With everyone Twittering and facebooking away, I find myself increasingly seeking solace in my local email client, Thunderbird. I confess to being a latecomer to the game. I became a fan of Firefox very early on, after constant and increasingly ineffectual battles with IE... And when Firefox seemed to do what I asked without question, I became a firm Mozilla-phile. It took me a little longer to start using Sunbird: I did download and install it, but I proceeded to ignore it for the better part of two years, not being organized enough to use an organizer. Everything changed one day, when I wondered how different life would be if I typed my emails offline- and the rest, as they say, is history.
For those of us without broadband, and (to be honest) only a passing acquaintance with efficient dial-up, Thunderbird is like the answer to a thousand prayers. For a large part of this year (and we're only in April), I have not been able to access facebook, previously my gold standard for staying in touch with my friends- who, as part of the Zimbabwean Diaspora, are all over the world. (I do con them by letting my Twitter account talk to my facebook account, which gives the impression that I am active on fb). But you know as much as I appreciate Twitter, I just can't do it in 140 characters or less... Not to mention the fact that my uber-sad Zimbabwean friends tend not to be trendy, and fb is still the Next Big Thing for them; so it may be a while before Twitter catches on with them.
Nevertheless... I have found Thunderbird (-you sing that part). AND, and, it talks to gmail! I think my fb friends are wondering why I respond to their fb messages with an email to their email account, but that's what fb email notifications are for, right? I am spending far less time online now, and have happily gone back to circa-high school days, typing out my long missive and "sealing it with a kiss". (I confess, again, I have not actually achieved the long bit, and am only working on the missives now). And what better friend (You've got a friend in me/ Lean on me, etc) than Thunderbird. What with Lightning (like Sunbird) to seal the deal... Well, life is sweet. I mean really, I can even post this to blogger without waiting and waiting and waiting for blogger to load...I spent a few minutes this morning adding to Thunderbird's functionality with add-ons, and now I am wondering what to do with all the time I will save. Maybe revive my offline persona and lifestyle?
Now, if I can just figure out how to make my spreadsheets talk to Thunderbird (or Lightning)... And then I can go on a long holiday. Blisssss.
0 comments :
Post a Comment