Quote From My Life: It’s parental help desk time again!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by SloanParker

Mom was having trouble signing into her computer. She called me for help and this was the explanation I received in her most serious tone.

“The password box is there and the little cursor is cursing, but I can’t type anything!”

Thank God a reboot fixed the issue. Because I couldn’t say anything for several minutes while I just laughed at her cursing cursor.

I do appreciate the little laugh-filled breaks my parents offer on the days when I’m locked in the writing cave.

(Blog note: Starting next week I’m going to be changing my blog schedule to Wednesdays and Fridays. Actually I shouldn’t call it a schedule. I don’t stress over making sure I post every so often since writing my fiction is my main priority every week, but I have fun with the blog so I like having specific days on my schedule as a reminder to post. Also, for those of you on email subscriptions, I switched to a new email RSS service called MailChimp. Anyone previously signed up to receive the blog posts via email through Google Feedburner or WordPress have been automatically transferred to the new service. Hopefully no one is getting duplicate posts in your email, but if you are, you can always unsubscribe from one of them using the link in the email. The MailChimp version is the new one you’d want to keep. If anyone else would like to sign up to receive these posts by email, you can use the form on the homepage of my website. There’s also one there for my newsletter.)

Uh-oh Dad’s Downloading More Books On His Kindle

Posted on June 25, 2012 by SloanParker

Non-techie Dad called again for help with his Kindle. If you recall, I’ve mentioned his issues before. This time he hadn’t even started downloading the book yet. Guess he wanted to be on the phone with me IN CASE he had issues. Which he did. Here’s how it went…

He says he’s all ready to download the book…

Me: “When the next box pops up, go ahead and click Save.”

Dad: “Okay, I clicked to download it. Do I click Save?”

Me: “Yes, click Save.”

Dad: “Okay. I think I’ve got it. Let me put it on my Kindle and I’ll call you back.”

Ring.

Dad: “I can’t find the book on my computer.”

Me: “Where did you save it when you clicked Save?”

Dad: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Okay, let’s do a search.” I told him the steps to perform a search for all the kindle files on his laptop (he hasn’t read that many so it shouldn’t be too hard to find the new one). Once he had the search window up, I told him what to type. He had to key in 5 characters.

Dad: “Hold on, I have to use both hands.” I heard him set the phone down and press the five keys with a long pause between each one. He picked up the phone again. “It’s searching.”

Me: “What did it find?”

Dad: “Just the books I’ve already read.” He proceeded to read me everything he could see about the files. The names, the dates saved, even the file sizes. “172 KB, whatever that means.”

Me: “But not the book you want to read?”

Dad: “No.”

Turns out he had selected the Adobe file, not the Kindle option that takes you through Amazon to borrow a book. So he had to do it all over again.

When he was ready to download the correct file…

Me: “When the dialog box comes up, click Save.”

Dad: “Okay.” Long pause. “I clicked to download it. Okay, a box comes up, do I click Save or Find?”

In my head: Save, save, for the love of God, click SAVE.

He cracks me up!!

Uh-oh, Non-techie Dad got a Kindle for Christmas

Posted on February 1, 2012 by SloanParker

If you’ve followed me on Twitter or Facebook you might’ve seen that I occasionally like to poke fun at my parents. I adore them immensely, but they just say and do the funniest stuff. It’s hard to resist. Plus, my family is known for teasing those we love. Not sure I’ve ever shared some of their funnier moments here on the blog. I figured it was time to remedy that.

My dad’s incredibly smart, especially when it comes to repairing things and working out problems, which is what makes this story even funnier. He also has this little problem of not listening after he asks a question.

So, he got a Kindle for Christmas. He’s been wanting to try out reading e-books and this past year libraries started offering e-book loans for the Kindle. He doesn’t have the 3G version or wireless at home, so I gave him the instructions for loading a library book onto his Kindle via USB. In an effort not to confuse him, I read the instructions right off the website while he followed along with the first book.

It went great. He was reading on his Kindle in no time.

Then…

He tried to load his second book.

He ran into a few problems and gave me a call. Here’s how the conversation went.

Dad: When I click to get the book, it says Save or Find. Do I click to save it?

Me: Yes, then drag it to the Documents folder on the Kindle.

Dad: Okay, I’ll try it and call you back if it doesn’t work.

A few minutes later…

Ring…

Dad: So I drag it to the Kindle?

Me: Yes. Into the Documents folder.

Dad: Okay. I did that. Let me unhook the Kindle and see if it’s there. I’ll call you back.

Ring…

Dad: When I plug in my Kindle the book is there, but when I look at the Kindle it’s not.

Me: When you plug it into the computer, you see the file on the Kindle?

Dad: Yes, it’s there on my Kindle’s homepage.

Me: What homepage?

Dad: The one I see when I UBS the Kindle.

Me: (trying desperately not to laugh at “U B S”) Did you put it in the Documents folder?

Dad: Yes.

Me: In the actual Documents folder on the Kindle?

Dad: Yes.

Me: Okay, when the Kindle window opens on your computer, what do you see?

Dad: Let me plug it in and I’ll call you back.

Ring…

Dad: Okay, I have the Kindle with the UBS to the computer. It says… (reads from the screen the list of directories on the Kindle then below those the name of the book he’s trying to load)

Me: Okay, that means it’s not in the Documents folder.

Dad: Oh, okay. So I put it in the Documents folder?

Me: Yes, just drag it to the Documents folder.

Dad: Okay, let me try that and then check the Kindle again. I’ll call you back if it doesn’t work.

Ring…

Dad: It worked! I guess you have to put it in the Documents folder. The Kindle didn’t load it unless it was in that folder.

Me: Ah, that must be it!