Forties Top 40, #21-12

Time to make some headway on this countdown!  I'm calling this the Technology Group.  #40 was digital photography, and #39 was scanners.  Working my way down the list today with

#21:  MacBook Pro.

Love my Mac.  Love that I can sit next to Lee while he watches TV at night and fall asleep while editing edit photos.  Love that I can take it to craft day and work on scrapbooking.  I nearly wore out my first one after five years (not bad!), so I turned it over to the kids and got my second.  It's certainly my window to the world.

#20: iPhoto.

Keeps editing short, sweet, and to the point.  Organizes just the way I like it.  Some people hate it.  I love it!  But hey, I just won an online Photoshop workshop.  Maybe that will be one of my fifties favorites.  A girl can hope!

#19:  iMovie.

Who knew someone like me could make movies?  It's so easy.

#18:  iDVD.

I gasped the first time I opened this and quickly put together a family keepsake DVD in an evening.  I have done it for the plays, the sports teams, for VBS, for weddings, retirements, celebrations of other kinds.  In fact, it is so easy that I thought I would start up a little business doing it for other people.  Ha!  At least I have been able to do some nice gifts with an investment of time instead of money.

#17:  Discovering I am not much of an entrepreneur.

So at least I know what I WON'T be doing when I grow up!

#16:  Digital scrapbooking.

Shutterfly saved us from being buried under scrapbook paper.  That's all I have to say about that.

#15:  Facebook.

I have lived in so many different worlds.  Years ago I dreamed of them coming together, but I could never have imagined it would actually happen!  By far the biggest surprise has been the reconnection with my oldest friends.  This week I had lunch with three women from my sixth grade class.  Delightful!

#14:  Skype.

My brother and his family went to live in West Africa in 1990.  There was no email for years.  Mail took forever.  It was total separation.  Now?  We can be right. there.  They live in Charlotte now, which is essentially another country too.  But it's been so nice for my kids to SEE and know our faraway family and friends.  For FREE! What a gift.

#13:  Blogging.

This really deserves its own post.  But it's not gonna get one.  I really cannot believe the world and the friendships blogging has brought my way.  I love to write, to help me understand my own thinking.  It is odd, but it has always been that way.  The Journey has brought such kind people into my life who have helped me reflect, better than I could on my own.  I am humbled as I wander into their stories, all but uninvited, and I realize time and time again that people are really amazing.  We can all learn so much from one another.  The other thing about blogging?  It's how I really discovered photography.  Wow!  I can't imagine going back.

#12:  High-speed internet.

Without which none of this would have been possible.  To think I had dial-up until five years ago!!

I hope our grandchildren read this and laugh hysterically at the dinosaurs we were.  And I REALLY hope I can keep embracing the change.  Technology has made this decade so very rich!