Geocaching and Wrap up

I had problems doing this part because I don't have a GPS or a fancy mobile phone and I don't intend to get either.  Let me say that I don't like the assumption that my friends have them, because not everyone spends their money on keeping up with the latest trend.  Also, I don't like the assumption that I even have friends.  I am an old, bitter and twisted woman (much like Ma Fratelli in The Goonies) who enjoys treasure hunts.  Maybe I don't want to understand what this device is all about because I don't want to let go of my paper map.  I want to walk 10 steps to the left near the rock that's shaped like a giant cradle..., not to be directed to some co-ordinate.  What's happened to the romance of the paper map?  The map that's burnt at the edges and has been folded so many times that when it falls to the ground it compacts like a piece of origami.  Sometimes it has been stuck down the front of someone's blouse, or hidden in a secret compartment in a carved walking stick.  And it's sticky and smells of perfume and wood and sweaty hands.

I've come to the end of this course and you must agree I've been pretty good up till now.  I've joined this and that and commented till my fingers have frozen in a permanent claw.  However, I cannot get rid of the sickening taste in my mouth.  The more I interact with computers the more I loathe them.   Last week at the gym a trainer told me that I had a flat arse because I'd forgotten how to communicate with it.  Look, here I am learning about wikis, blogs, widgets (by the way, pat my cat on its head and it meows), tweets, podcasts, and meanwhile I've forgotten how to interact with my arse. 

Thank you to Swan Libraries for organising this course.  It's introduced me to a lot of things I didn't know.  But now that I know about them I'm choosing to forget.  This course was a wake up call for me.  It convinced me that I don't want all the new gadgets that are available online, because there will always be more and more gadgets and hey, when will I ever be satisfied?  It's like children and their new toys.  How long do they play with them before they discover there are brighter, shinier toys out there.  I don't want lots of friends on Facebook or need to communicate with the world in short and meaningless Tweets.  I don't want to be part of this techno consumerism and I'm opting out.   Being satisfied with who you are (flat arsed crone) and what you already have is more important to me.

PS:  My recommendation for a future course is Writing for the Web.