posts in these 5-6 weeks, she did stop for 2 weeks or so during CNY period and also whenever we travel.
I've switched her to compose in Google Keep (since the auto-save function works dead well) and I'll manually transfer it over to her blog on the computer; since pictures were taken from my phone, with additional photo editing. This setup works the best at the moment, along the way I had to resort to mailing the pics to her gmail and that's just 2 steps extra and sometimes 3 if done up on smartphones of varying degrees. Once it is published; the automation from IFTTT kicks in to share on her facebook; and it's the final step of looking that post up from the tablet and showing it to her (since it's the bigger screen; and I'm not that keen to fire up the 2nd telly to show her anyway,ha!)
I am sure some day I'll find a better way to minimize all this extra steps, but I am happy this keeps her occupied (no, she is a very busy woman with her many to-do things on her daily plate) with something she likes to do but circumstances denied her and it certainly gave her the joy to share her recipes in (the relative forever) cyberspace;somehow.
Oh, this post takes too long to post (ref: this laptop was in the shop for 5 weeks) , this is a good opportunity to test out the back-dating function!
A month down the road; she has been pretty constant in her weblog of her various recipes and of course; I am still trying to get her to start to blog about something else rather than recipes,ie; her many stories, her many testimonials of the wonders of Christ , etc.
I am surprised at her keeping up the habit and resolution to write a single piece a day, something that I can't do and will (chiefly because I'd justify that mine needs timing and structure) and of course, hers are composed of simplistic instructions (as rather my nonsensical comments folded onto most of my recipes anyway) but I suppose that works; keeping it simple for people to actually read. Oh well.
To date, she has about 18 posts in these 5-6 weeks, she did stop for 2 weeks or so during CNY period and also whenever we travel.
I've switched her to compose in Google Keep (since the auto-save function works dead well) and I'll manually transfer it over to her blog on the computer; since pictures were taken from my phone, with additional photo editing. This setup works the best at the moment, along the way I had to resort to mailing the pics to her gmail and that's just 2 steps extra and sometimes 3 if done up on smartphones of varying degrees. Once it is published; the automation from IFTTT kicks in to share on her facebook; and it's the final step of looking that post up from the tablet and showing it to her (since it's the bigger screen; and I'm not that keen to fire up the 2nd telly to show her anyway,ha!)
I am sure some day I'll find a better way to minimize all this extra steps, but I am happy this keeps her occupied (no, she is a very busy woman with her many to-do things on her daily plate) with something she likes to do but circumstances denied her and it certainly gave her the joy to share her recipes in (the relative forever) cyberspace;somehow.
Oh, this post takes too long to post (ref: this laptop was in the shop for 5 weeks) , this is a good opportunity to test out the back-dating function!