Get your senior a nice selection of computer solitaire games & they'll ask you for help less

[davidson02]

The result is amazing!

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

She's GIMPing this:



That's four cousins at the kids' table, Christmas, about three weeks after I was born. I'll post her end result when she's done...

So - pretty fair hand at shooping pics at age 80.5... I'm proud.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

She's done some nice work, here, on a snapshot of her from 1958. Here's what she'd already done in MSPaint to try to patch white where the emulsion had come off.


-Mom's a babe, yes.



And HERE:



It's not as nice/subtle as I could do, but it ain't bad. The shadow on the post she's leaning on is entirely invented - her skirt was vanishing white-on-white. I don't think she's done anything to her face. Good trainer pic, that. B&W, washed-out, you have more wiggle room to not have the alterations stand out.

Click and zoom on those thumbnails and see how much difference GIMP made...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

She's GIMPing this:



That's four cousins at the kids' table, Christmas, about three weeks after I was born. I'll post her end result when she's done...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Since making ^that post^, I've installed some new solitaire - and finally started that Desktop Notepad file for her, 11 years after I told her to do it. She's GIMPed the college photo to her satisfaction.

Mom's a vigorous, young, 80.5, and active -brings in the firewood herself when conditions permit- but time spent interacting w/ the computer is more mentally stimulating than watching TV. She's certainly old enough that it can't hurt and might help.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I just installed an old version of GIMP on Momma's computer late this morning. Little story to do with that...

When her mother died in '04 I ended up with a two-month project scanning in Gramma's lifetime of pics. I was doing a lot of enhancing when needed within the limited range of Lexmark Photo Editor, which is a user-friendly program -I didn't learn to shoop until I took up SMACX custom factions in '09- mostly good for cropping, a little brighten/contrast. Snapshots need a judicious crop, more often than not. She often sat on the bed behind me and watched me work - family pics and all.

She eventually asked to try herself - got cropping nailed instantly from watching and an intuitive program. And then she expressed interest in email, and I set her an account up. All she had to do was select my first name and type hers -they were in the addresses and otherwise the same- but there no experience with joysticks, let alone the mouse, was telling. She had a hand-eye coordination problem that lasted over a month --- until she took an interest in computer solitaire and that practice using the mouse heavily made her selecting-drag ills go right away.

-Same way I learned in the early 80s, playing games.


So she's upstairs GIMPing right now, age 80.5. I'll probably be back to brag on her soon enough.


And I'd also advise anyone with a senior they love to get them to keep a notepad file on the Desktop, where it's Easy to Find, to keep notes about stuff like [cntrl]z and all the shortcuts seniors have trouble remembering. And there's some good solitaire programs downloadable free one googling away. Mom loved playing a variety of types of solitaire I'd never heard of - I'd told her "the Help file is your friend" and she took care of the rest...