Blog, sweet blog...

I feel like I've been away from home on my blog lately. One reason is a technological catastrophe -- my digital camera is broken -- I see a weird blur through the viewfinder rather than any clear idea of what I am photographing, and while I can still take pictures, they look like this --kind of like I typically feel after a particularly fun night out...



Anyway, I need to find someone locally who can look at my four-year-old SONY Cybershot and tell me if there's any hope -- or if I just need to start shopping for a new one.

Meanwhile, a funnier story about technology... I mentioned several posts ago that I finally upgraded my cable package to include DVR ability. One thing I still often forget is that I can fast-forward through commercials. So I was catching up on some DVR programs last night and I listened to the weather guy report on the impending storm, and I awoke this morning to clear skies and no accumulation. Now, normally this is because let's face it, the weather people and all of their doppler radar and fancy graphics still have no better idea than you and I about what the weather will be like. But in this case, it was because I was listening to last week's weather report.

So I really want to be able to fix this camera and not have to learn to use a new one. Or else get used to lots of images like this on my blog...

"Welcome to the '90s!"

...that is what one of my friends exclaimed last year when I gave her my new (and first) cell phone number. Now, like most, I cannot believe I lived 44 years without a cell phone. I carry it with me at all times, check it frequently and recently had to upgrade my texting package. I've lost it twice and both times I thought the world was coming to an end. Though I like to think I am not as bad as many, I have broken all of the cell phone habits I find most annoying -- talking in public, talking while driving, and leaving my ring tone on during meetings. Did I mention that my ring tone is a song by Pink called Bad Influence? It's not a tune you want screaming out of your briefcase at a staff meeting, I discovered recently. And that texting package? At the time I was averaging about 35 texts per month, and it was cheaper to upgrade to 250 per month. By the following month I was averaging 200 texts. WTF? So as resistant as I am to new technologies, I embrace them enthusiastically once I get around to it.


Now I've taken another major technological leap -- because apparently I missed the 80s too. I just upgraded my cable package so that I can DVR. Is that a verb? I think it is. Of course, I have absolutely no idea how to DVR. There have always been about 45 more buttons on my remote than I needed. On/Off/volume/channels/mute -- what else could one possibly do with a TV? Now I need all those buttons, but I will have to take a special ed course at the junior high in order to learn how to do it. In fact, I even have a second remote that came with my TV, and I have never taken it off the end table. I am afraid I will learn that I need two remotes!

One of the things I worry about with my new ability to DVR is that I will like it. A lot. And that I will sit in front of the TV like a giant vegetable and do nothing all winter but watch all the shows that I claim I don't have time for or that come on too late. Because now I can watch them on a weekend afternoon when the only thing that used to be on was Roadhouse with Patrick Swayzee or football and I would normally be doing something more productive.

Like talking on my cell phone. Or texting.

Are You Ready for the Switch to DTV?