Things 1, 2 and 3

You know when you're having a conversation with someone, and they start talking about something technical, and you have no idea what they're talking about, but you just nod and pretend you understand what they're saying? That's a bit how I am with new technologies. I'm not a complete Luddite, I get along fine with surfing the net, and doing bits and bobs on Facebook and whatnot when I want to. And if you give me a Popular Science or Maker magazine, I'll be ecstatic. But trying to convince me to adopt new online habits is a sure way to get my eyes to glaze...

I'm hoping that this training will get me a bit more comfortable with the wider online world. I may not adopt everything I learn here for my own, but I hope to know enough by the end to figure out what I like and don't like and why.

About myself, I'm the mother of an energetic preschooler, an avid reader, an amateur do-it-yourself-er, and a Jack of all trades when it comes to geekdom. If you name a fandom to me, if I'm not into it I will probably know someone who is. I quite enjoy the pride and open acceptance that geekiness and fans have been enjoying in the last couple of years, and my hope is that someday everyone can be geeky in any way they choose without being looked at weirdly by anyone. Even if they choose to dress in costumes when it's not Halloween.

Just to add a bit of librarian-ness to this post, here are a few book recommendations:

In the fiction category, I've recently read Mrs. Queen takes the train, by William Kuhn. It's a fictional look inside the life of our beloved British Monarch, and some of the thoughts and feelings hiding behind the formal façade. In this novel, the Queen decides to take an impromptu trip, which sends members of her household desperately scrambling about, fearing for the worst. Of course her Majesty is in no real danger. After all, they can't target her if they can't recognise her, right?
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13571784-mrs-queen-takes-the-train

In the non-fiction category, Below Stairs, an autobiography by Margaret Powell. She writes about her youth as a kitchen maid, later graduating to a cook in the 1920s. It's a glimpse into the lesser known facts about domestic service in the post-Victorian era, when the recovery from the first world war and the emergence of the flapper era was creating great changes in the world. It's a slim volume which garnered huge success when it was first published, and there is a follow up book titled Climbing the Stairs about Mrs. Powell's ultimately successful efforts to leave domestic service behind.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11966836-below-stairs