New Fangled Technology

I came across this funny on facebook, posted by an old uni roommate of mine.  It occurs to me that this cheeky wee image makes me a little sad.  Whilst my toddler whisks her way through the touch screen menus of my phone, tablet PCs and the underwhelming IPad, I can't help feeling a little something has been lost.  I am not unaware that I am following in the footsteps of the laments of generations before mine... I'm quite certain these cries were heard about computers vs pen and paper back in the day. But still...

I am quite the sentimental type and will hang on to any item that even slightly whiffs of nostalgia.  Of course, this is much to my detriment as it also means that I hoard the most useless bunch of crap that ever existed since Noah built the Ark.

I wonder at the hundreds of cassette tapes that have boxed up in the attic.  I love listening to my tunes and have made full use of the modern technology that is the IPod...I have most of my listening appetite on it (them.  I have a couple.  And the IPhone).  I will most likely never use a cassette player again - in fact the only one I do have chews up cassette tapes in the only way an '80's relic can.  So WHY are they taking up valuable storage space?

Because a little part of me worries that one day I will lose my music collection in cyberspace.   Because you can't lose a cassette into thin air.  Now we have iCloud...where (for a small annual fee) we can store hundreds of millions of documents, photos, files, data, you-name-it into nothingness.  Brilliant, isn't it? (It's genius, no wonder Apple wipes its backside with $100 bills)

Call me a technophobe but seriously, everything's virtual these days, don't some of you hanker for the tangible?!

;o) 

Mini Rant - fed up with my sister texting when I am TALKING to her!

One of my pet irritations in this life is when the person you are directing your conversation to does not look at you.  It is something that is so wonderfully and currently demonstrated by my 23 year old, blackberry owning, facebooking, bms-ing, texting sister who (declaring how fantastic she is at multi-tasking) will have cyber conversations with about 10 other people whilst having a REAL LIFE conversation with me....minus eye contact but plus alot of 'Mmm'ing and 'yeah?'.

Now I am not suggesting she sit there like a lunatic staring at me intensely for the entire duration of our conversation but I do expect the odd courteous glance to indicate that she does acknowledge my existence, indeed is interested in what I have to say. ('Mmm'ing does NOT indicate interest)

It is part of those little body language cues that we all use to communicate on a subliminal level...the ones that you can't read when you are driving, hence the reason behind road rage.  For example, driver A may have made a genuine mistake in cutting up driver B's ass on the motorway but driver B can't see the apology in driver A's body language and so loses it and adds another 100 to the already overloaded mileage in his car just to drive up driver A's tailpipe to show him 'whose boss' and teach him some feckin' road manners. (use your effin' indicator you effin' muppet!!)

All I'm saying is that eye contact is not only courteous but necessary when communicating effectively with other people.

Look at me when I am speaking to you!!  Ok don't.  I'll just write up a little rant on my blog, defaming you forever through the medium of the written word as a 23 year old, blackberry owning, facebooking, bms-ing, texting muppet excuse for a sister.

Oh that's so cute....She just said, "Oooo! It's all about YOU isn't it?"

Call me attention seeking, limelight hogger, love-me-do whatever, but when you do it, I expect you to LOOK AT ME WHEN I AM SPEAKING TO YOU.

(I love the little runt really)