Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Sep 24, 2008
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Farewell Dear Friends
Sadly, this looks like being my last Snippet. I must admit I am running short of ideas after all this time. Mind you I have enjoyed writing them, and sometimes when I reach that point where I begin to feel a bit insecure about it all, some-one will post a comment about one of them on my page and that gives me the confidence to keep on writing them.
It all started a few years ago when I first came on to this site, which by the way was by accident, as I was researching the story of a stricken tanker that sank off the coast of Cornwall back in the early seventies. That led me to this site, and I have been here ever since. Anyway, I posted a short funny story in one of the threads and it received a few replies, which kept me interested, so I kept popping back in to check the thread. After a while my confidence grew and I started posting more funny stories in various threads, which also received replies. At the same time I was beginning to make a few friends, so it all grew from there. Then one day I received a message on my home page asking if it would be OK with me if they posted one of my stories into The Post, which I never even knew existed at the time - I soon did as they entered the first one, giving it the title of Smudger Snippets. The reason I never knew anything about The Post was that I never went to the Front Page, as I was still finding my around the site at the time.
Remember when you first started using computers and you learned as you went along? Well, it was someone on here who showed how to copy and paste. I also found and started visiting an ex-service site, where I also learned some more tricks of the trade. On there, I found out how to add favourites, and how to make a list of them. Another place I used to learn a lot from was the Help section, which is on the start up menu of the computer. I spent lots of time in there reading about everything you can do with a computer - I even managed to copy and paste some pages of that information and print it out. By this time I was beginning to gain more confidence on this computer, but as we all know they have their own way of biting back and frustrating us. During one of those times when I had my first major problem, I was put onto a site which is especially for folk with computer problems. I found it very helpful, in fact I still use it to this day. Even though I have come a long way since those early days I have never considered myself an expert in any way, and no matter how long I use computers I don't think I will ever know it all, in fact I am struggling just to keep up with it all these days, as there is always something new coming out.
For instance, I had just mastered the art of burning data to disc to transfer it over to my desk top, when these flash drives came out, which I must admit does make transferring stuff between computers a lot easier. It was the same with mobile phones: just as I had learned how to use one and type in phone numbers, send texts and the like, they came out with these new camera/video phones, then ones with MP3 players on them.
We had bought one of those MP3 players for my wife, as her illness keeps her bed bound for long periods. I had to learn how to transfer music tracks onto it, which fortunately I had gained experience of earlier when I made some music CDs and burned them to discs so that we could play them on our CD player. It was while I was visiting all these sites to learn how to do these things that I also picked up a lot of helpful information on how to solve any problems that came along with carrying out all these procedures. As my experience was building with my computer skills, so was my writing, as up until then I was not all that confident about that. It was the support and responses to my Snippets that folk posted on my page that gave me the confidence to keep writing them. I must admit, though, there were a few times when I was feeling a bit low, and I almost gave up writing them altogether, as I do tend to drift into bouts of depression now and then. They tell me that it is a symptom of the PTSD from my earlier life that I am presently being treated for, and I am not going to argue with them as I have waited for over a year to receive the therapy that I am now attending. One thing I know for a fact: it's the writing of the Snippets that has kept me going during those bad spells, as they gave me an outlet, a chance to put down in writing just what I was feeling at that time. Even one of the poems I had written many years ago was printed in a book, after I had entered it into a competition in our local paper. Those poems that I had posted up on my home page when I first joined this site also received some comments from nice folk on here, which again boosted my confidence.
So all in all this site has been good to me - I even won a H2G2 T shirt which I wear with pride. So if you are reading this, and have got as far as this point, thanks for your support and interest, I really do appreciate it.
