Happy Birthday, World Wide Web :)

Guido posted on Magic Smoke, the AOL Journals blog, WWW=15 ,that today is the 15th 'birthday' of the World Wide Web, and asked the question

"What changed when the Internet came into your life?"

While the WWW might have been around for 15 years? I only got my first computer, a hand-me-down from my uncle, back in 2001. That was an old HP computer, and I accessed the Internet with Dial-Up! which, although such a short time ago, seems like the 'stone age' to me Now,lol.

I've gone from dial-up access, to being a DSL user, to using a Cable link, and from Windows 98 to Windows XP (haven't gotten Vista yet, but one of my son's is using it)

I've learned a lot of technical stuff along the way,lol....I'm all self-taught, which means I have strange knowledge gaps that flummox other people, things they think I Should know, and I don't,because I learned it all by trial and error :)and by lots of reading of technical blogs and information ,that I only partially understood sometimes!

How has the Internet changed my life? well, for one....I spend more time sitting down,lol.

Seriously, the Internet has kept me in closer touch with my family, spread out around the country and the world as they all are. The Internet has meant that I could follow along more closely with both my brother's career, and also in the adoption by my sister and brother-in-law of their daughter, in a much more immediate way than using 'snail mail' and intermittant telephone calls.

And the Internet brought 'milblogs' to my attention, which in turn led to me becoming a member of Soldiers Angels....and both milblogs and Soldiers Angels has changed my life Enormously.

I have had the privilege of getting to know a great many fine and fantastic folks all over the country,and the World, through being a member of Soldiers Angels.

And access to the Internet led to my becoming a blogger myself,which has Also led to my meeting many wonderful new people.

Being a blogger, more so than being a member of Soldiers Angels, is what led me to meet the Founder of Soldiers Angels,Patti,when I attended the Milblog conference last year in DC. And also meeting Robert Stokely and briefly speaking with him, one of the most towering men of Christian faith I've ever had the privilege to meet. Over a year later, the brief conversation we had while in the lunch line still resounds within me, and, now that my husband/'s son is deployed, brings me a great deal of comfort and peace.

And being a blogger has brought me back to one of my first loves, writing.....whether I do well at writing or not,lol, I cannot imagine my life now without the outlet of blogging. I had forgotten,over the years, how much I loved writing and expressing myself, caught up in raising a family and working as I was.

I am one who is always amazed and delighted by the twists and turns that life takes one on, which in looking back you never realized it was going to take. I had no idea when I clicked on my first 'milblog' that reading it would lead to my becoming a blogger, troop-supporter, or that my life would expand so much because of the Internet.

For instance, I had no idea when I sent my first email to JP of Milblogging.com, before he ever even Started Milblogging.com, that one day I would be watching a PBS special about his platoon!

And when I first joined MySpace, I had no idea that one day my friend,Courtney, who then lived way across the country,would be coming down for a visit and what a wonderful time we would have getting to meet and know her better :)

Without the Internet, and Soldiers Angels, my daughter and I would never have gone last year to the Face of America bike ride to volunteer, and we would have missed out on meeting some people who have become friends since then. ( and,you can never have too many friends, can you? :)

Without the Internet and blogging, we wouldn't be excitedly preparing, when we go This year to volunteer at the bike ride, to perhaps afterward meet one of my 'blogging buddies' while we're up there.

(conversely, the Internet has also brought me back in touch with old friends who live very close by....and yet, we still haven't gotten together in person! LOL. because it's so much easier, in the busy day-to-day of life, to just send off a quick email.)

I could go on and on.....but I think the bottom line answer to the question Guido posed, "What changed when the Internet came into your life"?, for me, is that it brought me into contact with a great many more People,and that has enhanced my life enormously.

So, Happy Birthday, WWW! :)

Here's wishing you many more!

(crossposted from my 'real blog', Mail Call!Supporting the Troops over on AOL.)