Wednesday I drove to Winterset, county seat of Iowa's Madison County. You may have heard of it—did you see the 1995 movie The Bridges of Madison County with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep?
Yes, it was that Madison County, best known for its numerous covered bridges. It's also the birthplace of actor John Wayne, whose first home and birthplace is pictured here.
But I didn't leave at 5:05 AM and drive 173 miles to see those historical sights. I went to attend one day of a four-day Computer Rally sponsored by the Iowa Chapter of Escapees.
Pat and I had planned to attend, with our trailer. But as the day for her new knee approached, she felt there were too many things yet needing to be done, plus a medical issue or two, so we decided not to make a week of it.
The organizers had invited me to be a presenter, but having never attended one and our ability to attend being a bit uncertain, I had declined. But I thought there would be some benefits to my going for even one day:
- I'd see how others conduct a formal computer class, hoping that this might be useful as future classes at Rockport 35 RV Park are considered.
- It would help me decide whether I wanted to attend or possibly present a sesson at next year's rally.
- I'd learn something!
The sessions were well organized and well taught. I contributed a bit to the session on Picasa—stuff I learned while preparing for and teaching a class on the same subject at 35 RV and while using it afterward.
Yes, I still use Picasa. It has a lot going for it! It meets my needs for most of my photo editing needs. For real heavy lifting, I have GIMP, which will do anything one wants to do with photos, as far as I know. But it is not easy to learn! (That's the usual tradeoff: capability vs. ease of use.)
Did I learn anything? Yes! The first hour was about browsers. Even though I am familiar with IE and use Firefox everyday, about 75% of what the instructor said, I had never heard before.
With computers, there's always something to learn!
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