Toot, Toot

Copied below is a post I shared on my GeniAus Blog on Monday about joining up to a community on Mastodon. You can find my profile in the toot.community here: https://toot.community/web/@JillBallAu

Since Monday I have added to my Following list at Mastodon and picked up more Followers. I have experimented with two Android apps so I can toot (post) from my phone. I am experimenting with creating lists of tooters to follow (time-consuming), so far I have Genies (family history enthusiasts) and Aussies.

I need to learn more than just the basics but have generally found the platform quite intuitive.  

Monday's Post follows.

Tooting

Since Twitter's recent purchase by Elon Musk I am wondering what lies ahead for that platform. Many people in the Twitterverse are predicting dark days ahead for this platform. I hope these predictions are baseless and I can keep tweeting.

I'm a believer in INSURANCE (car, health, house, travel etc.). It didn't take me too long to arrange some insurance in case I find that changes that will come to Twitter under its new ownership unpalatable.  

Yesterday Daniel Loftus in Ireland was recommending  Mastodon as a viable Twitter alternative in his Twitter feed. As I know Daniel is a cluey chap who is on top of tech issues I joined up to one of the Mastodon servers. I discovered that several of my genimates had already joined the #TwitterExodus or put a contingency plan in place by setting up an  account on Mastodon. 

My Profile needs some more editing

It didn't take long for me to join up and get the hang of this new-to-me platform, I've still a lot to learn but I think I'm going to like it. I have been working on my laptop with the desktop app but last night I also installed the Android app on my phone. 

By this morning I had built up a small list of interesting folk to follow. Once I found some people that I knew on Mastodon I checked their lists of followers/following to add people to my list - easy. 

If you join up to any Mastodon server you can follow me via this link : @JillBallAu@toot.community

If you are on Twitter and need an Insurance Policy how about Tooting with me?

The Print Shop

Back in the 80s when we owned not one but two Commodore 64 computers one of our fave software packages was The Print Shop. We used this innovative product to produce birthday cards and banners and to tart up school projects and my university assignments. 

Today on Facebook one of my children shared this link that tells of the resurrection of the Print Shop, his siblings promptly joined him in a trip down memory lane. One of them even suggested that I would probably have some precious artefacts in my collection that were produced using the program. I denied this but, on reflection, realised that there are probably a few of those treasures in the family archives.

In the interim I will share a couple of photos from my working life that display some Print Shop projects. As my place of employment didn't have such clever applications as The Print Shop I used to produce these at home to take into work.

GeniAus at Work - Book Week 1987

GeniAus at Work - 1988 Bicentenary event

Missing Millie

We had a lovely week with our recent fluffy little houseguest. Mr GeniAus said yesterday that he was missing Millie and so am I.

Millie and GeniAus

Little Miss...

I haven't had much time for myself lately as my Mum has been poorly and I have been seeing to her needs. Today she has turned a corner and I am feeling in a much better place.

My mate Kirsty Gray posted this link on Facebook to a fun little quiz. I followed the link and here is the result I got.

New string to my bow

Genius Geniaus at work

I am always keen to try something new so when I was recently approached to write a genealogy software review for a magazine I jumped at the opportunity.

I was thrilled to hear back from the Editor today "fabulous, this is spot on. Thanks so much!".

Hopefully this will be the first of many reviews I am invited to write.

Retrospectives

I need to apologise to the few odd people who subscribe to this blog.  While I was travelling I just didn't have time to post as many items as  I wished - we were just having too much fun.

You may have noticed some posts from days gone by appearing here. There are some memories, people and places that we visited that I want to record for posterity and this blog is as good a place as any for that. Hence, as I have time and the inclination, I am putting up a few posts dated when they happened that will appear in their proper sequence in my list of posts.

Hope these retrospectives aren't too much of a bother to you.

At work in Costa Rica

Blogarrhoea

Do I really need another Blog? Am I suffering from Blogarrhoea?

I don't need another blog but ...........my active blogs Geniaus and Android Genealogy are targetted towards my friends in genealogy. Sometimes I'd like to post about my travels, the books I've read, the things that bug me and the performances I've seen. Sometimes I'd just like to share a photo that doesn't fit in with the theme of my Men at Work blog. I don't want to clog up my genimates blog feeds with off topic posts that could be regarded as spam.  

When I am travelling I publish a few photos and updates to Facebook and when something tickles my fancy I write about it there too. Aggregating these Facebook items in one stream is not easy.

Recently I have been following and enjoying Jackie van Bergen's new blog, Jax Trax. As a genealogist I see the value of leaving a personal blog like Jackie's as a resource for future generations. Jackie's blog has been the catalyst for my decision to pollute the blogisphere with yet another blog.

Look out blogisphere here comes jillballau.