Walk into any bookstore today and there will be row after row of self-improvement books. Improve your self-esteem, improve your vocabulary, improve your spelling etc, etc, etc. Just plop down a measly $29.95 and tomorrow will find a better you. Of course for just $19.95 you can get your hands on Grumbles From The Keyboard, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer which is written for normal people and not the technogeeks with their separate language and magic fingers. If you are in need of serious improvement this can get to be pretty expensive. (Martha, where’s the credit card?) But like any project, large or small, it must be tackled in small pieces. Let’s take a look at some little pieces that your computer can help you with.
One skill that is invaluable today is the ability to type. Yes, I know the present term is “keyboarding” but in my school years it was called typing. And like anything we do, the secret to doing it well is testing ourselves and measuring our improvement. Fortunately, today there are myriad programs available to improve our typing, I mean keyboarding skills. If you would like to brush up on your keyboarding, go to http://www.askmesoft.com and download MaxType Pro Typing Tutor 3.0. This program installs easily and offers both Typing Test and Extreme modes. You can practice your keyboard skills with a variety of basic exercises, including typing out song lyrics and articles. The testing window displays a virtual keyboard and highlights all keystrokes as you go, then displays statistics such as speed and accuracy. Once you feel confident, you can either take an exam or type against a computerized opponent in Extreme mode. Better yet, it’s FREE!
Typing can help us communicate by carrying our words. From our words, the reader draws a perception as to our intelligence. A sentence such as “Hey, Dude, you’re getting a Dell,” might be humorous but our mental picture of the speaker doesn’t lean towards brilliance. There are, by some estimates, close to seven million words in the English language. The average American is considered well versed when their vocabulary approaches 5000 words. Years ago, I used to carry a Readers Digest magazine around because they had a section called Word Power. I would read and memorize the words and definitions. Each day I would try to use those words where and when appropriate. Today thanks to the marvels of computers, it isn’t necessary to wait for the Readers Digest to arrive each month. Just log in to http://www.readersdigest.ca/wordpower.html and play their Word Power Challenge each day. If you register (FREE) they keep a running score that allows you to check your progress.
Now that we have the means to communicate we need to make sure we are accurate. For example, if we needed to tell a storm shutter company how many windows we had in the house we would want to add up all the windows correctly. Or if we paid for something at the store with cash and expected change back, we would want to know how much we should receive. I realize we could rely on the clerk but who knows what level of math skill they have? So how do we improve our math skills? For this we can go to http://www.scolasoft.com/mathflight/?go=tutor and download a fifteen day trial of Math Flight 2.2. This program uses airplanes, and dirigibles and other cool things that you control by answering math questions. This one is great for kids, but I had fun playing it too. (I’ll never grow up) If it meets all your needs then after fifteen days it will cost you a whole $10.
Finally, here is a neat little bonus. Loyal reader Bill sent me a link that had me in a state of shock. This site tracks in real time, all the lightning strikes in Florida. I know that Florida is the lightning capital of the U.S. but I had no idea what that meant. During a recent storm, over five hundred lightning strikes were being recorded PER MINUTE. As I write this there are ten strokes per minute being recorded. If you are as charged up as I am with these numbers, bolt to http://www.flamedia.com/lightning/light.htm.
So, until next time, consider, if a train journeys east with two citizens at five o’clock and an automobile departs Sarasota at four o’clock in a thunderstorm ……
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