Hello fellow entrepreneur,

As the new kid on the block, back in 1997, trying to learn to use the Internet, did not go quite as well as I would have liked.  Actually I really did not get serious with trying to use the internet until 2001, by that time though I had at least learned what and where the web browser bar was located and what a web address was.

Wow, Willie were you that dumb? No I wasn’t. Before my wife and I divorced in 1998, we had the internet in our home, I just never took the time to investigate it nor it’s usefulness, I can sometimes be a little slow embracing technology. I didn’t jump on the cell phone, CD/DVD craze right away, but try taking them away from me now, you’d have a fight on your hand, .

Over the years though, 1999-2001, I began to hear more and more buzz about this thing called the Internet and I heard and saw businesses beginning to use the term, you can find us on the world wide web.

So, curious, I started asking questions and decided it was high time I get hooked up with and using this thing called the Internet.

In 2001 I did not have a decent computer, so I purchased an item called Web TV from a best buy store.

Yep, my first ever ride on the world wide web was done through my television.

I had a Internet service with MSN, it cost me $9.95 per month for 5 hours of surf time. Yep, I know, not much time for a newbie to be able to learn his way around this web thing. I was using it mostly for email, and yep it did take a lot of time to navigate around using that web TV gizmo.

Finally I decided, 5 hours was not enough time to master this internet stuff and I canceled my MSN account and put that web TV gadget in my closet. It would be another year or so before I ventured back into the internet. However I’d now had a taste of the internet and what it offered. I was determined I was going to get access to it and learn how to use it.

So, the saga continues…

See ya next post. 

Hello fellow entrepreneur,

My first discovery/realization of the “Internet” was way back in the 1990′s. To me it seemed like some kind of a secret agent buzz word .

My wife was a computer networker in the IT department at her job, so she was pretty well versed on Internet jargon, me on the other hand, could care less .

I was busy using the word processor on our computer, making up flyer’s and post cards to use for advertising my direct mail/mlm business. If I knew then what I know now about the Internet and it’s affect on the world economies and marketing, as they say, I’D BE RICH beyond my wildest dreams.

After that day when I asked my wife how to use the Internet and she said, just put the website address you want to visit in the web browser bar. (I guess she didn’t realize I did not even know what or where this browser thing was nor did I know the address.) I mean come on, should I look in the yellow pages to find the address? Duh. I didn’t know.

Anyhu, after that ordeal, I went back to my world of simplicity, using my  word processor and did not think about the Internet again until 2001.

Although I did not use the Internet, I remember hearing a few buzz words surrounding those who were using the Internet, words like Netscape, Message Boards, Flaming and this one really got my attention, “THE WORLD WIDE WEB.” I thought OMG, what’s that, spider man on steroids?

Again, I was completely CLUELESS and HELPLESS, because, my computer geek, techie wife and I ended up divorcing, and as luck would have it, right about that time she was doing some work for our church, changing out their old computer system and replacing it with new modern equipment and they were also getting internet service.

Now, the company she was working with, who was supplying the computers for the church, had made a deal with her. For every 10 computers she got for the church, this company gave her one free.

She ended up with 3 free computers. One for her and the two others went to my kids. I didn’t get a new one  .

I ended up getting stuck with the old one we originally had, still having to use the word processor, whiles she and my kids got upgraded to a computer with a CD ROM and Internet access. (looks like I picked a bad time to get a divorce.)

No prob, I’ll just sit over here in my one bedroom apartment and continue making my direct mail pieces and flyer’s with that darn word processor, to use for my business promotions. I’ll show them, ha, ha… 

Till next post…

Holler

Hello fellow entrepreneur,

As I begin my blogging journey again, (I started my first blog  last year.) Check it out, if you dare, . Mean while…

I was thinking what I should write about in  my next post, as I share my Internet journey, it dawned on me, maybe I should also go back and share my first ever experience dealing with anything involving the Internet. So, HERE WE GO…

The Inter What???

Understand, I have never been nor considered myself techie at anything, I’m just a plain old laborer. The closet thing to me being technical with anything was, when as a kid growing up I’d always end up tearing my toys apart, trying to put them back together, because I was curious as to how they worked.

When putting the toys back together, sometimes I succeeded and sometimes, let’s just say, I would end up with more parts left over then when I first began. But hey the toy still worked, .

Actually as a teenager I did learn and develop, on my own, skills to work on automobiles. I would take out transmissions, motors, radio’s and stuff like that, and that was just on my neighbors cars, not!!! Just kidding.

Seriously though, other than that I was not very techy nor did any of that techie stuff interest me, leave that to the geek’s. Much luv to Bill Gates. Hey, anybody know if he’s doing any hiring or offering a geek/techie apprenticeship?

Don’t be offended if you are a “geek” or you are “techy”,after all, where would the world be with out yall. Excuse me! I meant to say, You all, smile.

I relate my beginning because this Internet stuff really was foreign to me.

At that time I was married and my wife worked for the government in the IT department, so she was a walking geek, to some extent, and as far as I was concerned, she was as geeky as I wanted to get. (I sure miss that woman). But I digress.

We had a computer at home and I figured since she did this computer stuff for a living, let her handle the computer stuff at the crib, ya mean? However, back in 1996, I kept hearing this buzz word, “THE INTERNET.” Ooh, it sounded so secret agent like.

I remember thinking, what the hell is “THE INTERNET?” Is this some new net used for catching stuff, or, since I was married, maybe it was a new line of hosiery for women. Heck, I was clueless.

Back then, if I remember correctly, the ISP we were using sent us a floppy disk to use for setting up Internet service at our home. Also although I was not techie, I don’t think we were as concerned, back then, with some of the threats we now have with privacy issues and viruses, worms and the like. My how things have since changed.

My wife took right to this Internet stuff, me on the other hand, I did not even know where the web browser/address bar was located or what it even did if I did locate it, duh!

I remember one day asking my wife, honey how do you use the Internet? What I should have really asked was, honey, what and why the hell would I even want to use it in the first place?

She caually said, oh, just put the website address you want to visit in the Internet web address browser and push enter, and she left the room. I remember thinking, the web what, and the address where. I truly believe that’s why she and I are divorced today, ha, ha.

This internet stuff totally blew a brothers mind. Whew, I’m still picking up the pieces these many years later .

But it’s been a really fun ride thus far…

See ya next post.