The virtual mailbox

I worked on a newsletter today and I am about ready to go put my feet up.

Years ago, when I was doing newsletters for some organizations I belonged to (and still belong to some) I did them in Adobe PageMaker and then printed them out and mailed them. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I finally learned how to set up a data base and print out the address labels.

Later on, I learned to design the newsletter in Word and then I could attach it to an email and send it out into the ether where it miraculously ended up in people's mailboxes. The ones on their computer, of course, not the one at the end of their driveway. This was after more people got computers and email accounts. For awhile I was emailing some and snail mailing the rest. By now, though, most people have email.

But then people upgraded on got different versions of Word or didn't have Word at all but some other word processing program. Not everyone could open the newsletter, so I learned to convert it to a .pdf and send it that way.

Recently, a suggestion was made that I send the newsletter via Mail Chimp. This program allows you to select a template and fill the blanks with your articles and pictures and then send it, not as an attachment, but in the body of the newsletter. Everyone can get it and they don't have to open or download a file.

Simple.

Except I forget from one month to the next how to do it. Today I thought I was finished three times and three times my work got all messed up or disappeared completely.Then I remembered, duh, how I did last month's. I'm going to write it down so I don't forget next month.

Old dogs can learn new tricks, it just takes us longer.

I can't wait to see what the next new big thing is. I suppose I will have to learn to send the darn thing by mental telepathy.

What I do when I should be writing

I love Facebook. I know some people hate it, but when there is nothing on TV, I like to scroll down and watch informational videos.

I mean, if I didn't look at Facebook I would never have known the marshmallow farmers in North Carolina are in trouble because of all this rain:

But I mostly like cat photos. There are lots and lots of cat photos and videos. I like the one where the chubby cats try to squeeze themselves into tiny boxes.

Yes, I'm easily amused.

My youngest son's cats, Moe and Odie, have their own Facebook page. He takes photos of his two cats and they are adorable.

Now, I happen to own the mother of one of those cats, so I have a proprietary interest. So I have been attempting to take a picture of her doing something cute and photogenic.

The trouble is, what she does best is sleep beneath our bed. It's a little hard to get a good shot and the best I've gotten is two scary eyes glowing from under the box springs.

There are two morals to this story:

I am not ever going to be famous on Facebook for my cute cat videos.

I am wasting too much time on Facebook.

Have a great week!