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July 1, 2002; Vol. 3; Issue #7; Mail Address: PMB 44, 12819 SE 38th St., Bellevue, WA
98006-1326
Voice Mail: 206-232-5892; Classroom: Phantom Lake Elementary, now at
Bellewood School, Bellevue
For Detailed Information, Class Schedules: www.seniornetps.org
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EAGER STUDENT ANXIOUS TO
SIGN UP AT REGISTRATION: When Harry Shedd arrived
at the Factoria Mall Community Room at 7:20 am, on June 27, to prepare the site
for the scheduled fall class registration scheduled to start at 10 a.m., he
found the first registration applicant anxiously waiting in line with lots of
questions on courses. Harry was acting as Registration Coordinator in the
absence of Coordinator Roger Dalton. Several other eager students also
arrived long before the official start of registration to make sure they would
be able to sign up for the classes they wanted. There are still openings
available in many of the fall classes. And Harry had high praise for the large
group of volunteers who also arrived early to set up the registration process
and avoid delays to the 70 or so who signed on for classes. Those who couldn't make the June 27
registration have been urged to go to our web site at www.seniornetps.org to view the full
class catalogue, plus the registration form. Or call our voice mail for a
callback with needed information at 206-232-5892.
Another highlight of the
registration process featured Ken Crandall who set up a computer and
enticed passersby with intriguing navigation, application information, and
SeniorNet graphics. In his report
on the successful registration, Harry wrote: "The coffee and donuts/muffins were on time and the
volunteers were filled and napped by the time the doors opened at 10 a.m. We moved everyone in a timely fashion
through the several stops necessary to complete enrollment. Several enrollees noted their pleasure
at how smoothly the process went. The initial "crowd" was completely
processed by 10:40 A.M. We had a few stragglers right up until 12:20 p.m., and
we were there to process them, even after closing time. The SeniorNet volunteers
were numerous and as usual very cheerful, helpful, and engaging with our
registrants. I personally extend thanks to all who gave of their time, energy,
finances, personal calendar, long distances traveled. You are all the greatest.
Literature regarding everything we do was there for the taking. Patty Herzog
enlisted three new Granpals. John Wise handed out information to our
members about upcoming summer classes (free). Laura Wise digitalized
many photographs that I'm certain will show exactly what went on throughout the
morning. Harry Sully kept us all in the proper mood. Everyone left with
a smile on their face."
MARK DOWN AUG.
22 FOR GALA SUMMER SOCIAL: SeniorNet's annual Brown Bag luncheon will be
held Thursday Aug. 22, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This laid-back summer event will be
held at the temporary Phantom Lake Elementary School located at 302 - 151st
Place NE in Bellevue. Vice
Pres. Adella declared: "This is a wonderful opportunity to visit with
our skilled Instructors and class room Assistants. You will learn more about our programs and classes. Computer demonstrations and workshops
are planned and presented by
'Seniors teaching Seniors to use computers.' Don't miss this great Event!"
All Senior's are invited to join in on the fun. Free prizes are awarded along with a
grand prize of a free computer course of your choice. Bring a Brown Bag lunch
and a non-refrigerated dessert to share with others. (Soft drinks are provided)
FALL CATALOG, REGISTRATION FORM ON WEB SITE: If
you missed last month's June 27th registration session for Fall
classes at the Factoria Mall, you can easily check all available courses, times
and other details at the SeniorNet Computer Learning Center web site at www.seniornetps.org. Plus the
Registration Form to mail in.
ORIGINAL PHANTOM LAKE SCHOOL JUST A MEMORY: The Eastside edition of the June 21 edition of The
Seattle Times had a large photo of the debris of our former home, the Phantom
Lake Elementary School, The photo depicts two students gazing through the
wire mesh fence, with a huge mechanical shovel digging away at what was once
the school. The new and larger
school to shortly start rising on the site, is expected to open in 2003.
THEY LIKE US! THEY LIKE US! When the Senior Vice President of our National
SeniorNet organization based in San Francisco, sends a note with "I
get your monthly email newsletters and they are wonderful!" you know we
are a classy group. Stacy Dieter, vice president of Business Development and
Public Relations in a message to the editor also liked our series of brief
biographies of members. She writes: "I'm wondering if you would be willing
to let SeniorNet use one of your volunteer profiles (Getting to Know You
Better: Meet our Members) for our national email newsletter...." We
quickly granted her permission for future national SeniorNet online
newsletters, and will look forward in later issues for these reports. As we
have been doing for the same reason, Stacy added: "I would really like our
online people to get to know the great people who are volunteering at the
Learning Centers." We're with
you on that.
KAFFEE KLATCH
REMINDER TIME:
Our monthly no-host Kaffee Klatch takes place Tuesday, July 2nd,
at 11 am, at the Crossroads Mall Food Circus, 156th Ave. NE,
Bellevue. An interesting and cool place to get in and out of the heat outside
to socialize with SeniorNet folks you don't often have a chance to meet during
regular class sessions and meetings.
MEMBERSHIP MEETING TO MAP
FALL PLANS:
A cool way to break the summer doldrums is to attend the Tuesday, July 16
membership meeting at 10 am, at the Crossroads Mall Community Room. Get a handle on what's being planned
for the coming year.
SO YOU THINK LEARNING
COMPUTERS IS JUST FOR FUN? A recent article in Newsweek on this retirement thing, reports
recent medical research suggests mental fitness may ward off dementia. The
article cites a case in point of a 90-year-old student at Lasell College in
Newton, MA, who is loading himself down with computer courses. But when he
signed up for a web design class, he feared it would be too tough. "But
when he aced the final project three weeks ago, he decided to take more
computers in the fall." The learner, Milton Landowne, and his classmates,
all seniors, live in a condo village adjacent to the college. Ownership of the
condos requires them to attend classes, unless they get an excuse from a
doctor. The key part of the story: Keeping mentally active, and computers do
that, may help ward off traditional mental aging problems. So, sign up for some
of those other intriguing computer courses.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU BETTER; MEET OUR
MEMBERS:
JAY SCHLECHTER first learned of the SeniorNet organization from a newspaper article
some five years ago, which included Hal
Mozer's phone number. Thus began an ongoing and fruitful relationship
benefiting our organization. Jay contacted Hal, remaining in contact for a year
or so, he recalls, before he came to his first SeniorNet meeting. Because of his extensive computer
background including setting up web sites, he spoke on setting up these sites
plus other technical procedures. And when Pres. Helen Hesketh asked him
to coordinate a SeniorNet task force to create a site, he with Mozer, Ken
Crandall and John Wise launched the present web site. Each member split up
responsibilities in getting the site started, and which now is a central,
easy-to-access source of information for all. Since then, Jay and Hal have maintained the site with Chuck
Goldstein joining the team last year. Jay's goal is to include animation on
the site, plus more interactivity and modularity and other features.
A native of New York City,
Jay formerly taught Psychology in Australia and California, and currently is counseling
and writing here in Seattle. How did he wind up in Australia in the first
place? "I spent 10 years I Australia because we (my ex-wife and myself)
wanted an adventure (If you can consider University teaching adventurous). We
managed to visit New Zealand, New Caledonia, most of Australia and parts of
South Asia." His former wife now resides in a small town in Tasmania. And
when he visited friends in Seattle, he decided this was the place he wanted to
really settle in. Jay's link to computers began some 40 years ago, when at the
age of 20, he wrote his first computer program.
PATRICIA (PAT) HERZOG who has for the past two years been the guiding force behind our
expanding Granpals' Volunteer program working with Phantom Lake
Elementary School students in reading, math etc., herself started as a Granpal
back in 1994, when Virginia Fusselman headed the project. Pat and her
husband Bill have been married 50 years; have 10 grandchildren and one
"brand-new" great-grandchild. Pat reports she and Bill are "semi-retired."
Bill, who dealt in industrial equipment, continues to serve some of his old
customers. Pat worked at Seattle City Light, primarily in the Home Economics
Department. At one time when Bill bought his own business, Pat handled the books
on weekends. She was born in Pateros, WA and recalls her grandfather's historic
log home where she was born, is now under the Columbia River when a dam was
constructed. In addition to raising her family, Pat also found time to be
active with the Seattle Jaycee Wives, Seafair activities, where fellow
SeniorNet member Maxine Giard was president.
And how did Pat get involved
with computers? Just like many of us. "Our daughter gave us a hand-me-down
computer because she thought it would help in our home office. I mostly looked
at it for the first year and decided to take a class to learn how to actually
use it," she recalls. "I saw an ad in a magazine about the national
SeniorNet organization." This led her to our group when it was operating
in the McIntyre Eye Center location on 116th Ave. NE IN
Bellevue. And working with her husband in his business, she began using the
computer for business quotes, customer lists, forms and letters. "I became
a Granpal when SeniorNet moved to the Phantom Lake School in Bellevue in
1994." And of course she uses the computer for schedules, rosters, email
etc. "I have to thank SeniorNet for opening up this new world to me. I
especially enjoy the greeting cards, email and instant information
online."
HANDY COMPUTER
TIPS
BEFORE MAKING
ANY REGISTRY CHANGES? The following caution and suggestions on a more technical level is
presented by Hal Mozer for more advanced computer users, and you know
who you are: "Before making
any registry changes to your Win9x PCs, you should always back up the registry.
Most administrators know how to export a registry branch, or even the whole
registry, using the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). However, Windows 98
also includes the ScanReg program, which comes in two flavors--the Windows
Scanregw.exe and the DOS Scanreg.exe. By default, ScanReg runs every time you
start the system and backs up the registry once a day into a .cab file in the
c:\windows\sybckup directory. If you can start your system in MS-DOS mode, you
can run ScanReg with the /restore switch to restore your entire registry.
That's useful to know, but you can also start Scanregw.exe manually at any time
before a system change. It may tell you that the backup has already taken place
that day, but it also gives you the option to back up again, providing a quick
and easy complete registry backup.
THE EASY WAY TO OPEN A
WEBSITE: From
the wilds of Wisconsin, and from an old WW11 buddy of this writer, Warren
Hoerr, and also a computer enthusiast, comes this tip: "If you prefer,
you can open a web page from the Windows Start menu. Let's say that to want to
visit Emazing.com while you're working with your word processor. Al you have to
do is click Start/Run, type in www.emazing.com
and press Enter. Your default browser will open at Emazing.com.
BEFORE YOU ASK FOR HELP: The popular free online About
Computers email letter with lots of computer advice, has come up with the
answers to a common problem. This is the section for computer users who have
run into a snag, and want to call a service, or a smart friend for help in
solving the problem. This is the section, "Before You Ask for Help,"
by Charlyn Keating Chisholm, which lists some information you should
collect and write down FIRST before calling anyone for help. Saves a lot of
time, and is more effective. Click on http://netforbeginners.about.com/library/start/bl-identifysw.htm
for details on collecting information before making that call for help. This is
an easy-to-work site with lots of tips and links to ease the strain of getting
the computer back into operation the way you like it.
CAUTION NOTE: While all computer-operating tips come from usually
reliable sources, readers are reminded you use them at YOUR OWN RISK. Again, in case you have friends who are
online, and may be interested in taking classes to expand their skills, forward
this newsletter to them by clicking Forward when this message is
displayed. Then enter their address in the To box, and click Send.
We welcome your personal news items sent to the editor at b26flyer@attbi.com. If you wish to receive
this newsletter monthly, email your full name, phone and email address to
the above email address. And if you wish to unsubscribe, just send a message to
same email address.
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Pres.> Helen
Hesketh; Vice Pres.>Adella J.
Granger; Treas.>Bob Swenson; Secy>Patricia Braun; Registrar>Louise Flora; Immediate
Past Pres.>Clif Wuesthoff; Curriculum Coordinator> John Wise; Facilities Coordinator> Ken
Crandall;
Member-at-Large>Delores Davis; Volunteers Coordinator> Delores Davis; Granpals
Coordinator Patricia Herzog; Catalogue Editor>Clair-Jo Hugh; Public
Relations & Online Newsletter Editor> Phil Scheier; Publicity>Bill
Kyle
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