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O bserver • D ecember 6, 1995
P age A5
U je |J o rtIa n b (Obseruer
Putting A Computer Under Your Tree?
’ J k E^aJBSJLW
ARO
ABOUT TOWN
ITwinkle
C ora S m ith
Being with the ones
I you love, sitting close
by
together, putting into
plans your holiday-the
dock and the calendar
Strike a bell, it’s time to
get organized. The twin­
kle comes out and the
I invisible venerable San­
n a Claus emerges. Will it
1 be “ b a -h u m -b u g ” or
w arm sw eet gifts with the
true spirit o f holiday cheer? A big
J step happens when all the precious
Isaved Christmas decorations ap-
l.pear.
It’s like the most valuable of
I "gold loot. It’s like hidden treasure,
I several trips to the basement re-
I veals the hidden vault, a little dusty
1 but-ring the bell it is time to deco­
rate. The tree will it have the look o f
the revisited tradition or will it be a
I visit to the mall to purchase a ready
I m ade,pre-decorated
ornam ented
1 holiday tree. Or maybe do the right
I thing and use the homemade deco-
1 rations from the children and grand­
children and just maybe use every-
I thing you've ever collected. Will it
I be the special porcelain figurine or
I will it be those special bulbs you
I purchased at half price-that unique
crystal ornament you purchased a
few years ago.
Never mind we’l
jus, use them all, sud
denly the spirit of giv
ing, sharing with the
ones you love develop
and the eagle begins to
soar. Christmas conies
only once a year but I
believe it happens on a
regular basis because
no matter what vintage
I believe. The house
needs character build­
ing, that special touch of showman­
ship maybe add new lights creating
the most in the neighborhood or jus,
maybe being a bit more modest this
year. The electrifying, glitz, daz­
zling display of lights of the Pioneer
Square with color of sparkling alter­
nating lights, the Portland Zoo, The
Portland Meadows light up for
Christmas cannot be duplicated bu,
is truly a breathtaking sight. But the
true spirited ones will go for the
change, the rain, wind and snow ,
whose to know what to expect, will
meet the challenge. Let’s all have
dinner and aglassofwonderful wine
to discuss the possibility of where
the next layer of ornaments will go,
cheerfully discuss gifts and reflect
over the past years but remembering
every year is a new year, born o f new
ideas, changes and new dreams of
hearing sleigh bells in the snow.
H a p p y llo lid a i/f i
from
(Tl|c “P o r tla n d (O bserver
Once upon a time, purchasing a
family computer was more compli­
cated than finding fourcalling birds,
three French hens, two turtle doves
and a partridge in a pear tree.
But with recent price drops for
personal computers and a prolifera­
tion o f easy-to-use and useful soft­
ware, there’s never been a more
affordable or better time to bring
your home into the 21st century .
Wish lists and children’s letters
to Santa can be daunting enough
without adding bits and bytes, RAM
and ROM. to the equation. So here
are 10 tips for buying a computer the
whole family will use and enjoy for
seasons to come:
I. Assess your family’s com­
puting needs and budget. Y ou’ll
want a computer that serves your
entire family. Begin by asking your­
self some pertinent questions: Will
the children be using it to learn?
What type ofcomputers do our chil­
dren use at school? Will we be using
the computer for personal manage­
ment like family finances and record­
keeping? Do we want a computer
that comes with built-in sound and
multimedia, video, TV and commu­
nications features?
Depending on your needs, be
prepared to spend between $ 1,300
for an entry level machine to $3,000
for a higher-end one.
2. Get your family involved.
Don't worry about spoiling the sur­
prise. You’ll make a better choice
for the whole family if the children
are included in the decision-making
process. Children are remarkably
sensitive to differences between key­
boards and screens, and y ou ’ 11 prob­
ably appreciate their input.
3. Make sure you buy a com­
puter that is easy to use. Many com ­
puters are billed as easy-to-use, but
they may require you to add a sound
card or reconfigure your system in
order to run CD-ROMs.
to expand Buying a system with a
CD-ROM may be slightly more ex­
pensive, but the benefits quickly pay
off.
X. Plan for printers and other
options. There are three types ofprint-
ers on the market today: dot-matrix,
inkjet and laser. The dot-matrix print­
er is the most basic, while laser print­
ers are more sophisticated and nec­
essary for high quality' printing and»
graphics. Recent price drops have
made laser printers more affordable
4. Go with a recognizable brand
name There are two types o f person­
al com puter families: those who
choose a Macintosh computer, and
those who choose a DOS-based sys­
tem. Both provide a vast range o f
software options, service and sup­
port for your hardware.
5. Look for preinstalled soft­
ware. Many o f the best buys today
are computers that come already
“bundled" with hundreds o f dollars
worth of software. Consider both
quality and quantity when making
your decision.
6. Buy enough memory so your
system can grow with your family.
I he hard disk is your computer's stor­
age space. These days, a good size
hard disk is a necessity if you expect
software programs to run smoothly
and efficiently. I lard disks are mea­
sured in megabytes (MB). Consider
buying a hard disk with 500 MB of
memory or larger. You also will want
to think about R AM, which stands for
random access memory. Make sure to
have at least 8 MB of RAM, especially
if you plan to use the computer for
graphics and multimedia.
7. ...........
Make sure * 7 your system
is Y
easy
JIVIII 13
U.XI
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"1439
aimed at blacks.
stories and handling product develop­
There’s a great need for African m ent. B ro w n ’s w ife, B arb ara
American kids to have books they can Tompkins Brown, is the marketing
identify with, said Phyllis Fogelman, director.
publisher of Dial Books for Young
Brown adopted the pen name
Readers in New York. Among other "Zachary X. King.” He likes the name
things, the company specializes in Zachary and took on the initial X and
publishing books aimed at blacks.
the surname King in honor of black
“I think you get a sense of your­ leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther
self as a child and your place in the King.
world by a Io, of things,” she said. “If
Jack is company president, han­
you’re black and you see only white dling most of the business aspects of
faces, it leaves a very left-out feeling, the company and his wife, Germaine,
particularly in minority children, who is customer relations manager.
come upagainst prejudice all the time."
Publishing is hardly the profession
It’s equally important for white the four originally planned. Brown and
children to see African American fami­ Tompkins-Bniwn are mechanical engi­
lies leading successful, normal lives, neers. Jack is a chemical engineer and
Fogelman said.
Gennaine Jack is a customer service rep­
Brown, vice president of the com­ resentative at Home Depot. None has quit
pany, is the creative arm, writing the his or her main job.
Trade-offs To Balance Your Life
A new study o f more than 6,000
employees in professional and manu­
facturing jobs has found that many -
and only slightly more women than
men - have made career trade-offs to
try to balance their work and family
life.
The survey of Du Pont Co. em­
ployees found that at the managerial
and professional level, 47 percent of
the women and 4 1 percent of the men
had told their supervisors that they
would not be available for relocation.
In the same group. 32 percent of
the women and 19 percent of the men
had told their bosses that they would
not take a job that required extensive
travel.
In addition, 7 percent of the
women and 11 percent of the men had
turned down a promotion they had
been offered.
Among those in manufacturing
jobs, 45 percent of the women and 39
percent of the men had refused to
work overtime. Also, 12 percent of
the women and 15 percent of the men
had turned down a promotion.
“W e’ve asked those questions in
about 40 surveys of larger companies
and what w e're seeing over time is
that more men are mak t ng these trade-
offs,” said Charles Rixigers, president of
Rodgeis & Associates, the Boston-based
firm that conducted the study for Du Pi >nl “
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A )o L a y a w a y o n s a l e ite m s .
V is a /A A C L
New & used books on
Business, Music, &
African-American Studies
Author Targets Books With Family Values
Thomas Brown and Ricky Jack
Brown and Jack realized what
w anted to find books for th eir they were looking for could be found
childrenthat portrayed African Ameri­ in the treasure trove of stories their
cans positively and that stressed moral families told them when they were
values.
young boys.
Instead, what they found were
Brown has fond memories of
predominantly white characters who those stories, especially those told by
didn’t resemble their kids. The books his great-grandmother, who sat him
they found aimed at black children on her knee in her rocking chair, read
weren’t much better. One was the the Bible to him and told him stories
story of Hansel and Gretel - the only she had learned during her childhood.
difference was that the children were
When Brown wrote down the
black instead of white.
many childhood stories he remem­
Some books depicted black chil­ bered, he and Jack realized that they
dren stereotypically, with bug eyes, had a marketable product that could
huge lips and messy hair.
benefit other African American fami­
“We didn’t think what we found lies and their kids.
was as good as it could be,” Jack said.
Brown and Jack each chipped in
W hat’s more, “a lot of the books didn’t $5,000 last March to start Jack Brown
have moral themes to them,” Brown E n te rp ris e s , w hich p u b lish e s
said.
children’s books with moral themes
and worth the extra expense
9. Choose your software care­
fully. A good computer game does
more than entertain, it challenges
chi Idren to explore the world around
them and helps them develop prob­
lem-solving and creative thinking
skills.
10. Protect your investment. A
fam ily’s com puting needs will
change overtim e and a system with
the capability to expand will be
beneficial.
POWELL’S
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