Rise of the Machines

Every where you look today we use machines. We have computers, cell phones, answering machines and VCD players. Their all very confusing to a person like me born in the late fifties.

When I was growing up we didn't have computers. They were a mystery to me but now I have pretty much got it down. Not to a fine art mind you but I am beginning to know my way around. I have yahoo mail, my blog, face book and I write on an online sight. When I use the keyboard I type the way I was taught to type in typing class at high school. When I observe my kids typing they use two fingers max and type faster then I do. Every now and then I have to check my fingers are placed on the correct keys if not gibberish comes out and I have to back space.

When using my hand phone I know how to call, I can send text messages. One simple message can take me 10 minutes to type. It sucks. I observe my children blithely messaging away without even looking at what they are doing. My sister informs me that it take her an hour to type out a message on her hand phone. At least I'm better then her. Now they have this new thing out called twitter. The other day I asked my son what the hell is twitter. He told me it's an instant messaging system. For instance you can type "I'm taking a dump" and all your contacts will receive the message. Why the hell would you want everyone to know your taking a dump I ask you. Hand phones today have everything imaginable, cameras, GPS tracking, is that correct or is it GSP I don't know all I know is your hand phone can now tell were to go. Maybe one day your hand phone will tell you were you can get off. They even have mini computers. You can read your email, face book and yes you can twitter. Hell with the way hand phones are now you don't even have to go to the office.

The VCD player, well I still have trouble with that one. All the remotes have weird symbols on them that the manufacturer expects you to understand. Well I don't. I don't even know how to turn on my damn VCD player. If I want to watch a DVD I have to ask my kids to turn it off and on for me. Like I'm some moron or something.

Answering machines can be a pretty good thing to have if you actually care who called you at home during the day while you were out. My sisters and mom each have one so they can screen their calls. Why do they have to screen their calls. What sinister person are they expecting to call them. The bank saying your over extended? Or maybe the credit card company. I know every time I call one of my sisters or mom in Canada I get their answering machines. Hell my one sister doesn't even answer her phone most of the time any way. Hell she doesn't even check her messages. Why? According to my other sister they all have hand phones. Well jeez didn't they ever think that I might call once in a while just to say hi. Guess not.

Anyway I'm now waiting to see what they can do next with the hand phone. Probably make it smaller so people like me can't even text a message because of my sausage like fingers.