Properly preparing for any type of trip requires concentration and discipline. In the Good household, I am Packer In Chief for myself and ultimate concierge and I’m also the Mistress of our home, our family, our pup and our social life. My mind should be centered on our travel preparations and I try, try, try, but so many other projects and responsibilities continuously stare me in the face. Let’s put it this way, darlings, I am knee-deep in life.

For our trip to Moscow, I am proud to tell you that I purchased a compartmentalized survival accessory case for my endless computer cords and other tech products. How many grandmothers do you know that have a zippered, compartmentalized technology travel bag! Truth be told, I like the idea that I can talk the talk and understand most tech jargon. I am a hip 21st-century grandmother who understands the meaning of the tech jargon used by my grandchildren and professionals. However, that being said, I am oftentimes at a loss regarding how to accomplish certain tasks online and am beset with frustration. In other words, my skills are not strong, but, I try, try, try.

Arriving At The Hotel

I have one thing on my mind the minute I hear the porter knock on the door of our hotel room and it is not unpacking our clothes. Porters always seem to me to be about 19 years old. They walk in with our  luggage and before they put our bags on the luggage racks, I say,  “Please would you  help me set up wifi, my plugins, my adapter, my back-up drive, and my portable charger?” They always say, “Sure.”

This time when the porter arrived at our hotel room in Moscow, the conversation was slightly different. As I stood there, my tech accessory travel bag opened with all of my technical cords, batteries, adapters and my backup drive he said, “You know how to use all  of this?” Followed with, “I really like your bag!” Shocked and proud, I answered,  “Would you like to know where I bought the bag? On Amazon!”

A Hip 21st-Century Grandmother’s 411 on Tech

When we travel, I continue to write, text and read my emails. Preparing all of my tech devices for a trip is daunting. Learning and focusing on handling all of my plugins, the backup drives, the share button, the multitude of apps–especially WhatsApp and PocketTravel–and hotel wifi require major patience, for which I have none. Thankfully, I have plenty of resilience, which makes up for my lack of skills and patience. I also have Ines and TeamViewer to save my sanity. I know you wonder who Ines is: she is my fairy godmother for all things tech and more.

Would you enjoy learning what all these gizmos do? Come along with me and I will introduce you to what I learned this month in tech and detail my tech bag, which carries all of my essential accessories.

4 Tech Tips Learned This Month

Command Z

The greatest piece of knowledge I learned on the tech front is Command Z. It has saved me on multiple occasions, as I oftentimes accidentally erase a whole paragraph that took loving effort to compose. With my new knowledge, I place one finger on the Command key, the other finger on the Z key and with the power of Command Z, the whole paragraph returns! I recapture all of my lost content in a split second. In Yiddish, this is called a Mitzvah: a blessing!

Amazon Polly

Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service that allows me to multitask while I listen to each blog post I’ve written. Polly reads the stories back to me. Amazon Polly is located under the title of each of my stories. You can turn her on while you are prepping dinner or putting on your make-up and listen. My ultimate concierge loves to listen to Amazon Polly but thinks I should re-read the stories too.

Share

The Share button is a feature on all platforms to instantly share content, photos, videos with others. As you all know, I love to share!

Back-Up Drive

A back-up drive saves all of your information on your computer. It is crucial in the unlikely case that the system crashes. I could lose all of my stories and photos if I did not plug my back-up drive into my computer to restore all of the content and photos. If you don’t have one, consider purchasing a back-up drive at Best Buy pronto. We are loving and sentimental mothers and grandmothers who treasure all of our memories!

Thoughts of A Grandmother

Command Z erases data. It is unhealthy to carry around negative information. Let it go. Erase it, darlings. I do not believe in carrying emotional baggage. I accept what I have no control over and rid myself of anything I no longer want or need in my life. On the other hand, happy memories should be stored and that is where Command Z is worthwhile.

Is it better to listen to a story or is it better to let our imagination come to life when we read the content? I would give equal weight to both, depending on my mood and the time. I thank Amazon Polly for giving me the audio to be a listener whenever I click.

The Share button lets us connect our lives with others, which is essential for human survival. That being said, has sharing gone overboard and have we lost our privacy? I believe everything in moderation and I say stick with the Share button.

A back-up in life can be critical to our survival. We should all have a back-up plan because stuff happens.

Well, darlings that’s it for now. Do let me know how you feel about Command Z and Amazon Polly. Did your computer skills grow from the 4 tips I learned this month? I would love to know!