Technologically challenged

As you may have guessed by now, technology is not my strong point, which is why I still haven’t worked out much beyond how to put pictures and hyperlinks up on this blog. I have grander plans for it, such as a lovely heading with leaves and stuff to make it look really wild, seeing as it’s meant to be a style WILDERNESS, and maybe things that sparkle or flash at you when you open the page, because that would make it look like I know what I’m doing, but those things aren’t achievable at the moment so it will have to just be old-school text and the occasional crappy photo for now. Yes, it’s like living in the 1800s or something, practically.
Speaking of which, I just finished watching Our Mutual Friend on DVD, a BBC production (of course!) of the Charles Dickens novel which I have not actually read, but it’s on my list. As usual with most dramas set in the Victorian era, I loved it, it had all the usual Dickensian ingredients such as wayward fathers, devoted daughters, money-hungry social climbers and heart-of-gold-but-disadvantaged-people who end up being rewarded for their good deeds, and mistaken identities were mixed in there too. Plus some amazing costumes, naturally. Nothing at all like the crap reality TV which is practically all that is on offer these days.
There were also the usual tiny details which in Victorian times would have been taken for granted but these days are simply perplexing, the main one being that some guy had got rich by building dust heaps. “What on earth would you use a dust heap for?” is what I was thinking, scheming of ways to rid my room of its dust and at the same time get rich, until it was made clear that the dust was collected from people’s fireplaces (ie, the ash) and it was then used to make bricks, or something crazy like that. But because there must have been other rubbish mixed in with it, there were people climbing all over the mounds of dust, scavenging stuff, finding jewellery and other things of value which they then sold. If you’re into finding out all about this level of recycling and much more, such as the fact that there was an actual profession that described people who searched corpses washed up in the Thames for valuables.. they were known as mudlarks.. then you might like to watch/read What the Victorians Did For Us (I’ve got the book but haven’t seen the series) or get your hands on What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens knew. Which sort of sounds like all Jane Austen did was sit around stuffing herself, while Dickens got to hang out and look all knowledgeable, but we all know that Jane Austen was actually quite busy writing excellent books which I imagine would have required a fair amount of energy. So even if she was a bit of a pig, all her flab would have burnt off while she wrote Pride and Prejudice, etc. I suppose that means if I do this blog for long enough I won’t have to go to a personal trainer or run 10km 3 times per week, as I will burn off all my calories just by tapping a keyboard. Tap, tap, tap. That should take care of a few bars of chocolate. No wonder I’m exhausted.