Technology 2009

It has been quite the week for me in the real world as well as cyberspace; the tech world is determined to beat me, but I shall prevail.  As my cartoon hero, Stewie Griffin states, "Victory Shall Be Mine!!"  For some reason the strangest weeks tend to occur during "shortie" weeks as I like to call the 4 day work week when we have celebrated some dead president's birthday or this weekend the worthwhile holiday of Memorializing our living and fallen Veterans.  Just a brief tangent, I think the 4th of July should be a Federal and State holiday too, but these decisions generally are not run by me for strange reasons I've yet to discern.

Nonetheless, we had one of "those" weeks, and it is not just me; I have heard accounts from many stating the same.  Early on I was asking a friend whether or not they were on Facebook.  My general reason for being on that particular social networking site is two-fold: a) last May my paternal Grandmother passed away, and my cousin living in NYC strongly encouraged (forcibly) ha! that I sign up so we could stay in touch which happened to coincide with the chairing of my 20th HS Reunion b) I had tried like hell to figure out MySpace, but do not have an 8 year old hanging around to set it up for me; so there ya go!

In May I made the Quantum leap over to Twitter in an never-ending battle to improve my writing skills; brevity being my goal, and it is working (I hope).  The only true test of one's skill is their audience's enjoyment and return for more, so if my numbers increase I will know my little gamble has paid off.  Today, (Friday) I made the Quantum Leap into Blackberry land; yes, folks as of next week upon arrival of the big brown truck I will be a "Crackhead berry" stating lines such as, "Govment come take my baby!" or "I sold the couch for crack" (minutes & texts), that is.  The electronic leash whose only nemesis to date is the impenetrable I-Phone which I would have to sell much more in order to afford, and purchase the aforementioned 8 year old to teach me how to use.

My foray into technology has been a long, arduous process fraught with peril.  A decade ago when interviewing for a job, my standard line was, "I can make a computer tap-dance or scratch your ass from space."  Well, not the last part, but definitely the first; and now, as I approach my 40's, I feel the same as my mother did back in "the day" when i as a teenager knew more than her.  My teenager can sure stand by that statement today.  Luckily for me, my father has worked at NASA for 45+ years which helps keep me abreast of new gadgets and devices, but I am still behind the learning curve which slows each day we live.  I miss the days of writing letters and actually receiving mail that was not advertising or bills unable to track electronically.

So, for those of you working on your "Summer of Fun" lists I have a suggestion:  Make a point to write a letter, hand-write, to a special someone in your life, family member or otherwise; the elderly will appreciate it as will most anyone.  If you have the means to buy some pretty stationary great, but an easy way to jazz up plain paper would be to use pinking shears along the edges for an instant lovely detail.  Letter-writing is a dying art, so I would encourage those with children to have them join in on this project with no pressure of content, a simple, "How are you? I am thinking about you. Love, Your Granddaughter" will suffice.  The degree of details you add to the letter, stickers, tissue paper, a drawing from the kids are only limited by your own imagination.

Take a break from the technology world and fast paced craziness of twitter, e-mail, and social sites for just a few minutes to personally show those closest to you how much you do care!

It is officially summer!  I look forward to hearing from anyone how they plan to spend these fun days - the list is just a guideline; may it take you down the path less traveled for more fun than your dare ever dreamed!! :-)

~Nicole