Friday, March 26, 2010

Phone Envy - It's A Bad Thing

I'm feeling just a little bit inadequate today. Why,you ask? Well...

Alright here's the deal. I've always been the technology guy in my family. I work in the technology field, teach technology to kids, rebuild computers, etc. I'm the guy you all call when your computer is infected with viruses and malware because you haven't bothered to run a scan for 17 months. Not to mention because you're too cheap (or should I say 'fiscally responsible?') to take your computer in for repair. Got an email issue? Need a new program installed or your operating system upgraded? Can't figure out how to activate the speaker phone on your mobile?

You know what I'm saying, I'm that guy.

But all of that has come into question now because of the technology I carry around on my hip. That's right, that Blackberry Curve I bragged about right after the election is suddenly not so hot anymore. Not with my wife, who's smartphone challenged by the way, rocking a G1 with the Android 1.6 OS. Word on the street is that phone will be upgraded to version 2.0 soon as well, bringing it on par with the Droid and other newer phone models as far as capability.

But that's not the worst of it.

My Mother-In-Law called last night to brag, and I mean BRAG, about her new phone, the HTC HD2. Oh yeah, she let me have it. The same woman who cornered me for hours to work on her computer while I was on vacation in Colorado decided to ruin my evening by running down the features of her new phone with the Windows Mobile OS. "Do you know I can watch TV on this thing?" "It runs Flash, does your Blackberry?" "The screen is so big!" I mean it went on and on an on. I tell you I was dying y'all. My Blackberry started to remind me of an old rotary dial phone attached to the wall. It was that bad. So bad that I actually I started surfing the web to scout out the upgrade. I mean I can't have the lowest tech phone among that group, can I? What about my reputation? I just don't think I can take that hit.

But then a funny thing happened. Her other line rang, she answered, came back on the line and said, "I don't know how it happened but the speaker phone came on and I don't know how to turn it off."

In that moment equilibrium was instantly reestablished and all was right with the world again.

I'm still getting a new phone though.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Friends - How Many Of Us Have Them?

What's up y'all? I'm back for my biannual blog post.

That's right, after a couple of years posting at a furious rate (which happened to coincide with a national election, but that's beside the point), I've been reduced to patting myself on the back for posting for the second time this year.

Talk about lowering your expectations.

Regardless, I'm compelled to post now because I've made a new friend. Well not really new, I've known her for a while. In fact we even dated, got married, and had kids. But we weren't friends until now. That's right, my wife friended me on Facebook. Which is cool. Very cool in fact. But what took so long?

Actually I know the answer to that question, which is she didn't have a Facebook account until a few days ago. Which I set up. Here's the story: She'd been searching high and low for a friend of hers from back in the day to no avail. My suggestion was to look for her on Facebook, which met some initial resistance. But y'all know your boy DP doesn't take a no as no. It just means not right now. So I set up the account, Showed her how to use it, and lo and behold she found her friend within 5 minutes.

Technology, it's amazing.

Anyway, I'm rambling on about all of this to say that I've found a lot of my own friends on Facebook lately too, and keep in better touch with those who aren't long lost. So here's to you Steve, Sheryl, Teresa, Steve, David, Joanie, John, Anissa, Haywood, Glen, Shunte', Tonya, Devin, Cedric, Roz, Mary, Ray, Randy and all of the rest of you who've connected or reconnected over the past few months. Thanks for friending me, and ain't social networking grand?

Stay in Touch!