Technology and Me

I was thinking today about how fast February has come and almost gone.  It has been almost a year since I've been keeping a blog.  When I first started I didn't know how to do anything other than type.  (Thank you high school typing classes, it's really a shame they don't teach typing anymore).  But since I started the blog, with the help of Kerri, I soon realized I would need to learn how to use a digital camera.  Yes, I really did refuse until last March to learn how to use a camera and upload/download pictures.  Now I have added to my skills digital picture taking (note I did not claim to have photography skills).  I can download my pics to iPhoto, crop, rotate, and eliminate red eye.  I haven't ventured forth to Photoshop yet, but as I see more and more wrinkles appearing in my pictures I will definitely have the motivation to learn, maybe I better do it soon while Brent, PhotoshopMaster is still home and can teach me.  

It's amazing how quickly we become addicted to technology that we stubbornly refuse to learn. There's  online banking.  There was no way I was ever going to do online banking and now I hate to write a check.  I love the convenience of paying all the bills in 5 minutes or less and not ever running out of stamps.  I did have one minor glitch with online banking when I was paying the business bills this past year.  I paid DirecTV $8,900 instead of $89.00.  Oops, big oops.  With a paper check I could have put a stop payment on it, but by the time I discovered my mistake it was in cyberspace and the bank insisted it could not be recalled.  I had to wait for DirecTV to clear the check and then get reimbursed, the problem was they claimed they never received it, but the bank had still cleared it.  Where was the money!!!  It appears that some alert person at DirecTV actually caught my error and returned the check to the company that clears digital payments for the bank.  It took about a week and a half to get the money back in Craig's business account.

I even updated my phone this year, I was content with my old phone, but now love my new phone, I can even blog from it.  I remember my first cell phone, I can't remember the year but it was a car phone in a bag, I thought there was no way I wanted a cell phone or car phone, I loved the fact that no one could call me in the car.  Now a cell phone is almost a necessity for all of us.  It's great that the kids can call right before they need to be picked up, I don't think any of the younger kids have ever been forgotten, but my older kids have a few stories to tell.  I also won't ride without my phone in my pocket.

And yesterday I did the ultimate--I joined Facebook, to the ultimate dismay of one of my children in particular.  Sometimes children find it hard to believe that we have friends, in fact, many, many years worth of friends.  I don't think the oldest three really care, they're even my friends now.  And some of my nieces and some of my children's friends even friended me without me asking.  It really isn't to keep track of my kids.  I finally did it when my friend Sherrie got me to.  I don't think there is anyone else in the world that can make me laugh so hard my stomach hurts.  Gotta stay in touch with Sherrie.  And besides how else would I know that yesterday Sam (Sherrie's husband) had to have a conversation with the Springville Police because Sandy called 911 when her gray bunny went missing.  Or today, DK friended me and directed me to a great picture of Sarah and Brian that I hadn't seen. (Thanks DK, very cute picture!)  Yes I'm liking technology.