Zygoraph

Yeah...you read it right..ZYGORAPH...

What is it you ask? A skin rash perhaps? A type of chemical that strips wood...METAL???? A tiny sea-urchin-squiggly-life-form thingy? Uhhh...yeah, nope...None of the above.

I wondered what it was myself...as I typed it EXACTLY as it read (and was instructed to do)...in order to leave a comment on my friend's blog. REALLY? LAAAME!

It's funny how we are now required by a machine to type out "per instruction" what we see, into a little box in order for said machine to confirm that she who is typing is HUMAN and NOT another machine! How crazy is that!? I practically (but not completely) lost my need to leave a sarcastic yet slightly witty comment altogether after several attempts, and of course each time, the letters/word changed and if I were to spend much time considering it, I would be darn near convinced that they kept getting harder to spell and more difficult to see.

I LOVE the Internet. I am an information junkie. I love learning new things and gadgett collecting are one of my past times. I love adapters and converters, jump drives and usb extension cables (yep, they really have them). If it is new, and cool...and connects or converts to something, I probably have one somewhere. Wireless printers that I can run from within my car as I charge my laptop right from my cigarette lighter. (which I always thought was a charger-not a lighter), to a cup heater for my new favorite mug.

I think it is just amazing how technology has just screamed passed me...fondly looking back to 1983 when I received my first microwave and marveled at the cleverness of such a thing I recall a few "golden moments" in particular.

Prior to that godsend of a contraption it took me a whole 2-3 minutes to warm up my then 9 month old baby boy's bottle on the stove, in a pot of water...under the constant state of "watch" for fear it would overheat. After I got the micro (warned to NOT stand "too close") I could "zap" a bottle in 20 seconds. Sure, NOW I know it's not the best thing for a baby to have "zapped" formula...but like MANY "new" things...those "side effects" didn't show up until MUCH later. *GULP- And now, I find myself standing at the microwave, tapping my fingers on the granite counter top (no longer your mother's laminate "easy clean" surface) anxiously waiting NEARLY TWO minutes for popcorn that SHOULD have only take 1.5. Read the label...that's what it says! ONE POINT FIVE...HELLOOOO-chop chop!

I could write so many posts about technology today. I am sure this is not the last...but, I just think it is amazing that there was a time not long ago when my mind was just BOGGLED as I stuffed a piece of paper into this clunky machine-dialed some one's telephone number and MY PAPER was now rolling out on their paper in THEIR office! Honestly...I am still quite astounded at how a facsimile works. (that is what they "USED" to call a "FAX" ;)

I charge you to watch your friends as they talk to one another. I could almost guarantee you...at some point...someone will "lol" or finish a sentence with their ghost typewriter as they gesture and speak at the same time. (when they do, think of me). But in a nice way :)

I am not one to buck the system...I appreciate all the modern conveniences...I really and truly do. I just remember being at Disneyland, (years ago) sitting in this auditorium and watching this stage circulate as different eras were revealed. As if life were rewound to the 40's (pre-television) and then fast forwarded to the "future" right before my eyes.

I gottah tell ya, when they started talking about phones that had no cords, and computers that ANYONE could carry around with them, I thought they were nuts...and at the very least, I was sure that IF that ever "actually" happened, surely, at that point we would be at the very end of technology. We would have invented, created and launched every last conceivable notion, and whim of an idea, made all the money off it we were going to, and then...we would all be sitting around fro the REST of our lives wishing we would have paced ourselves "even just a little bit" so that we had something to do in the year 2000. (assuming the world would survive that long). Oh...come on...you all heard the rumors too!

I am sitting here in bed...amusing myself while I type this out, on one of 4 laptops (not counting my daughter's), currently in my home. I have the power of going ANYWHERE I want in this world with the touch of one key..."enter" that's all it takes...a few W's, a dot here and there, "enter" and poof...I am in Hawaii...ASTOUNDING. (and instant...no airfare to stunt my agenda).

Truly...we live in an amazing time folks, in an amazing country where the luxuries of this world practically fall into our laps. We are a privileged, blessed people, with many MANY opportunities, possibilities, and usually...someone, somewhere crazy enough to back them.

I am chuckling a bit to myself...my flat screen TV that weighs about 8 lbs,(my first television, I bet, weighed 80!) is 3 feet away, and I am straining to reach the night stand where the remote (that allows me to stay comfortably in bed) is waiting for me to push its button so it finally has it's chance to "do it's thing".

I am simply amazed...and easily amused...life at the touch of a button. :)