24 good life, february -march, april 2011 c l u t t e r b u s t i n g OKAY, you ve got to promise not to laugh, but after years of fighting the tide, I have finally decided to go with the flow.
In the Tatman household at least, 2011 will hitherto be known as the Year of the App.
My New Year s resolution is to embrace modern technology and man am I off to a great start not Picture if you will, the following scenario.
Not long out of bed, your bleary-eyed columnist, clad only in her most disreputable pjs is waiting impatiently for the kettle to boil.
Spare child as opposed to heir child , has been bouncing around the house for hours because, let s face it, you don t waste school holidays by having a sleep in, and has turned the computer on to update his status I m awake .
Mum, Mum some dude called Heathen is video calling on Skype, what do I do .
Now, in his defence, Skype is a relatively new phenomenon in Casa Tatman about 48hrs old at the time of this tale so the spare s reaction was understandable although I may have to get his eyes checked .
My reaction however, was as follows OMG see how with it I am , it must be Heather, my English pen pal I don t actually know any Heathens I haven t seen her in the flesh for more than ten years AND I HAVEN T EVEN BRUSHED MY HAIR Thankfully, our connection was too slow for super clear video and I m hoping the resultant pixilation concealed a multitude of sins, but it was a timely reminder that technology never sleeps And before you ask, yes I do have a couple of old-fashioned snail mail style pals much to my children s amusement , and yes, I am well aware that it is possible to pick up the telephone and speak in real time to folk who live on the other side of the planet, but I am sufficiently old- fashioned not to do it very often.
So Skype has proved something of a revelation, albeit a rather embarrassing one Next on the hit list was Facebook.
In lieu of a Christmas present this oops, last year, I asked the heir child as opposed to the oh, for goodness sake chill out, I m JOKING to set up my account.
Now, I have no doubt I have bored at least some of you with my soapbox rant about why Facebook is the work of the devil and how the whole if you ve got time to lean, you ve got time to clean ethos McDonalds staff training manual circa 1984 applies equally to staying in touch with friends.
But well as it turns out, all my friends are doing it.
I remain utterly mystified how 14-year-olds can possibly have 717 friends without a serious lack of quality control, but nevertheless, I did greet my first official friend request with some rather indecorous shrieking to the tune of Look Look I ve got a friend I ve got a friend Hang on, wait a minute, I ve got TWO .
.
I should probably add that there were teenagers present in the house at the time and the look on their faces was well, let s just say that for everything else, there s MasterCard.
And while the whole Facebook phenomenon is strangely addictive, I still support the basic premise that if you ve got time to update your status and upload a few photos of your new chooks say hello Eadie and Maude , you ve probably got time to phone a friend.
I first dipped my toe into the blogosphere last year when a pal tipped me off to the guilty pleasure that is the delightful Faux Fuchsia.
FF, as she is known to her legions of devoted followers, is an anonymous Queensland-based solicitor whose posts have become an integral part of my day.
I was so thrilled to read news of her pregnancy the other week that for a brief moment I completely forgot that we actually don t know each other And as often happens in the real world, my faux- friendship with Faux Fuchsia resulted in another pretend friend the wise-cracking Blighty.
Blighty started life as a regular commenter on FF s site, but following relentless hounding along the lines of You re hilarious, you should have a blog , she gave in and started one.
And yes, I ve been a devoted reader since day one.
It still amazes me just how many funny, creative people are out there, putting their lives online for our reading and viewing pleasure.
The whole thing makes my mother distinctly nervous as do ATM machines, I might add but I actually think a good blog is a pertinent reminder that there is indeed far more that unites us than divides us even if it is the sheer unmitigated joy of children going back to school after the holidays Blighty or simply the horror that is chipped nail polish FF .
I mentioned to a friend the other day that I was seriously considering starting a blog of my own.
You know, it would be kind of fun just to sit at a computer and tap away, writing about all the totally random see, I do have teenagers stuff that pops into my head and seeing who reads it She looked at me quite oddly I wonder why - KAREN TATMAN The Year of the App GoodLife - Peninsula Style Like Karen in Clutterbusting theGoodLife - Peninsula Style has discoveredfacebook FOLLOW US and receive the latest information on GoodLife new issues special offers charity luncheslocal events.
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