Computing for Luddites

Yeah, I'm an old lady now. My choir, the Stairwell Carollers, will be 40 years old, Christmas 2017. Pete and I hope to celebrate our own 40th wedding anniversary in 2020.

Computers, yeah, computers...

I was terrified of computers. I couldn't understand them, and then I was forced to use one at work - teaching high school grade 9 Geography.  Screens weren't easy in the 80's. Computers crashed regularly and it was only green letters and numbers on a tiny curved tv screen -- no pictures.

I like pictures.

Thus, I hated computers.

Fast forward to the 90's. The first video game I tried was Duke Nukem. Awful. Don't.
But...
When the choose-your-own-adventure games appeared in the arcades alongside the pinball machines, the voracious reader in me exulted. One of my Drama students introduced me to Tomb Raider.

Hooked.

I Googled myself. I found out there is an American teacher with MY name who has won awards and is sooo amazing. Sigh.

Cursive writing was always a chore. When I would try, it would fill with loops and knots and mistakes - unintelligible to even me. At work, I would print the notes on the blackboard - the kids correcting my mistakes as I go. They liked that.

While cleaning out an old filing cabinet after class, the secret of computers came to me in a flash.

A. Filing. Cabinet.

OMGoodness, and they're called FILES! How could I be so blind! And the internet is just a bunch of file cabinets you can search through! Like a huge room of cabinets. And some are locked. And some have little tiny cabinets in them.

Got a laptop, started writing for fun - for the first time since my preteen tapping of angsty poems on an old Smith Corona.

So, while you peruse Facebook's filing cabinets, why not check out the Stairwell Carollers Page -- all our news, photos, concerts, and CDs are there. Constantly updated by choir members.

Please visit and LIKE us.

We have over 250 YouTube videos to date. All of the concert song videos edited together by our director Pierre. He used Tom Barnes professionally recorded audio done at the same time as the video recording. The only way to better hear us is LIVE or by purchasing our CDs. 

Net proceeds from our CD sales and concert tickets help Charities in the Ottawa/ Outaouais region.

Try Googling us and you'll find us in all the right places and .. some wrong ones. Do not click on the free Mp3 phone ring scam sites. They are not us.

I've learned a lot about Twitter -- and it has changed over the years, but is still the best microblogging platform out there. I even wrote a tiny post about how I learned some lessons the hard way.

Selected Stairwell CDs are even on iTunes.