Gadgets

Back in my twenties I (Sally) had a boyfriend who was addicted to audio equipment. So quaint it seems now.

I remember there were little screens that told you how many hertz, or decibels, or how clear the sound was, or whatever. It was all very expensive, and I would have preferred to spend what little money we had on albums (yes Virginia, albums) rather than on machines with little screens (and, in those pre-digital days, ENORMOUS speakers!) I loved listening to music; BF loved watching the little screens. Even he couldn't hear the differences, but BF called me a Luddite because I didn't enjoy spending hours in "stereo stores."

I don't think it was a fair assessment of me, even in my twenties - I did after all own an electric typewriter. But admittedly at the time my interest in technology per se lagged far behind my interests in, say, knitting, quilting or movies or macrame.

All that changed forever, in the space of one hour, in the early 80's.

I was pregnant with my first child, living in an unfamiliar city after being dragged kicking and screaming from my beloved rent-controlled apartment in lower Manhattan. My then-husband (NOT the bf) had acquired a desktop computer to write his PhD dissertation on. It was a large and unlovely machine. No Windows yet; you had to type things like

/sis.doc 76 exe/
dir/
del*.*

- before it would do anything. If you made a mistake, it also wouldn't do anything.

Then-husband (a.k.a. X) would occasionally ask me to read over things he'd written. I had been a freelance writer and editor, so he sometimes (rather grudgingly) would seek my advice when his sentences got so clogged with clauses and qualifiers he no longer remembered what he'd been working on saying. .

So I was sitting next to him at the computer, reading long sheets of green and white dot matrix printer sheets. I said something like "Why don't you start with this, it's a better opening," pointing to a paragraph halfway down the page. "Wait" he said, clicking a few keys. On the screen, the paragraph reappeared at the top of the page! Simultaneously disappearing from its original position! Everything else was unchanged!

I don't suppose there are many people currently living who will be able to understand the way I (veteran of thousands, millions of re-typed pages) felt in that moment. "Show me that again," I demanded, and I (who had failed to memorize a single programming command heretofore) found the sequence branded on my brain.

Word processing? I was SO THERE.

(only a scant minute before the rest of the world. By the time my daughter was born a few months later, I couldn't GIVE away the IBM Selectric I'd paid good money for a year before)

I struggled with that old Leading Edge PC for about a year until someone gave us a Mac Color Classic. I was already committed to the idea of word processing, but by the time I had mastered the double click, I was deeply, deeply in love. It was so cute! It was so easy to understand what should be done! I love Mac culture and I want bear Steve Jobs' children. Although I have come to embrace the Windows world as well I never forget where the lovely desktop design originated (and where it still works better.)

So, fast forward to now; Harry and me.

Harry is a network engineer. He makes his living (often our living) telling people what they need to do to make their computers/networks/software do what they want them to, and apparently a not inconsiderable amount of time explaining why what they want to do is not going to happen. And my darling Harry (who when questioned correctly knows EVERYTHING there is to know about computers while hating to admit it) is a Luddite! He has trouble with online applications. When I say "Kindle" he bridles and says "I have to hold the book, smell it; etc and etc." He doesn't care about gaming but loves the NYT crossword. He texts his kids and me; even while driving, despite my yelling at him for this; he writes this blog with me (and, I believe, others) but he would rather re-read a book than play a game or read a blog.

This post hasn't quite gone the way I envisioned. Ginny
(http://ginny-letyourlightshine.blogspot.com/
said she'd like to see more pictures. I was trying, in this post to explain how I came to technology, how my attitudes have evolved, and also to explain that while I would love to put pictures they won't ever be as gorgeous as hers. I know I haven't managed to do all this but it's where I was trying to go.

I have been fascinated by photography for years but only in the digital age have I dared to actually take a few pictures of my own. Right now I have no camera. I do have a phone! & I will try to share some of the shots I take on the blog. I have another blog, under construction, that will be mostly pictures. It's about my (younger) daughter's dog Moose who is living with Harry and me while she is in college. I'll share that link when I get it together.