The ongoing joke at my computer user group meetings is the fact that I’m the facilitator. What I know about computers you can put into a thimble and still have room for an entire unabridged encyclopedia. But I’m learning.

Last month we had a terrific presentation on the various ways to do “backups,” and I learned a lot. Of course, when you’re starting at square one, you’re always assured of learning a great deal. But the idea of using a portable hard drive, online information storage systems, saving to a disk, or transferring info with a thumb drive (also called a flash drive, who knew?!), no longer baffles me. I haven’t actually put any of this information into practice yet, but I’m getting closer.

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but none at all is fatal.”

Have you discovered the site “eHow.com”? You can learn a little bit about most everything there, with step-by-step instructions, and I’ve been wading around in the information for hours at a time, reading about things I didn’t even know I needed to know, and in actuality, I probably don’t.

I imagine my brain looks a lot like my computer files, scattered here and there with little apparent order to the system. But the truth is, I want to know just about everything! Yep, I have an insatiable curiosity. The problem is focus, but at my age, there’s not enough time left to be an expert on anything in particular.

So back to my computer group. Due to circumstances definitely beyond my control (it was a gift!) I now have a “broadband wireless router” in my home, which is really typical of getting the cart before the horse, as I haven’t yet bought a laptop. It’s on my list though, and getting closer all the time.

Just as soon as I do a little more research…