Now that my mom and dad are gone, I don’t think about getting them gifts as much anymore. Boy, I remember when I was a kid though, trying to figure out what kind of gift to give them for various occasions.

I can still remember trying to figure out what options I had for gifts for parents from kids that I would be able to get without having to ask Mom or Dad to help me fund the project. Usually the gifts would end up being some little hand-drawn card with kiddie scrawl all over it because that was the only way I didn’t have to ask for money to get the gift.

But now, I don’t even know what kids would get for parents for birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day without having to ask their parents what to get. So many of the kids I know wouldn’t even think of giving their parents a hand-drawn card.

What did you used to get your kids and what do your kids get you?

I’m using this downtime with the internet – because my internet doesn’t work half the time – to catch up on my reading. I’ve got several books I am supposed to review – one book for two different people no less – and so I’ve been reading to pass the time while I’m not able to use the computer to get online.

Right now I’m reading a book for a blog tour on May 31, then I’m going to read the books for a blog tour or two at the beginning of June. Fortunately the other books are Nook books, so I can read them faster than I could read them if they were traditional books. While I love turning pages and reading traditional books, for some reason I read faster when I use my Nook than when I read traditional books. I guess I’m just weird that way. LOL

What do you do when you have internet downtime? (Besides scream and cry because you can’t get online? LOL)

Ok, I have been asked some pretty interesting questions, especially when it comes to how to find various websites. I’ve got friends and non-friends who will ask me how they would go about finding this or that on the internet. Apparently Google never crosses their minds.

My favorite was when a friend of mine was looking for new end tables for her living room. This girl literally thought she could just type in http://www.endtables.com and get a website full of end tables. She was right on that occasion, but the fact is, you normally can’t do that and get a website that isn’t, shall we say, adult oriented. o_O

A simple Google search for the item you want will usually suffice, but why people don’t think of it themselves is beyond me.

Nor am I a computer repair person. I do not understand why it is my friends do not get this fact. I do not understand why it is that when my friends have questions about their computers, they immediately IM me, call me, text me, or talk to me face to face and ask me if I can look at their computer and tell them what is wrong with it.

I did it today for a friend and I swear, I was asked so many times about upgrading the computer it wasn’t even funny. Ok, here’s a few clues for people:

• If I did not build your computer, I can’t tell you about upgrade options because I don’t know what your computer can handle.
• If your computer is running 512MB RAM and 1.8GHZ processor speed and Windows XP, it will be cheaper to replace than upgrade, I can almost guarantee it. You can get a decent laptop for around $300 if you watch for the sales at Best Buy.
• Just because I (or someone else you know) likes computers and works with/on them, that does not mean they know how to handle your computer, nor does it mean they want to deal with your computer. As my friend Jenn’s hoodie says “No I will NOT fix your computer.”

Seriously, if you think your computer is in danger of crashing, don’t ask me about it. Take it to a computer shop. Trust me – at least with a computer shop there is little to no chance of that computer being more messed up after the upgrade than it was before!