I’m not a gadget person. I don’t rush out to buy the latest geegaw. On the other hand, I don’t have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the latest technology. Something just has to breakdown. That alone is enough to motivate me to toss my technological dinosaur into the tar pit (acutally the proper recycling bin) and get the latest evolved gadget that I can afford, knowing that it’s probably outdated when I walk out of the store, but at least it works.
Within a three-week window, I made two important upgrades. The first was my phone. I knew the contract was about to expire and so was the phone itself. Nowadays, things aren’t “Teresa proof” since my seemingly tame lifestyle demands more things that can withstand being dropped. Even though my cell is usually turned off while I’m at school, it’s still a high frequency used item and subject to many mechanical stresses, riding around in my form-fitting, but not grossly tight pants is the gentlest of the stressors.
I happily upgraded my cell for a sleeker, thinner model that replaced the arthritic trackball with a neat, raised square touch pad. The vendor even hooked me up with a cheaper calling plan since I didn’t use nearly as many minutes as I’d paid for and I wasn’t previously getting the teacher discount. Technically, I wasn’t a teacher when I bought my cell two years ago since I was unemployed at the time despite the fact that I’d been teaching for thirteen years .
I dashed away from the store after the guy finally finished transfering all my contact information from the old phone to the new phone. My palate demanded a glass of red wine, but I delayed gratification in order to charge my phone first, which only had 15% battery. Tearing opening the box and avoiding the contamination of touching the instructions, I got the cable to charge the battery. I astutely noticed that one end connected to the phone and the other connected to a computer. So, I grabbed the accompanying CD to load the software onto my computer.
Tech problem #1: my netbook doesn’t have a place for a CD. For the sake of smallness, the CD drive was eliminated. No problem, I’ll just get my attachable floppy disk drive, I thought through a haze of food and wine deprived logic. I plugged it into the USB port and thrice attempted to put that circular CD into the square floppy disk drive before realizing with maniacal laughter the stupidity of my attempt.
After securing a glass of red wine, I then took my work laptop out of its case, inserted the CD into the proper drive and charged my phone. About 5 days passed before I found the time in my busy life to read the basic instructions, including the wonderful feature that the USB end of the cable can be inserted into an AC adapter–a technological innovation that eliminates the need for two separate cables. DUH!
The following week, my capoeira group performed for an event at my school. I handed my camera to a friend, who enthusiastically took many pictures–none of which could later be downloaded onto my computer, tech problem #2. This was truly baffling since I’d used that camera, memory card and card reader many times before. Overuse in the form of “corrupt files” was probably the problem.
First, I took the memory card in and had the files transfered to a USB. Well, the USB didn’t have enough space for all the pictures (#3). So, I bought a new memory card although the person didn’t think that the old one was corrupted. When I got home, I put the new memory card into the card reader and it still didn’t work(#4).
So, the second trip I took to the camera place, I took the new memory card and the card reader. Another guy helped me. Not only could he not see the pictures on the new memory card, but he didn’t think the card reader had any problems(#5).
Today, I’m taking in both old and new memory cards, the card reader and the netbook. I’m not taking any chances this time. I’ve learned my lesson: never presume where the technological breakdown is occurring.
This past Thursday morning, we had a tornado drill and I had to usher all my students into the hallway. I grabbed my personal possessions, including to my work-issued laptop that could connect to the internet wirelessly. I figured even if a tornado came, I’d still have to write my finals, right?
I braced myself psychologically for the internet going down. I planned to work on my finals while babysitting my students out in the hallway with the other teachers and their classes. Miraculously, the tornado never hit us and the internet never went down. After teaching in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for three years, where the internet went down more often than a $20 hooker, I superstitously believe that any change in weather will interrupt service.
Once the tornado drill was over and we returned to the classroom, I had the brilliant insight that technological problems where like tornadoes in that you never can predict where and when one was going to hit. All you could do was brace yourself and bravely see it through.