Thursday, November 12, 2009

Of Wifi and Wooly Worms

by Cassondra Murray


Do y'all have wooly worms where you live? We do.



I've always had a thing for wooly worms. You have to admit that even if you dislike bugs in general, it's hard to hate a wooly worm. They don't fly around and make a racket when they sproing-oing-oing into your screens at night. They don't bite you or suck your blood, and they don't get tangled in your hair and cause screaming hissy fits. They're fuzzy, unassuming, and non-threatening. The Zen of caterpillars. If you mess with them, they curl up and play dead. I don't like being crawled on by anything with more than two legs, but I will let a wooly worm meander across my hand and up my arm.


Wooly worms are famous around here for foretelling the length and severity of the winter season. If they're light-colored, the old folks say, it's supposed to be an easy winter. The darker they are (or the broader the dark section of wooly fuzz) the harsher the winter will be.


Here in Kentucky, in early November, there are usually a few last warm, wonderful days that reach into the lower 70s, and as you're driving down the road on those days, you'll see the fuzzy little guys crawling across the pavement in front of you. Sometimes there will be several in view at once. This time of year wooly worms are always in a big hurry, searching for a warm place to hibernate for the winter. They race across the asphalt at breakneck wooly-worm speed. I sometimes swerve across the road to avoid them. I mean, who wants to smoosh the teddy bear of caterpillars? But no matter how fast they go, they're never fast enough. I always end up running over some.

The poor, peaceful little creatures, no matter how they try, are no match for the slick speed of my modern machine. They can't outrun it, can't get out of the way of it, and inevitably end up smooshed. Flattened by progress.

I can relate.




Two weeks ago I bought a new cell phone. One with a touch pad. I did my research, went into a store and poked at the one I liked, emailed my buddy who tests phones for a living and she gave her stamp of approval to my phone choice. Got it activated and left the store. That's the one I bought, there on the left.


I could not make a phone call. I couldn't get the dang thing to let me into my contact list to find the number. I had to go to a parking lot, stop, get out the quick start guide, and look at the instructions to make a call.


Later I realized my pictures had not transferred from my old phone when they fixed up my new SIM card. Hey, I was just proud that I actually took pictures with a freakin' phone. But now I was going to lose them. So I took it back to the store. Cutie pie behind the phone counter, who was about 20, poked around in the phone's menu.

"You can bluetooth them," Cutie Pie said.

"What?"

"You can bluetooth them to your new phone."


Now I will admit that when bluetooth technology arrived in the world, I pumped my fist in the air and said, "yessssssss!" Because I have spent so much of my life driving long-distance, and having to do other stuff WHILE driving, I immediately saw the beauty of a tiny earpiece through which I could operate my cell phone. I was instantly hooked.


But I can send pictures from my old, dead phone, to my new, cool phone using bluetooth? I stared for a minute. Six months ago I couldn't change phones and keep my same phone number (this is an exaggeration, I realize, but it's that speed thing again..time has collapsed and I'm behind.) Cutie Pie obviously sensed my distress, even though she never stopped punching buttons and looking at the phones. She held my old one in one hand, and the new one in the other hand, and punched buttons on both at the same time.

"Let me see what you're doing," I said. "So I can watch what menus you're navigating through to do this."

"Really it would be easier," Cutie Pie said, "if you got somebody you know to do it for you....." She paused as she punched more buttons. "You know, like....a kid."

And that's when I knew.

I am a wooly worm.

A hapless,fuzzy weather prognosticator, tottering through a doppler radar world. Overwhelmed by the slick, fast, digital machine of progress. And although I race at breakneck wooly-worm speed across the pavement, I am destined to be flattened. A middle-aged chick who needs to ask a little kid to help her understand her stinkin' phone.


This has not always been the case. I was once technologically on the ball. I could operate any kind of recording or sound reproduction equipment, do light and sound production for stage and broadcast, and set up satellite links for television remotes. I could make any number of international long-distance calls or have directory assistance billed to my home phone number without ever once speaking to a live person. I could do it just by punching numbers into the...uhm.........well....the pay phone.


But between then and now, digital technology happened, ones and zeroes took over the world, and somewhere along the way I...well, I grew fuzz.

I resisted technology, I suppose, because I hate, on principle, to embrace something that is old before I open the box, and also because I think it's a little silly to believe that I NEED to be able to take videos and then email them to friends ALL WITH MY PHONE. Perhaps it's my resistance to the instant-gratification society we've become. NOOOOOO, I can't wait to get home to do this. I must email it NOW. They must see it noooooooowwwwwwwwww or we will all die.

Never mind the piles of cell phones, like this pile on the right, which are going into landfills due to this ravenous hunger for disposable technology. The speed of it...well, that's another thing. There's no time to smell the roses. Heck, we'll just generate them digitally right here in front of us. Yes, they're flat, and they smell a bit like rose-scented plastic, but what the hey, they sure are FAST!

Blech.

Alas, the tide of technology has overtaken me. I had a pivotal birthday a month ago. Not one of the BIG pivotal ones, but pivotal enough. And for this birthday, which made me feel not just old, but olde, I got......drum roll please..... an iPod. A pretty purple one, specially engraved with a poem Steve wrote for me. My friend, Adam, who is MUCH younger than I am, came over and helped me figure it out. I have 58 songs loaded so far.



Then a few days later I got a cool cable that lets me play my iPod over my car stereo, which is awesome. Then a couple of weeks later I got the touchpad phone. (NO, I do NOT have internet on my phone. Yet.) Today I got two gigs of new RAM for my desktop, to speed up my digital world and......another drum roll please.....a wireless router.


I'm typing this blog and posting it to the internet while I sit on a stool at my kitchen counter. I'm feeling distinctly less fuzzy. I am being assimilated. Clearly, resistance is futile.

The guy who sold me the wireless router was NOT the same Cutie Pie who told me, in so many words, that I was a wooly worm, but he was much younger than I. Still, he was nice enough to say, "I've worked with computers all my life, but I took two years off from the business a while back, and I had to study to catch up. It happens to everybody."

Maybe.


I do not like that it has happened to me. Wooly worms are cool, but I do not enjoy being one.


And yet I have one last holdout. I refuse to text. That's a whole nuther sore subject, and this blog is already too long. Hmmm....perhaps I am clinging to a bit of wooly-ness after all.

So tell me, Banditas and friends,

Are there any other Techno-wooly worms out there?

Do you jump on new technology the minute it arrives?

Or do you cling to your old stuff until it no longer functions, the way I hung onto my cool pink Razr phone until its circuitry was so fried it no longer remembered who it was?

Do you surf the web from your screened porch? Or are you stuck to a wire like the neanderthal I was?

Does technology make you faster, or slow you down?


Do you love it or hate it?

And do you have wooly worms where you live?


If so, what color are they this year?


Will it be a hard winter, or an easy one?


In the interest of holding on to some of what I was, I noticed the sky was red this evening. Should be a nice day tomorrow.

100 comments:

limecello said...

eek!

mariska said...

Congrats LIME !!

Cassondra said...

Whoa, Lime, you got the bird! YOu are the fastest rooster grabber in the lair for certain.

Or else you're just nuts like me and you're up all night. (grin)

limecello said...

Hi Cassondra - sorry, but I hate all bugs. Yes, including wooly worms. And they are annoying- bugs love me. I hate them. I get swarmed by butterflies - and this does not make me happy. (The universe laughs.)

Anyway... tech. Oooo I'm jealous of your phone! I have an LG Incite - also touch screen and I guess it looks good, but I *hate* it. Hates with so much hatred. I'm too cheap (or you know, poor) to have internet on my phone- but I do text. That's unlimited for me ;)
For most of college I had a lan cable for internet... but not since I lived off campus. It is such a foreign concept for me to have to plug in. I went to a conference last year and was chained to the desk because of my laptop. (Although I was grateful for the free internet. Cannot stand the hotels that charge for it, though so many do.)

As for tech... well I guess I feel the same way. I knew how to run? do? (see I can't even remember) DOS as a kid. Windows has ruined me. I also knew html as a middle schooler. I could build my own webpage - and had one. But these days, I can't even figure out how to change font colors on posts/reviews I do at the pond.

I will say I love the bluetooth transfer though -have been using that for a while - though oftentimes devices still won't play nice.

Cassondra said...

Okay Lime, see...you're one of THEM. The techno-savvy. I will have to get the GR to steal your secrets and coach me.

Okay I think it's actually much easier now than it was a few years ago. I used to curse and get so angry trying to get any new technology to run or load, but it's gotten better. The techno-gods and goddesses have figured out how to make installations go more smoothly and not lock up for any number of unknown reasons (none of which you know or have any reference for). Usually they run right along. I installed this router today in about an hour and was up and working on the blog wireless. Five years ago it would have required blood sacrifice to get it to work. I dunno what they've done--compatibility and cooperation maybe?--but it's better now.

Cassondra said...

OH and as to hating wooly worms....I am aghast! But it's okay. We still like you. ;0)

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

Wow Cassondra!

I've never seen a wooly worm with a red band on it like in your piccies. The ones around here are solid brown. You're supposed to notice how thick the wool is to predict the severity of the coming winter.

But then maybe they are all a solid color because we always have pretty mild winters here. :-P

Lime and Mariska, you two are fast on the draw, as usual. The poor GR's head must be spinning.

AC

Cassondra said...

Aunty Cindy said:

I've never seen a wooly worm with a red band on it like in your piccies. The ones around here are solid brown. You're supposed to notice how thick the wool is to predict the severity of the coming winter.


Oh, cool! I've never heard of that before--looking at how thick the wool is. Here they come in all shades from pale blonde (saw a BUNCH of those for the first time this year) to solid black. The banded is the most common--of course, we always have a nice cold snap sometime in winter. January, usually. The degree of cold and the length of cold--those vary.

While I was looking for wooly worm pics on the web I found some that are very strange looking. They look like a tiny bug-sized mop dog. Coarse, long wool that drapes all over the place. They look more like a funky flower blossom than a caterpillar. I learned that the wool is actually a specialized insulation that helps them hibernate and survive the winter, and they have a type of fluid in their bodies that is akin to anti-freeze. Otherwise they would die when it got cold.

Fedora said...

Hi, Cassondra!! Yes, I think I am indeed a fellow wooly worm. I masqueraded for a bit as a techie in college, but in reality, I tend to cling to the old ways far longer than perhaps wise. I'm sure I frustrate my savvy husband, who makes sure that we are up on things :)

And nope, I've never texted before in my life!

Congrats on the GR, Limecello!

Unknown said...

Congrats lime on the rooster today!

Since I live in KY we do have wooly worms and all of them that I have seen this year are real dark brown which means a bad winter.

As far as technology goes I am a neanderthal. Yep I still use a desk top computer, don't like a laptop at all. I just got my first cell phone this past week and am lost. My son set it up for me and said just play with the buttons until you learn how to use it, yeah right. The first thing I did was connected to the internet and did I mention that I don't have internet service on the phone so I am sure I will see that one on my phone bill. As far as the bluetooth goes I have to let my son take care of that. Personally I will just have to put my contacts and stuff in by hand, that is one thing I have learned to do. I guess I just like the old ways and I don't like change.

limecello said...

lol Cassondra- dare I admit I'm probably relatively close age wise to the girl @ AT&T?
And... sorry. I usde to be ok with wolly worms [we called them wolly bears!] - until I went on a hike once and basically got attacked. Wolly worm/bear stuck on coat, in hair- anyway, I've never been big on bugs in general, and that cemented it.

As for things being easier now, YES! I'm grateful, definitely. But it kinda makes me sad how incompetent/little I know now, comparatively. Not that I'm complaining about the ease - am all for it.

limecello said...

oooo Virginia - just saw your comment. Danger- danger! I actually do hate how phones can auto connect to the net and charge you your firstborn.
Have you considered blocking it? Most providers will do that for you if you ask. It doesn't seem like you'll be needing it... :)
[Will I get stoned if I say that's what my parents do? :X I did for a while too - until friends started sending me pics etc.]

Anna Campbell said...

Lime, congrats!

Me! Me! I am a wooly worm. We don't actually have them here and if we did they would be WOOLLY worms - I can't get the hang of the US no double L thing. It's a hel of a change for a girl from Oz. They look really cute. As you know, Cassondra, I love my critters. Madame thinks I'm totally off my rocker to get so excited about the reptiles around my house for example. Actually we've had a wonderful year for butterflies and I heard somewhere it's something to do with the air currents down the coast. Haven't seen as many since I was a kid on the farm. Now, they're great critters too!

But going back to my WW status, I haven't yet worked out how to read an SMS on my phone. Let alone do one. People SMS me and then get upset because I have no idea what they've told me. We actually have to have, like, a conversation to work things out. Suits me! Bah humbug to new technology. I have a perfectly good film camera that I've resisted throwing out. It hasn't been used much and it takes great photos. But these days, it costs me more than it cost to buy the camera when I develop film. I think I'm being herded in my woolly worm way into buying a digital camera. WWWWAAAAHHHH! I don't wanna!

Woolly Worms of the World Unite! Or perhaps WOONITE to keep up the alliteration. I'm no good with technology, but I'm great with alliteration! Oh, and my oxymorons are things of beauty to behold!

Keira Soleore said...

Lime, you did it!

Cassondra, "wooly worm" is sure warmer and fuzzier than a Luddite, which is what I am. Less than a year ago, I got on the texting bandwagon and got a phone with a keyboard. (gasp!) So all this business about one device talking to another through a third device...(waves hand airily) Much beyond what I'm willing to invest my every-fewer brain cells in.

mariska said...

Is that a worm ? i thought it was a red wool.
i'm not sure whether we have that big wooly worm in Indonesia ? (gosh, i think i should get to know my country first!)
but then your wooly worm is pretty *g*

as for the question, i have wireless internet connection to my pc (my hubby had bought that for me just couple days ago, as an 'early' birthday present *winks*).
i just got my first mobile on last february (after almost 3 years without using any mobile, since i couldn't afford any). It's Nokia. no touch screen. only the 'usual' mobile, and the great thing is i can connect to the net with it! yays.

= Or do you cling to your old stuff until it no longer functions, the way I hung onto my cool pink Razr phone until its circuitry was so fried it no longer remembered who it was? =

*GRIN* well, i was used to. trust me. it happened when I was still working at my old work place (now i'm a full time mom). my Samsung was more than 5 years old, it cracked. i had to rubber band it (i changed the color of rubber band once a week!). all of my friends had screamed at me when they saw my mobile. when they said i have to change the mobile, i answered them, "as long as the mobile still can receive calls and sms, i won't change my mobile".

i've heard about blue tooth but never use it before.

Keira Soleore said...

Keira-the-typo-maker strikes again! That should be "ever fewer" not "every-fewer."

Fo, ahem! Your film camera does take very nice pictures indeed. I have beautiful examples on my bulletin board! Don't change! PLZ! Then I'll be all alone in my Luddite splendor. (clings)

hrdwrkdmom aka Dianna said...

I have a foot in both camps I guess, maybe I am just lightly wooly. My cell does have internet, it has a full qwerty key board though it isn't "touch" technology. I have a blue tooth headset because I drive an SUV and I don't think it is safe to drive it one handed at any time. I also have a router because there is only one internet cable in the house and my son and I both need it at the same time on occasion. That is the extent of my technology.
Oh and I don't care for woolly worms, they have way too many little feet under those coats and anything with more than 4 are in my don't let it get on me section.

Gillian Layne said...

Yeah, we are all over the wooly worm watch here in the midwest. We are thinking it's going to be a rough winter. I'm praying snow and not more ice.

I am so behind with technology it's scary. That's why I have kids, I think. To do it all for me.

p226 said...

One might think that I'd be the antithesis of the wooly worm. But I'm not. Occasionally, I get handed one of those electro-gizmos you've blogged about. "Hey, compu-weenie, tell me if there's any evidence on this iGadget."

At this point, I'm a wooly worm. Because the iGadget was just released in stores and hour ago, and due to their enormous iMarketing their iZombies flocked to the stores in iDroves and saturated the market. Now everyone's got an iGadget, and some of them just might contain evidence. And of course, I might be asked to retrieve that evidence.

At some point.... at some level of experience in the technical world, you actually resign yourself to being a perpetual wooly worm. It finally occurs to you that you cannot possibly stay on top of all of this technology. It just won't happen, no matter how much time you spend in the basement with pizza and two liters of pepsi gaining weight and acne while reading the latest phone reviews.

Nope. You can't do it. You can't keep up.

But have some hope. There is a strategy to deal with it.

I have this black t-shirt. It's my favorite. Because, when I go to the range with it and do draw-fire and draw-fire-move drills, people look at this shirt, approach me, and ask invariably "are you a cop?"

"Why? Am I shooting *THAT* badly?" And I always tell them no. I don't elaborate. I just say "no." Then I watch them look back and forth from the lettering on my t-shirt and my face. They are of course, trying to determine if I'm lying, and what federal agency is "RTFM."

RTFM. That's what it says on my t-shirt. RTFM is salvation from wooly wormdom. RTFM is an awful experience. RTFM means Read The F****** Manual.

I hate the manual. They're always horribly written. I hate reading them. But sometimes, you have your choice. Study that thing, or wind up a colorful rust/black splotch under a Michelin.

Susan Sey said...

Hey, Cassondra! Congrats on your cool new phone! You're braver than I am. I have a phone that dials other phones. Period. It may be able to take pictures but since I have no idea how to get them out of the phone, it hardly makes sense to take them there. :-)

My husband, however, has an iPhone which he feels is probably the coolest advance in phone technology since they went cordless. Seriously. He takes the thing to bed with us in lieu of a book at night. I have recently had to ban the internet in the car--at least on Sunday mornings on the way to church. One morning a week, you can put away the internet and talk to your family while we drive somewhere.

I never used to have to say that before the iPhone.

I kind of miss our life before the iPhone.

Joan said...

Cassondra, I marvel at you.

And at your ability to dodge wooly worms.

I've not seen any around suburban Louisville yet this year, but like Gillian am worried about more ice (bought myself a "warm outfit" just in case)

Ah, technology. I am intrigued by it, drawn to it, stumped. I did get a new cell phone that I HAVE texted on ...just to my one friend and my goddaughter who chided me about texting in full sentences "What R U doing?" she sent back.

I don't know!

I have to admit, I would like to be able to get on the internet with the phone for when I travel. I've got capability but the closest I got was accessing Delta's website when I was stuck in Atlanta for 8 hours "Your flight has been cancelled" got old.

I envy you your wireless router. My laptop (5 years old) does not...evidently...have WiFi capability but I'd love to use it, again when travelling. Heard you can buy a USB thingee from Sprint. I don't know.

But my iPod Nano. LOVE. IT. I've got show tunes, and my country songs and am going to download iChristmas songs soon. Just bought the cassette thingee for my car....yeah!

But in the end, I am all wooly. I have in my mind I want to buy a DVD player and a Wi but am paralyzed at the notion of hooking it up with my TV and DVR!!!!


Just call me Wanda Wooly

Christie Kelley said...

Cassondra, I love the wooly caterpillars. Two weeks ago, they were everywhere! I saw five of them on a walk with my husband one day. The colors on ours are split into thirds this year. Although, I l keep hearing it's supposed to be a cold snowy winter. We'll see!

As far as techno stuff, I am semi-wired. We were having a problem with our wireless router a year ago so the cable company came and installed these cool ethernet things that plug into any electrical socket in the house and my PC. Now, we have them for my PC, and both my son's PCs too. It's much faster than going the wireless route. I can still use the router but for some reason only when my son isn't on his PC.

I still don't have a phone with internet and honestly, I don't think I want one. I'm online enough.

Hellie Sinclair said...

I haven't seen any woolies yet...but after having a snake in the house a couple weeks ago, it's alright if I don't see one. I'm not bothered. I also see enough spiders and black beetly bugs not to miss fat fuzzy worms.

I am a technological MORON. I can't even program a PHONE NUMBER into my cell phone. My poor boyfriend was trying to give me his number and I was like, "Wait a second, wait a second..." and he was, "I'll just call you and you can save it that way." Superior geek.

Lately I've broken my computer--not my fault--my anti-virus stopped working though I kept doing updates and running it and it kept saying all was well...and then I found out, it wasn't. Now I don't have wireless...I have to plug in, in order to get internet. Gah.

Let's not discuss what I did to my dishwasher a few weeks ago, or the fact I had smoke pouring out of my oven this week (even though I can cook and am a pretty good cook, thanks.)

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Hey Lime! You got him by a feather! Grins. He's back with his lady love. Hahah!

I think most of us writers are Woolies. Grins. Think about it, we're not currently ON the phone or txtng anyone, we're writing long words rather than using RU THR? type abbreviations.

I like being woolly. I love the wooly caterpillars too - like Christie, ours are thirds. We've already had a cold snap - YEAH!!! - and it's cold and rainy today. I hope for snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow. Snow like in 1996 where, here in DC, it shut the entire city down, which was actually a good thing. Hahah!

Susan, my DH bans tech sometimes too and so do I. He's more of a Luddite than I am. You know, sometimes I don't WANT to be that reachable.

Then again, I do like the bluetooth for hands free - mini-vans w/ kids on board require my hands free, thanks! - and I like to be able to text. I text in correct English, sorry, can't help it. Early training and all that.

P226, I was ROFLMAO about the shirt and everyone wondering about the acronym. Since DC is the "alphabet soup" of acronyms, I probably would have been doing the same thing. "Hmmmm, wonder what that means?" I do this with vanity plates too. Sometimes to the point that I want to roll down the window at stop lights and ask, "What the h*ll does that MEAN?"

Grins.

Cassondra, as always, a brilliant blog. I'll pat the woolly on the screened in porch for you. I won't be working there today w/ my wireless b/c it's raining, but I frequently do! (There really is a woolly on my porch as I type this!)

Louisa Cornell said...

Way to go. Lime! Although I think he's running TO you with no effort on your part.

I am a BIG WOOLY WORM !! I only got a cell phone a little over a year ago. It does NOT have a keyboard. I'm lucky if I can get to my contacts on the darned thing.

I bought a lap top this year - a very simply one because well, my nephew went off to college and I can't get to him to fix my stuff!

I don't have an Ipod which is considered sacrilege for a musician like me. I just don't think I can operate the darned thing.

I do have a digital camera because my brother bought me one. It isn't a big complicated one, but it does the job. I'd really rather have a regular film camera because I have trouble getting the photos from my digital onto my computer or onto anything else so I can print them.

I was definitely born in the wrong time!

Joan said...

Touch pads. I have an aversion to them.

We have a lot of equipment at the hospital that utilizes these...and if you don't hit it JUST RIGHT...it won't work.

You tap your finger, and tap your finger and TAP YOUR FINGER before it FINALLY connects.

And you don't even get the tactile pleasure of pushing a button!

Cybercliper said...

According to your wooly worm picture, you all should have a fairly easy winter. We don't have them here in S. Texas, but I grew up in E. Ky and Dad always said the blacker the wooly the harsher the winter.

I stay up with computers and software, but the rest - cell phones, music/video players, internet time wasters - not so much. The internet is a great tool to use in learning, but so much of the new technology seems to be designed to just waste your time. If I got time to kill, I'll read a book or get some good laughs with the Bandits.

Cassondra said...

Yes, everyone, I am indeed up and out of the coffin. Coffee is brewing. I see the lair is already rocking along. Good to see everyone!

flchen1 said:

Yes, I think I am indeed a fellow wooly worm. I masqueraded for a bit as a techie in college, but in reality, I tend to cling to the old ways far longer than perhaps wise

AHA! I'm not the only one! Oh, good. I was beginning to feel like I was alone in this techno-phobic behavior.

And high-five on the no-texting, chick! I wonder how long we'll be able to hold out on that one?

Cassondra said...

OH, VIRGINIA! ALL DARK BROWN? NOOOOOOOO!

Well, I've seen some very light blonde ones--blonde all over with no markings at all--and I'm just what, a few miles south of you? So maybe we'll split the difference. (hope hope)

Virginia said:

I just got my first cell phone this past week and am lost. My son set it up for me and said just play with the buttons until you learn how to use it, yeah right. The first thing I did was connected to the internet and did I mention that I don't have internet service on the phone so I am sure I will see that one on my phone bill.

Ha! See? The "just play with it" only works util you make a fatal mistake. I am an instruction girl. I like an instruction book. But the instruction books have gotten so big and complex, they put them on CD now. You have to sit at your computer to learn how to use your phone. I have about as much time for that as I have for putting my feet up and eating bonbons. *sigh*

The truth is, though, that when the instruction books became three times the size AND thickness as the phones, I no longer had time to learn it all. I am a fuddy duddy.

As far as the bluetooth goes I have to let my son take care of that. Personally I will just have to put my contacts and stuff in by hand, that is one thing I have learned to do. I guess I just like the old ways and I don't like change.


You know, I don't think I mind CHANGE itself, so much. It's change that I don't have time or energy to assimilate. I don't like change that is so complex you have to start from square one every time. That is annoying, and a major time sink.

Like when I got my laptop and Word no longer said "file" at the top corner. Who in their right mind would know to click on that stupid squiggly thing to get the file menu to drop down? Whose idea was this? Why can't it just say "file?" You know...user friendly for...well...USERS. Like me?

I worked out of the auto-saved file for about a week before I gave up and called Jeanne to find out how to save a freaking document.

Cassondra said...

Lime said:

And... sorry. I usde to be ok with wolly worms [we called them wolly bears!] - until I went on a hike once and basically got attacked. Wolly worm/bear stuck on coat, in hair- anyway, I've never been big on bugs in general, and that cemented it.


REALLY????

Wow. If they've fallen on me they've always just curled into a ball and slid right out of my hair. They didn't wiggle or anything. Just played dead and plopped onto the ground. I wonder if your wooly worm was a different kind? Or perhaps you have extremely curly hair? That might do it.

And somehow I KNEW you were about the ageof the Cutie Pie. ;0)

Joan said...

But the instruction books have gotten so big and complex,

This is not exactly in the vein of the discussion today, but oh, yeah on instruction books.

I just bought a new vacumm. The instruction manual is USELESS. The instructional pictures are "teeny tiny". I managed to get the handle on but I have parts left over.

I'm just staring at it...working up my nerve to actually turn it on!

Cassondra said...

Limecello said:

Will I get stoned if I say that's what my parents do? :X I did for a while too - until friends started sending me pics etc.

No,why would you get stoned for that? Because you're young? Nothing wrong with being young. And you know the thing I'm coming to hate about my phone is that because it's a touch pad and there's nothing to open, when it rings in my purse I can't get it out without answering it. I want to see the number before I answer, dang it. There is probably some way to program it to do what I want, but....see....more menus. Sheesh. There's no way around it.

Cassondra said...

Fo said:

Bah humbug to new technology. I have a perfectly good film camera that I've resisted throwing out. It hasn't been used much and it takes great photos. But these days, it costs me more than it cost to buy the camera when I develop film. I think I'm being herded in my woolly worm way into buying a digital camera. WWWWAAAAHHHH! I don't wanna!

OH, me neither! The thing is, that Steve and I were both photographers. I mean professional ones. I have a degree in photojournalism. And I know NOTHING about digital photography. I am a dinosaur. I have thousands of dollars worth of Nikon equipment, and every bit of it is now material for a museum. *sigh* It has gone a long way to making me feel olde.

Woolly Worms of the World Unite! Or perhaps WOONITE to keep up the alliteration. I'm no good with technology, but I'm great with alliteration! Oh, and my oxymorons are things of beauty to behold!


You know, the beauty of THAT is that alliteration (real alliteration), and oxymorons are two things that technology will be hard pressed to duplicate, girlfriend! We wooly worms are still good for something! Yay!

Cassondra said...

Kiera said:

Less than a year ago, I got on the texting bandwagon and got a phone with a keyboard. (gasp!) So all this business about one device talking to another through a third device...(waves hand airily) Much beyond what I'm willing to invest my every-fewer brain cells in.


Kiera! I looked at those! I admit that the little slide-out keyboard on the other Samsung phone very nearly won me over. I wanted it for ease of entering names into my address book. I am forever putting it off because I hate punching a number three times to get to the letter I want. I type fast. I want a keyboard dangit! But the keyboard ate a lot of battery/talk time. So I went with the touchpad. I can turn my phone sideways and a real keyboard appears. It's aggravatingly small, but it's there and I know where the letters are. No new skill to assimilate. This is a good thing.

I think I DO want to learn the bluetooth thing to swap numbers and give my contact list to steve and such. Also, I understand that my phone can communicate with my computer, perhaps, given the right circumstances, which is an interesting concept......

I'm going to be travelling a bit more here in the next year, and this on-the-go technology has taken on a fresh appeal.

I just want it to be easy to figure out. Not so complicated I accidentally call Mariska in Indonesia when I want to look up Jeanne's number in the contact list. Yaknow?

Cassondra said...

Mariska said:

as for the question, i have wireless internet connection to my pc (my hubby had bought that for me just couple days ago, as an 'early' birthday present *winks*).
i just got my first mobile on last february (after almost 3 years without using any mobile, since i couldn't afford any). It's Nokia. no touch screen. only the 'usual' mobile, and the great thing is i can connect to the net with it! yays.



Oh, AWESOME. Happy Birthday! AS to connecting to the web with it...*sigh* I will now curl into a ball and play dead. STep over me carefully, would you? ;0)

it happened when I was still working at my old work place (now i'm a full time mom). my Samsung was more than 5 years old, it cracked. i had to rubber band it (i changed the color of rubber band once a week!). all of my friends had screamed at me when they saw my mobile. when they said i have to change the mobile, i answered them, "as long as the mobile still can receive calls and sms, i won't change my mobile".


Ah, see? This is it. But for me, it was that I LOVED my phone. It was perfect. It did everything I wanted. But the newer Razr phones are less durable. Mine was made of...hold onto your tighty-whities, Batman, METAL! Yes, that's right. Metal. Mined from the Earth and to the Earth it shall return.... I could drop it from a good height, it would fly apart into several pieces, none of which were actually broken, and I could put it back together and rock on. It's when you LOVE your stuff and they no longer make one like it. THat's the trouble. :0(

As to bluetooth--if you're a busy mom, and need six hands, the bluetooth is something you might want to embrace. Hands free for driving or tending to the short people is excellent.

Cassondra said...

Kiera said:

Fo, ahem! Your film camera does take very nice pictures indeed. I have beautiful examples on my bulletin board! Don't change! PLZ! Then I'll be all alone in my Luddite splendor. (clings)


No worries, Kiera. You won't be alone. I've got mine. It's getting harder to get film though. This will be the downfall of my clinging to the technology. I do have financial reasons though--all that money invested in those camera bodies and lenses. :0(

My goodness, I'm in a smiley mood today. PRobably a good thing we've never enabled emoticons over here.

catslady said...

If you think you are a wooly worm than that makes me a wooly mamouth lol. Although I'm a 100 times more advanced than my sister. I was fine when my youngest was still living at home - she was a whiz at technical things but alas she is away at college so I'm back to knowing nothing sigh. And the only wooly worm that I've seen so far this year was entirely black - waaaaaa.

Cassondra said...

aka Dianna said:

have a foot in both camps I guess, maybe I am just lightly wooly. My cell does have internet, it has a full qwerty key board though it isn't "touch" technology.

Well, I am clearly in that "foot in both camps" category now, myself. Sounds like I'm about on par with your technology--router, bluetooth, etc. EXCEPT for internet on my phone. And I have no idea what Qwerty means.

As to the feet on the wooly worms, yes, they do have several. I think it's sort of like the rat/squirrel thing for me. I don't want anywhere near a rat. Blech. But put the fuzzy tail on it and let it live in trees and scamper about looking cute, and I'm all over it.

Hmmm. That's probably racist, isn't it?

Deb said...

I am not one to jump up and run out to buy the new techno things when they first come out. But, I feel lost and panicky if I forget my cell phone or can't remember where I set the thing down in the house. I don't like all the fancy stuff on gadgets. My 9-year-old uses my camera phone and figured it out way before I did!
My husband had a Bluetooth, but the dryer wasn't very kind to it when HE forgot to take it out of his pocket and I washed his jeans. Oops.
I like woolly worms, but am not overly fond of bugs. Yuck.

Cassondra said...

Gillian Layne said:

Yeah, we are all over the wooly worm watch here in the midwest. We are thinking it's going to be a rough winter. I'm praying snow and not more ice.

OH, me too. I'd much rather have snow. Last winter the trees in our area were RAVAGED. WE were without power for a week. I think poor Virginia may have been without power for even longer, though I don't remember specifically how long her area was dark.

I am so behind with technology it's scary. That's why I have kids, I think. To do it all for me.
Well, see...my fur children...they're not much help in that way. And one of the things that makes me feel like I need to curl up and play dead is that I need KIDS to teach me how to do stuff that I, theoretically, should be teaching them. HECK, you have to teach your kid how to eat and walk and use the potty. Shouldn't you have to teach him/her to use a phone? *sigh* This is not right.

Nancy said...

Limecello, congrats on being first.

Mariska, almost . . .

Cassondra, I am a woolly worm. Once upon a time, I was very techno-forward, especially for a woman, due to my stint at the college radio station. I can still hook up electronics, the principles being basically unchanged.

When it comes to phones, though? No way. I cling to my phone that is just a phone, no camera, no internet, texting disabled per my request, because I know how to use it and--critical point--it fits comfortably in my hand.

And, in the style dept., it has a flip-top like a Star Trek communicator c. 1968. This is critical. If the phone's general style does not closely resemble a Trek communicator, it's not for me. Seriously.

The boy has a phone that will do just about everything but fold his laundry. It doesn't fit my hand. Or have a flip-top. And it pocket-dials on its own initiative. I don't want one.

My phone does not dial on the request of my gluteus maximus or any other body part except a deliberately applied fingertip.

I also don't have a ring tone, but here I'd like to progress. Gannon explained all about ringtones to me at M&M (we share a cell provider). However, I still find the whole business confusing. I think I'll go to the store and get some Gifted Young Thing to handle the ringtone issue for me. Then I'll be set.

One of my friends has the original Star Trek theme as her ringtone, and it's cool. I want a different SFF-related one, though.

Cassondra said...

P226 said:

I hate the manual. They're always horribly written. I hate reading them. But sometimes, you have your choice. Study that thing, or wind up a colorful rust/black splotch under a Michelin.


Yes, this is the thing. And I DON'T actually hate the manual. I don't care that they're horribly written as long as they can make me understand. I just don't have the four hours it takes to sit there and do nothing but futz with my phone in front of the computer. I honestly don't. And that's the trouble for me. When it begins to take SO much time to assimilate the new technology and how to use it, that it becomes counter-productive, and the menus you have to memorize to get to what you want (or some other shortcut way you have to memorize) become so complex that it...well...it just takes too many of my limited gray matter cells.

You are right though. I am, frankly, surprised that you have any wooly worm tendencies whatsoever. I figured you would be laughing your butt off at my wooly worm notions.

Nancy said...

Oh--I don't think we have woolly worms here. I don't remember ever seeing one.

Cassondra said...

Susan Sey said:

You're braver than I am. I have a phone that dials other phones. Period. It may be able to take pictures but since I have no idea how to get them out of the phone, it hardly makes sense to take them there. :-)

See????? I don't know how to get them off the phone either, but I'm thinking maybe the bluetooth technology might do it for me...maybe I can beam them to my computer or something..(hopes it will be this easy)

I have recently had to ban the internet in the car--at least on Sunday mornings on the way to church. One morning a week, you can put away the internet and talk to your family while we drive somewhere.

I never used to have to say that before the iPhone.


And this. THIS.

I miss having a conversation with someone and actually having their full attention. I checked out at Rite Aid yesterday and while the clerk was ringing up my sale and giving me my receipt? Yes, that's right. She was texting.

While muti-tasking is great and everything, I think we are losing the SKILL-yes, that's right I said SKILL--of doing ONLY one thing at a time. Focusing solely on the other person.

That's my beef with texting. People who text think it's not rude to do so. But I know something. I know if they are having another conversation while they're having one with me, only a part of them is in the conversation with me.

I kind of miss our life before the iPhone.

Although I am addicted to certain technologies, I actually miss life BEFORE technology. It was slower. I'm not sure that was a bad thing.

Cassondra said...

JOanie said:

my goddaughter who chided me about texting in full sentences "What R U doing?" she sent back.

I don't know!


SNORK! Okay, I spewed coffee on my laptop.

The Cutie Pie at Sams, where I bought my phone, told me that nobody talks anymore. They text. I'm thinking maybe that's not a good thing.

One really funny story came from a guy we know who owns a restaurant in the small town nearby. He's set it up as a Safe Spot for kids to hang out after school until their parents get home. He says the guys and girls never talk. They group of into male and female gangs, sit on opposite sides of the restaurant, send wary glances back and forth, and...yes, that's right...text each other.

I'm proud of you, Joanie, for embracing technology. You are far less wooly than I am.

Cassondra said...

Christie said:

I still don't have a phone with internet and honestly, I don't think I want one. I'm online enough.


OH, yes, so am I. I am disgusted at the way time slips away from me while I'm online! I often get the sense that I'm not actually present for my real life, but live mostly in some virtual sphere elsewhere. (No wonder the dishes never get done)

I think this is not a good thing, and yet I feel powerless to resist the flow. I am swept along with it. No internet on the phone for me. At least not right away until I have a pressing need for it because of so much travel.

Cassondra said...

Hellion said:

I haven't seen any woolies yet...but after having a snake in the house a couple weeks ago, it's alright if I don't see one. I'm not bothered. I also see enough spiders and black beetly bugs not to miss fat fuzzy worms.

OH, I don't like Beetly bugs or spiders either. But the wooly worms seem somehow less...menacing.

I am a technological MORON. I can't even program a PHONE NUMBER into my cell phone. My poor boyfriend was trying to give me his number and I was like, "Wait a second, wait a second..." and he was, "I'll just call you and you can save it that way." Superior geek.



SEE? SEE?

They are SO in a hurry they can't wait for you to learn it. Grrrrr. Just like Cutie PIe who told me to let a kid do it for me.

NO. I don't want to let someone do it for me. I want to LEARN TO DO IT MYSELF! AAAAAAHHHHHH!

Cassondra said...

Jeanne said:

my DH bans tech sometimes too and so do I. He's more of a Luddite than I am. You know, sometimes I don't WANT to be that reachable.



Yes. Back when I had an actual land line at home, with an actual answering machine attached, I often turned the thing off (this was a long time ago) because I just did not feel the need to be available to the whole world 24-7. One of my friends got really angry. He felt that I MUST be available. I resist this notion.

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Cassondra said: You know, I don't think I mind CHANGE itself, so much. It's change that I don't have time or energy to assimilate. I don't like change that is so complex you have to start from square one every time. That is annoying, and a major time sink.


Amen, sister, amen. I have SO many better things on which to spend my time. Reading. Writing the d*mn book, walking the dogs, playing with the kids. Football....

Cassondra said...

Louisa said:

I don't have an Ipod which is considered sacrilege for a musician like me. I just don't think I can operate the darned thing.


Well, you know, it's actually easy.

Honest.

I resisted it. What's that song say?

I like my old records
Black & shiny vinyl
Cracks & pops and white noise
Man, they sounded fine....


Since I am a musician/songwriter also, I knew I'd fallen WAY behind by not having digital music technology. But I was afraid it would be a pain in the butt to learn how to use it. It wasn't. It was fairly user friendly. There were just a few little tricks. Making sure the headphone jack was all the way pushed into the unit, and getting itunes loaded on the computer so I could manage my song files.

After that, I was golden. The really cool thing was on my recent drive to Knoxville, I played it the whole way there and the whole way back. I was constantly surprised by the new song coming on, but it was never a song I hated, which was actually awesome. I fell in love with the iPod on that trip, and I suppose, in that instant, I lost a little of my fuzz.

Cassondra said...

Joanie said:

Touch pads. I have an aversion to them.

We have a lot of equipment at the hospital that utilizes these...and if you don't hit it JUST RIGHT...it won't work.

You tap your finger, and tap your finger and TAP YOUR FINGER before it FINALLY connects.

And you don't even get the tactile pleasure of pushing a button!



See, I think touch pads aren't very good when many, many people use the same one. My phone has some technology to learn to recognize MY touch level, and respond to that. Or so it says. They could be lying. I wouldn't know.

Cassondra said...

Cyberclipper said:

According to your wooly worm picture, you all should have a fairly easy winter. We don't have them here in S. Texas, but I grew up in E. Ky and Dad always said the blacker the wooly the harsher the winter.



Yes, that's what I've always heard too. The darker the color, the harsher the winter. However, that wooly worm in the pic is not one I took. I found it on the web. We've had both fully blonde ones her (which would suggest an EXTREMELY mild winter) and ones that look like that--rust-banded, and a few very dark ones.

I'm hoping the earlier, blonde ones were correct. :0/

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Cassondra said: it's a touch pad and there's nothing to open, when it rings in my purse I can't get it out without answering it. I want to see the number before I answer, dang it.

See? I get this. this is why I insisted on a flip phone. I either inadvertently called people I didn't want to call, or answered it when I didn't know who it was.

Nancy said: And, in the style dept., it has a flip-top like a Star Trek communicator c. 1968. This is critical. If the phone's general style does not closely resemble a Trek communicator, it's not for me. Seriously.

Amen, sister, amen! (I'm obviously in an amen-ing mood today!)

Cassondra said...

JOanie said:

just bought a new vacumm. The instruction manual is USELESS. The instructional pictures are "teeny tiny". I managed to get the handle on but I have parts left over.

I'm just staring at it...working up my nerve to actually turn it on!


OH NO! I hope it doesn't fy apart, or suck you in. That would be awful if it sucked in our Joanie T and we had to come and save her! :0(

What kind of vacuum did you get?

And what are they thinking with these manuals? It's like they don't realize they're making them for PEOPLE.

Cassondra said...

Deb said:

I am not one to jump up and run out to buy the new techno things when they first come out. But, I feel lost and panicky if I forget my cell phone or can't remember where I set the thing down in the house. I don't like all the fancy stuff on gadgets. My 9-year-old uses my camera phone and figured it out way before I did!


Now see? I've gotten so addicted to the internet I go into seizures if I don't have it. I could not connect to the WiFi at the Hampton Inn in Knoxville a couple of weeks ago. It was awful. I don't know when I got so dang addicted.

I like being able to check in when I'm away from the lair, and to get my email. I suppose I have been assimilated in that way.

What I don't understand is WHY little kids seem to automatically tune in to this stuff and be able to figure it out. It seems so counter-intuitive to me--most of it anyway--but for them, it's like breathing air. I don't understand this. It's like they come out pre-programmed now.

Cassondra said...

catslady said:

I was fine when my youngest was still living at home - she was a whiz at technical things but alas she is away at college so I'm back to knowing nothing sigh. And the only wooly worm that I've seen so far this year was entirely black - waaaaaa.

Once again, a kid understands it when we don't. *sigh*

And as to the wooly worms, crossing fingers that they're wrong this year.

Cassondra said...

Nancy said:

Oh--I don't think we have woolly worms here. I don't remember ever seeing one.



OH NO! Surely you have wooly worms there. Perhaps they've simply eluded your notice. You kind of need to be outside at the correct times of year when they're moving around a lot. They're not real obvious unless you know what you're looking for.

Cassondra said...

Nancy said:

I also don't have a ring tone, but here I'd like to progress. Gannon explained all about ringtones to me at M&M (we share a cell provider). However, I still find the whole business confusing. I think I'll go to the store and get some Gifted Young Thing to handle the ringtone issue for me. Then I'll be set.

Well, Cutie Pie told me that someone with a cool ring tone can bluetooth it to you. (grin)

One of my friends has the original Star Trek theme as her ringtone, and it's cool. I want a different SFF-related one, though.

Yes, I also wish to embrace the awesome ring tones. I have different ones I want for different people. I may never get to this point, and it's not something I plan to spend money on, but I would like to have it. That said, I haven't even figured out how to set my phone on silent and know for sure it won't ring. The menus for this are not straightforward and do not make sense at all. *sigh* So ringtones are nowhere near possible.

Nancy there is a cool new silver flip phone which turns awesome colors--a differnt color each time the phone is opened or closed that I think you will like. Very Trek-ish. Perhaps the most communicator-like gadget I've seen yet.

Cassondra said...

Jeanne said:

I have SO many better things on which to spend my time. Reading. Writing the d*mn book, walking the dogs, playing with the kids. Football....


Yes. Doing LIFE. NOT learning how to skim across it while wired to something else.

I guess the next skill we'll have to develop is how to PUT THE TECHNOLOGY DOWN, TURN IT OFF, AND IGNORE IT. Maybe that's what the essence of the concept of Sunday, the day of rest, was about?

Cassondra said...

Jeanne said:

See? I get this. this is why I insisted on a flip phone. I either inadvertently called people I didn't want to call, or answered it when I didn't know who it was.


Well, I should have, I suppose. I was enamored of being able to run my finger up and down the face of it and scroll through stuff. Sucked me right in. AND I wanted a keyboard. Mine locks itself after a few seconds of non-use (programmable by me) so it won't make butt calls or purse calls, but when it rings, it's automatically on, so I can't dig for it without answering. *sigh* There may be a way around this. But to find out, I will have to RTFM.

Joan said...

The vacumm is a Bissell...spent a little bit more on it cause I wanted good sucking power...

Um, ....never mind

Joan said...

I too am addicted to my email. Thus the reason why I will NOT Twitter.....

Cassondra said...

Joanie said:

The vacumm is a Bissell...spent a little bit more on it cause I wanted good sucking power...

Um, ....never mind



Yes, Joanie, I completely understand. I once spent almost a thousand dollars on a vacuum because I wanted more suck.

Seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

Cassondra said...

Joanie said:

I too am addicted to my email. Thus the reason why I will NOT Twitter.....

OH, SEE? I know everyone wonders where the heck I am on Facebook. I"m not on there. I have not had time to assimilate it. *sigh* There it is again. EVERY thirty SECONDS there is a new technology to assimilate. I don't have time for it all. I cannot catch up. FAcebook will have to wait. Twitter? Maybe never......:0/

Lady_Graeye said...

Hello Cassondra!
Your article made my day! Oh, how funny! I love wolly worms too. I love to rescue them from the sidewalk or driveway, picking then up ever to carefully to put them in the grass. I, too, am a wolly worm. The first site of winter, I change my colors (clothing) and hibernate!

Pissenlit said...

Ewwwwww, bug-talk! Though I do have to admit, those black and red wooly worms look kind of cute...but I make no guarantee to stick to that opinion if I were to see one in real life. I don't know if we have any here.

I think I might be blessed with being an oxymoron...a techno-savvy wooly worm. In '95, one of my teachers refused to accept handwritten assignments so I did part of it in the school lab and for the other part, I busted out our old typewriter. I have never owned a cellphone and never bothered to learn to use one. I intensely dislike digital cameras(I developed and printed b&w film in university) and have never owned one. My computer is pretty old. I'm reluctant to move on to newer technology(if it ain't broke, I see no reason to switch) until forced to however, once I've hit that point, I pick things up really easily. I don't do manuals because they make my eyes cross and then glaze over and prefer to learn by fiddling with things. My old SLR camera died a few years ago but I'm holding out till I can afford one of the high-end fancier DSLRs because I hate the features on the novice/intermediate models(if it didn't cost so much to develop and print, I'd stick to film SLRs). If I ever need to get a cell phone, I'd want to get one with all the bells and whistles like an iPhone. Essentially, I hold out on picking up new technology but when I go to catch up, I tend of head straight for the newest stuff, the fancy-shmancier, the better.

Ya, I'm a contradiction.

Cassondra said...

Lady Graeye said:

I love wolly worms too. I love to rescue them from the sidewalk or driveway, picking then up ever to carefully to put them in the grass.

YOU are a good person, saving the peaceful wooly worm from being smooshed! Good on you for taking the time to do that. I have friends who make fun of me for stopping to move turtles out of the road. :0/

Pissenlit said...

Though, from the length of my posts, I think I just might not be suited to texting and Twitter...

Cassondra said...

Pissenlit said:

Essentially, I hold out on picking up new technology but when I go to catch up, I tend of head straight for the newest stuff, the fancy-shmancier, the better.

Ya, I'm a contradiction.


Yes, you ARE a contradiction.

I'm with you on the film cameras, and because I want professional digital equipment, it's so expensive I just can't do it now. If I were using my cameras to make a living at this point (which I did before) I would take the plunge, but I'm not. So I have sorry little intermediate digital technology for cameras. I also can do anything with film. Anything. But film is becoming hard to get here. I mourn the end of film, but I see its extinction at some point. It makes me sad.

Pissenlit said...

Cassondra - But film is becoming hard to get here. I mourn the end of film, but I see its extinction at some point. It makes me sad.

I'm totally with you on that! I'm also sad about all dust-gathering stuff I have sitting in my basement like tanks, filters, paper and negative sleeves.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Alas, I am a wooly worm, but darn proud of it!

Until 2 years ago, I had neither a cell phone or a digital camera. I had computers connected by huge wires and routers and surge protectors all over my house.

Then I started traveling more with my texas friends, to Ohio and places with my sister and parents, and my children started having babies, so I bought myself a cell phone. ***OMG was it the end of the civilized world as we know it?***

AND I told my husband I wanted a digital camera. He started telling me what I would need. I said, "Honey, you misunderstand me. I wish for YOU to go forth and procure said camera and all needed parts. THEN I want YOU to show me how to work it." The man thought he'd died and gone to heaven. I was sending him to the modern mecca of maledom...the electronics store!! 3 hours later he returned with his bounty in his arms to teach his eager student, moi!

I love both and my I've asked for a new iPod for Christmas so I can listen to rock and roll at work at night!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Cassondra said: Nancy there is a cool new silver flip phone which turns awesome colors--a differnt color each time the phone is opened or closed that I think you will like. Very Trek-ish. Perhaps the most communicator-like gadget I've seen yet.

Ooooooh! Cooooool!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Nancy, perhaps no woolies there because of the drought. I know we used to get them in the mountains, but they don't like it dry. :>

Cassondra, you are going to LOVE you iPod. I was SO reluctant to get one, but I now love it.

Grins

hrdwrkdmom aka Dianna said...

Cassondra said...And I have no idea what Qwerty means.

qwerty is just a computer or typewriter keyboard, rather than say it is a standard keyboard they say qwerty to confuse us all. You push my phone face up and you have a keypad, push it sideways and you have a wee little tiny keyboard.
I do text but only because my daughter forces me into it. If I am home and she texts I go to the computer and pull up yahoo and text her from there.

Anna Campbell said...

Hey, Mariska, happy birthday!

Keira, Luddite works for me ;-)

Oh, and I can't program in numbers either. I have to write them down. I've worked out how to make and receive calls and that's about it. What's funny is my plan came to an end this week and they were after me to take on another super duper phone plan with a new gizmo (at extra cost, of course). I felt like saying I can't use the one I've got, why would I want more features I never use?

Cassondra said...

Suz said:

"Honey, you misunderstand me. I wish for YOU to go forth and procure said camera and all needed parts. THEN I want YOU to show me how to work it." The man thought he'd died and gone to heaven. I was sending him to the modern mecca of maledom...the electronics store!!

LOL Suz! This is great! It would not work for Steve and me, because I would kill him before he had taught me to turn the thing on. We do not learn in the same ways. BUT, I'm glad that's workin' for you.

And woohooo on the iPod. I think you will love it.

Cassondra said...

I said:

Perhaps the most communicator-like gadget I've seen yet.

To which Jeanne said:

Ooooooh! Cooooool!


Yes. Yes, it is way cool.

Cassondra said...

aka Dianna said:

qwerty is just a computer or typewriter keyboard, rather than say it is a standard keyboard they say qwerty to confuse us all.

AHA! I get it now.

And the phone I looked at alongside this one had the keyboard that slides out from under the phone. Long ways, so it was a reasonable facsimile of a real keyboard, though tiny. I liked it, though, because the buttons I could feel with the ends of my fingers/thumbs made me really accurate typing with it. With the touchpad keyboard I'm always making mistakes and having to go back.

Cassondra said...

Jeanne said:

Cassondra, you are going to LOVE you iPod. I was SO reluctant to get one, but I now love it.


I DO love it. I love it especially that I can play it over my car stereo. That made me fall in love with it, right there. And I love it that Steve had it engraved just for me. :0)

Cassondra said...

Fo said:

my plan came to an end this week and they were after me to take on another super duper phone plan with a new gizmo (at extra cost, of course). I felt like saying I can't use the one I've got, why would I want more features I never use?


EXACTLY! I would like to at least be using a few of the features on a given phone before it becomes obsolete, ya know?

Cassondra said...

Pissenlit said:

I'm also sad about all dust-gathering stuff I have sitting in my basement like tanks, filters, paper and negative sleeves.


Yes, me too. I have a ton of photo equipment in boxes that will probably never see the light of day. *sigh* All that money spent, down the tubes.

mariska said...

Hey Ann, Thanks for the Birthday wishes!.*hugs*
actually, it will be middle of next week :D

Nancy said...

p226, I miss the days when a manual came with everything. Online help is not so helpful to those of us who like to have the info in our hands.

I'm not one of the iZombies to whom you refer, though the day I voluntarily buy a PC will be the day when Apple computers cease to be available in any form and every one in our house has died.

That said, however, I am currently aggravated because the MP3 files from my last brainstorming sessions, which originally played _Just Fine_ on the laptop, no longer do. I made the mistake of updating iTunes. The files will play on the not-updated desktop machine, but the speed is off and the sound quality is lousy in unfortunately updated iTunes 2009. Aack!

In this instance, technology is so freakin' NOT my friend. :-(

Nancy said...

Cassondra wrote: Nancy there is a cool new silver flip phone which turns awesome colors--a differnt color each time the phone is opened or closed that I think you will like. Very Trek-ish. Perhaps the most communicator-like gadget I've seen yet.

Really? Wow. If the phone fits in my hand, I might need one of those. Our cell provider keeps leaving me unwanted messages to the effect that our plan qualifies for a "free" (with contract extension, I suspect) phone. But I like this one. However, I might better like that Trek-ish one. Hmmm.

Nancy said...

Cassondra wrote: Whose idea was this? Why can't it just say "file?" You know...user friendly for...well...USERS. Like me?

For the same reason the new version of Outlook at school does not, when used for the "email the class" function, condescend to show the old paper clip symbol for an attachment. So you get to _guess_ whether it actually did transmit the attachment. Aaack!

Nancy said...

Fo and Cassondra, I love my old film camera. It's an Olympus OMG with a 35-70mm zoom lens. If the picture did not turn out, I knew why.

The digital supposedly has a stronger zoom, according to the guy at the camera store, but you can't tell it from the pictures.

In DC, I was at the Vietnam memorial, which I had never before seen, when I got a message "memory card is full." Huh? What?

If I'd been using film, I'd have had an extra roll or two on me. But no way to tell about the memory card, so I didn't happen to be carrying an extra. So no pictures of the Wall. Gak!

And I know I should be uploading into iPhoto, but I forgot to check the tiny detail of "is your camera compatible with iPhoto" before I bought it. (My film camera was compatible with my life, which was the only consideration when I got it) The answer being No, I have to either load software, which came with many dire warnings, or obtain a memory card reader (our Mac service guy's suggestion) to plug into a USB port.

Film was way less complicated. Now it's hard to find a place to get prints, and I want the nice, commercially produced ones with the good finish on them.

And Kodak, which I always used, no longer makes film.

Am feeling seriously woolly.

Nancy said...

Jeanne, we've had lots of rain the last couple of years, but I've never seen a woolly worm. Maybe they're not in this part of the state.

Gannon Carr said...

Cassondra, wooly worms are a big deal here! We even have a Wooly Worm Festival the third week in October every year. They have wooly worm races (they crawl up strings tacked to a big wall) and the winning worm predicts the winter.

Looks like it's going to be a cold and snowy one. :)

Cassondra said...

Nancy said:

That said, however, I am currently aggravated because the MP3 files from my last brainstorming sessions, which originally played _Just Fine_ on the laptop, no longer do. I made the mistake of updating iTunes. The files will play on the not-updated desktop machine, but the speed is off and the sound quality is lousy in unfortunately updated iTunes 2009. Aack!


Well, rats.

And I just made that the default player on my computer because of my ipod. :O/

Nancy, I think the new phone is a Nokia, but I can't remember for certain. It's all the rage because it changes colors, and it is a small phone, so I suspect you might like it. I saw nothing to not like about it, but I'm hard on a phone, and always look for rugged, can-take-a-beating construction. I don't know whether it could take said beatings or not.

Cassondra said...

Nancy said:

My film camera was compatible with my life, which was the only consideration when I got it)

Yes, agreed. So was mine. And especially since I spent a good quarter of said life staring through the aperture of an SLR at one thing or another, and no, there was nothing automatic about my old Nikon FM2. It was a dinosaur even when I was in Photojournalism school, but I loved it. When everyone else's batteries died? I was still shooting. And when the light was weird or I wanted a different effect, I knew what to do, because I understand film.


Film was way less complicated. Now it's hard to find a place to get prints, and I want the nice, commercially produced ones with the good finish on them.

And Kodak, which I always used, no longer makes film.



I have been in mourning ever since. I still remember the last day Kodak made Kodachrome. I mourned and played the song over and over. :0( Nothing will ever render color like Kodachrome. Digital is a SAD substitute.

Cassondra said...

Gannon Carr said:

We even have a Wooly Worm Festival the third week in October every year. They have wooly worm races (they crawl up strings tacked to a big wall) and the winning worm predicts the winter.


OH, I'd love to see that! Where do people get the wooly worms? Are they special thoroughred wooly worms, trained for said races, or are they just plain old "collect them from under some leaves" wooly worms?

Gannon Carr said...

Cassondra, it's something to see! :) People just get the wooly worms where ever they spot them: at the park, under the leaves in your yard. My daughter always finds a lot in the playground at school.

Cassondra said...

Gannon Carr said:

People just get the wooly worms where ever they spot them: at the park, under the leaves in your yard. My daughter always finds a lot in the playground at school.


That sounds like awesome fun! I have never seen wooly worms race in earnest, and did not know they would climb a string.

Caren Crane said...

Lime, your love has returned! *g*

Cassondra, I am a wooly worm. Now, I have an engineering degree and can figure out the new stuff without too much hearache. I just don't want to unless I need to.

I enjoy things that do what I require and function well. Period. I require no bells or whistles, only proper functioning at the proper time. I have a cell phone that doesn't take pictures. I don't want to take pics with my phone. When I want to take a picture, I take along a camera. Remember those?

I also don't text. Why would I? All I will do is strain my pre-arthritic thumbs and for what? I have this archaic thing called e-mail. I have even been known to write a letter. I know Cassondra is familiar with those!

I have no desire to be connected to the universe 24 hours a day. I like to be alone and undisturbed as much as possible. And it's not much, believe me!

So, count me among the wooly worms, Cassondra. I like a slower pace!

Cassondra said...

Caren said:

I have no desire to be connected to the universe 24 hours a day. I like to be alone and undisturbed as much as possible. And it's not much, believe me!

So, count me among the wooly worms, Cassondra. I like a slower pace!


OH, thank GOD. I'm not the only one. This is the bottom line for me. I will embrace technology as long as it actually makes me more efficient at what I do. But not to simply HAVE it. I know some people are enamored of HAVING stuff, but I'm not. I want what works for me, and like you, Caren, I want it to work well. Amen, Sistah.

Nancy said...

Caren, we discussed Cheaper by the Dozen (the book, not the movie that scarcely resembles it) in my class today. I asked the students what was appealing (or not) about life as depicted in the book versus life today. They liked the lower-stress lifestyle depicted in the book and specifically noted the freedom from constant connection to the rest of humanity.

However, I doubt any of them are giving up their cell phones. :-)

limecello said...

Cassondra- that is annoying. There should be some way to change it/some updated software?
My touchscreen "lights up" when someone is calling, so I know. But what is annoying, is calling customer service etc (which I apparently have to do a LOT) -because then the screen goes blank and I can't enter my account number, or the menu option, etc.
I guess I don't see what the appeal of touchscreen phones are. Maybe I just need a better one. *grins*

Keira Soleore said...

Fo wrote, "I felt like saying I can't use the one I've got, why would I want more features I never use?"

Precisely what I said to Hubby who's been eyeing a new fancy and trying to assuage guilt by pawning his current one on to me. I was like, be guilt-free and don't hobble me.

tradehomerbgky said...

Hey you! I guess I am more of an acquaintance at this point than a true friend, since this is the first bit of your writing that I have gotten a chance to read, but none-the-less, I am really getting to know you. In case you are still trying to figure out who this is, I watched you enjoy your cheese fries the other day, while we gabbed over technology just a bit. Seems like you are progressing with you cellular device though.
It's funny because I know we have called you... OH! What's her name off of Sex and the City?!?! Her name truly escapes me at the moment... but her real name in life is Sarah Jessica Parker... Anyhow, what I was getting at is that we have a lot in common. I have a phone that curses me every day! Decides to shut off on its own, or buzzes right in my ear and... well, and everyone else's ear that I try to talk to. But the point is... I am one of those wooly worms. I refuse to get a phone with more than 12 keys on it. I don't want the internet on it, or all the special menus, because it confuses me too much! I just want to dial out, and well I confess text (unlike you). However, (I don't know if this will make you feel good or no) even though we are... um, let's just say a "couple" years apart, I am just as much a wooly worm as you! I truly enjoyed reading your blog and I hope you have a great weekend!!

-mrboyrd

Cassondra said...

tradehomerbgky said:

I am one of those wooly worms. I refuse to get a phone with more than 12 keys on it. I don't want the internet on it, or all the special menus, because it confuses me too much! I just want to dial out, and well I confess text (unlike you). However, (I don't know if this will make you feel good or no) even though we are... um, let's just say a "couple" years apart, I am just as much a wooly worm as you!

AHA! Another wooly worm!

I'm so glad you enjoyed the blog.

Wooly Worms, unite!