Distant shores, close magic

I've finally sorted out my connection to Skype, the online telephone service. When my brother first suggested it, I thought it a nifty idea. No more long distance phone charges, able to talk as if he was standing right there...

Then I figured, nuh, I have dial up, not broadband. A few months later, I'd forgotten about Skype and I kind of got shanghaied into having broadband. I thought it just a chat on the telephone with the provider, but a few days later, the modem turned up. Huh. Okay, I thought, why not? And duly went through the destructions to connect. Great! Faster connection, faster downloads, the werld is my oy-stahhh!

Cue now. The bills makes me wince a little, but I can manage that by not having such a cavalier attitude to where I go, and not overuse the 'net - if there is such a thing.

With the post-Christmas sales, I had the opportunity to visit a new computer gaming store and lo, headphones with microphones half-price! Woo-hoo! I've been looking for voice recognition software for manuscript feedback and all I had to do now was find the software.

My brother sent me an e-mail, the kind that chats about family news. He again suggested Skype. Why not give it another go. So I went to the site, had to fool around with the microphone levels, sort out how I was going to go about contacting him, sent an email back that I was up and running. All I had to do was wait.

While I did that I went to CNET, the freeware and shareware site and downloaded some voice recognition.

I happened to be enunciating very carefully as I went through the tutorial when, bugger me if the icon didn't flash and it was brother on the line, all the way from Qatar where he is a senior engineer!

We chatted for half an hour and I watched my broadband usage rise. Never mind about that - he and I can chat whenever now, rather than using a sometimes scratchy telephone line. The only difficulty will be the time difference. When he gets back to Denmark, where he lives now with his family, he'll set up another account there and I can talk to my niece and nephew.

I have to say that it's a marvellous invention, this Skype - or should I say development. Corporations here in the Land of Aus are moving towards this technology now because it cuts down the telephony bills significantly. No need to answer the phone the traditional way, just press the mouse button and you're away.

Magic works in mysterious ways, I think. Sometimes it's inescapable as it gently guides you to where you should be going. A metaphysical kick in the rear end if you will.

I'll be posting more on real magic in future posts. And if you think it doesn't happen to you... you're wrong.