"Our chief weapon is surprise . . . surprise and fear . . . fear and surprise . . . our two weapons are fear and surprise . . . and ruthless efficiency . . ." Monty Python
One of the things I HATE about technology is that it's so unpredictable.
You fear it's going to malfunction, but when?
24 hours out of the box?
Not usually, unless you have my luck. I'm back posting from the old computer for awhile until some technological ghostbuster can chase out the poltergeists that have taken up residence in my new computer.
At least it's full of surprises:
Sometimes the mouse doesn't work, sometimes the sound doesn't work, sometimes the monitor doesn't work, sometimes the internet doesn't work, sometimes nothing works!
Oh well, that's the beauty of old friends, isn't it? You can call them up (or boot them up) when you need them, and never miss a beat. (Thank you, vintage HP.)
On the other hand, my scanner is of course hooked up to my new friend, and since we're on the outs right now, my illustration capabilities are a little limited. So I'm going to have to content myself with sharing old memories from my old friend.
One of the things I LOVE about technology is that it's so unpredictable.
Who'd a thunk 20 years ago that we'd be doing all the things we now find to be so ho-hum? Who knows who we're going to reconnect with on any given day? Who knows what outlandish tidbit will pop up on AOL when we fire it up to check our email in the morning?
The world is suddenly getting very small,
and we're getting increasingly connected. 
One of my happiest surprises lately came in the form of a new friend. Julia (who is Russian but now residing in Canada), featured my work in a long and lovely post on her blog that I was delighted to have stumbled upon last week. After I figured out that the language was Russian, I figured out that Google translator could "fix" it for me (Julia has since sent me a much better translation, but I learned that Google translator could have tremendous entertainment applications! In fact, it might be run by the same people who are in charge of closed captioning).
How absolutely wonderful
to reach across the world
and find a kindred spirit!
The best kind of gift -- one that almost makes me want to forgive the technological glitches of the world as being worth it for the moments of technological goodness.
"Everything that is new or uncommon
raises a pleasure in the imagination . . ."
Joseph Addison
raises a pleasure in the imagination . . ."
Joseph Addison
Mostly a mystery to me, but splendid just the same.
Bon weekend a tout le monde!
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7 comments:
Ironic you should post about this. I am having technical issues while I am typing this...
Gotta love technology. Although, I can't imagine what I would do without Google Maps or email. Well, I can imagine...I'd spend a lot more time lost, and a lot more time on the phone with my mother in the evenings :)
The lost part wasn't so great, but in a way I miss calling my mom and, going back into the dark ages, I miss sending her the pages and pages long letters I used to write back when long distance was too expensive!
We got a very long hand-written letter from Russ' aunt the other day and we could hardly believe it. We looked at it like it may as well have come from Mars. But what a truly unexpected pleasure!
My 19 year old son in boot camp just wrote me his first letter. I held it, treasured it, and mourned the loss of old fashioned letter writing. It's probably the first letter he has every written. And I've written him back every day.
I love technology. I love the immediacy of it. I love new electronic toys. I love figuring out why it's doing that ('cept when I can figure it out and it makes me sweat and I hate sweating over things like that).
I do love letters tho.
I would love a new widescreen monitor to go with my wacom tablet. I'm jealous.
Love the Monty Python quote! Sorry your new baby isn't working properly - I think the frustration factor has risen with the level of technology!
I clicked on the link for Julia's blog. It said LiveJournal is down for maintenance. I think we have identical luck.
Sorry to hear your new computer is having its not-so-cheap fun at your expense. Hope your resident geek squad can sort it out quickly.
I too miss the good old days of letter writing and the thrill of finding something personal in the mailbox.
Maybe that's part of our urge to blog... a need for self-expression and connection that used to be fulfilled by putting pen to paper, sending one's thoughts off into the world and waiting hopefully to see if they sparked a response.
Well Chelsea spent two hours -- TWO HOURS! -- on the phone with HP Customer Care last night and we totally wiped the new computer to start over. However, the second guy she talked to (when she called back after the computer had finished doing its thing) was much less interested in helping than the first. He was too lazy to read the case report, so then when she explained some of the problems he said, "Call your internet provider" and hung up on her. Two hours into this!
So now the computer is just like it was when it came out of the box, except it doesn't work.
Arrrrggggghhhh!
She's working up to calling again, but needed a little -- much deserved -- sanity break.
So today I'm back on the "hate technology" side of the fence . . .
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