Kicking and Screaming into the 21st Century
I’ve blogged about it before: the technology these days gets updated faster than I can “catch on” to it. Every Sunday when the paper full of ads arrives, I check out new innovations. I don’t quite understand it all. Take texting, for example. I guess it’s useful in an office environment. I understand how it’s easier to just send somebody a message and skip the niceties of calling them. But apparently kids text each other in school all day long- whatever became of passing a note???
More than 25 years ago, I worked in an office that had IBM computers- desktop terminals, but not quite PC’s. I figured out that if I knew the terminal ID of the person on the other end, I could “zap” them a message on their screen. Cool and handy; especially since my job involved calling product marketers to get quotes on thingies all day long. I apparently was ahead of my time because the operations manager told me I had to stop doing that because my little zap messages were being routed through Western Union and cost way more than a phone call. Oh well, I tried.
Remember when it was a very big deal to get a long distance phone call? 
The “folks” hardly ever did that. Mike called me from Guam once (collect!) and it cost like $40. Now it’s no big deal. We went ahead and got Vonage service and so far, so good. Unlimited calling and free long distance! It comes with “call waiting” ;a nuisance from the 80’s- I hate it. It’s like rewarding that loud kid in class for interrupting. If you call our house, and the line is engaged, leave a message and I’ll get back to you.
Oh, by way of plugging stuff I like: We used to have cell service with Sprint- three lines and over $100 a month! Well, the Duchess got on the Duke’s service (love cherish and share cellular service!) and the Pirate hardly ever used his phone anyhow, so there we were stuck with a 2 year contract! Now it’s gone and I have a Tracfone. It’s a girly pink Motorola and I can buy as little as 60 minutes of airtime for $20 every 3 months. Works fine and does exactly what I want it to do- be there in case I have an emergency. Calling hubby to ask if he wants Canada Dry or A&W doesn’t qualify as an emergency. And yet, I see people in the grocery store all the time yapping on their cell phones. As for the Pirate, he has his cell phone for work, so he can always call me on that for urgent matters.
We are about to go High Definition! We have a perfectly good TV, but it’s not HD. Our government sent us a $40 card to be used for the purchase of a converter box. I went out and got one yesterday. Mike’s thinking on the matter was we’d better get the converter in case they get scarce before the big digital revolution next year. Most people have cable or satellite so they don’t have our problem with the great HD conversion. There’s a few dinosaurs like us who still have TV like the old days - an antenna on the roof! We used to have cable and HBO, etc., but it got expensive and interferes with my Internet time!
So let the HD revolution begin. Oh joy, yet another black box and yet another remote to lose! I think I’m going to crochet a pocket-y thing to hang over the side of recliner for the remotes because we’re up to SIX in the living room!
Powered by FireStats