Floppy Disc? Seriously!!!!

I came home this morning from helping out a neighbor, and found the kitchen table covered in old computer gear and modems from the last twenty years. Apparently the attic was being cleaned out, and Mom decided that they needed to go. I mean seriously, why would we need these old computers around? But before saying good-bye, I had to plug in the old e machine, for sentimental reasons. This is the computer that I used to type out my first complete copy of Adventures of Amy book one.

It's funny how my perspective has changed. This computer used to be REALLY cool because it had a disc slot! Now I look at it and think . . . "Is that a floppy disc slot? How old am I?"

I'll never forget the agony of typing a sentence, and then sitting back and watching the letters appear one by one in slow motion. Moving the mouse across the screen was an ordeal of it's own!

I typed in Works Word Processor, so when I decided to upgrade, I had a fit getting the file to show up on my 'new' old computer. It showed up as gibberish, but my oldest brother came to the rescue and somehow got the next computer to read my file.

Do you see the black line on the screen? It used to scroll by very consistently. I tried to save it to a USB stick, but after right clicking the document, the only options to 'send to' were either floppy disc, or CD ROM. Since the CD slot didn't work, that left me with the floppy disc option, and I don't have many of those sitting around . . .

Wow. Reading the unedited version of book one that I typed out when I was thirteen is . . . it's hard to describe. In some ways, it's hilarious! I mean the story has changed SOOOOO much since then. I mean I have a totally different villain! In other ways it hurts. I want to just grab a red pen and hack it to pieces! The grammar, the story line, and pretty much EVERYTHING about it is AWFUL!!!!! I wonder if in another few years I'm going to look at what I'm writing now and groan at it?

I tried e-mailing the document to another computer, but when I tried pulling up the internet, it said . . . Dialing . . . And I'm like "WHAT!?!?!?" I'll never forget the days of dial up. I remember being across the lawn, at Grandma's house and calling home to ask Mom a question, but the phone said busy. "She's probably using the internet. I'll just run home and ask." It was so natural at the time! Now, dial up seems so . . . old. 

Do you see all those cords, and the size of that thing?!?!?!!? I'm REALLY THANKFUL for my laptop!!!!