It's funny, I don't think of myself as a highly technical person (I can't write code, I'm not an 'early adopter,' nothing like that), and yet, sometimes, I can get stuff working that other people can't.

One of my colleagues got a digital camera for a microscope set-up. I wanted to borrow it to photograph my soil critters. He and I (mostly he) spent about a half hour trying to install the software on his computer (with the idea of eventually installing it on the more portable departmental laptop, so we could take it to labs and such). No go. Finally, with other stuff to do (I was done for the day), he passed it off to me with a "Here. You play with it."

Within 15 minutes, I had the software installed on my computer and the camera running. I was even able to photograph (badly) myself with it. A little more fiddling and I got it hooked up to a dissecting scope, ready for when I have critters to photograph. (And my colleague needs to use it for a fish study he's doing).

So, I'm kind of proud of myself, even though I think of myself as non-technical. I think it's mainly because I'm patient, and I consider the different possible options (with the menu boxes) before just clicking and going. (It could also be my colleague has a bad USB port on his computer - it didn't seem to want to recognize the camera, as well as not installing the software).

So, it's been a pretty good day: got the abstract for the NAPC accepted, had a student who has struggled a bit in the past earn an A in my class, and got the camera working. I have no exams to give tomorrow so I'm going to start critter identification and hopefully, photography, if there's cool stuff I run across.