Luddites

A reversal: after a life-time of pseudo-early-adapterness, I'm taking a step back. Why pseudo-early adapter? Because my parents held me back. I wanted my MTV in 1981 (ah, 1981. When ketchup was a vegetable, HBO didn't go on until 5 p.m., and Nutra-Sweet was new. I remember that year well. The Reaganites wore gray, I wore blue... leg warmers, that is. They went well with my feathered hair), only my parents didn't deign to give it to me until 1985. I wanted an Atari when they were still cool, but didn't get one until I was practically shipped off to college. I wanted a CD player the moment I heard of its joy and saw the pretty shiny discs, but didn't get one until I bought one with my own money when I went to college. You get the picture.

Now, a brief history of my on-again, off-again relationship with technology. As a child, my family had one of the first computers on the block. Granted, at the time, my family lived in the foothills of Boulder, Colorado, and technically speaking, we were the only family on the block, but I think you understand what I mean. Have I blogged about this before? I'm having blog-a-vu. Oh well, can you ever blog enough about your first computer? Our first was a cassette-loading TRS-80 Model III that we got because my father asked me, the twelve year old, "Should be get the Model III, which we can get RIGHT NOW or should we order an Apple III, which could take up to two months to get here? What do you think? Model III, RIGHT NOW? or Apple III, at some point in the future?" Does anyone else here think he was using his wee children to justify making the less logical and yet more instantly gratifying decision? So, we had a computer before anyone else. And I was a wiz, writing programs such as:
10 CLS
20 PRINT "Jenny the Greatestestestestestestestestestestest"
30 GOTO 20

"Jenny the Greatestestestestestestestestestestest," of course, being the only name I would answer to in those days.

Digression from the digression: Does anyone else miss the orange button of death on those old Trash 80s? I think my life could use one. When I don't like something, boom! Orange button of death. You would walk by big gaping holes in the earth, and if someone mused, "Wow, wonder what happened here?" you could tell them, "Ah, that was just Jenny and her orange button of death. Must have been another CWIT-related fatality."

Okay, so we had the computer early on. I had a CD player and a DVD player the minute I could afford one. My father gave me an MP-3 player before most of my friends knew what they were. And then I became a true early adapter by marriage, when the Replay-owning, Mac-worshipping, "Why can't I have the tablet laptop" boy moved into my house.

Is anyone else here besides me wondering what the point of all this was? Oh, yes, it comes back to me. I'm giving up my PDA and returning to the land of the handwritten calendar. I'm bringing my Day Runner out of retirement. Only this is for keeps and not some Michael Jordan "I'm out, I'm in, I'm out, I'm in" kind of return from retirement. The Visor is just too much of a pain to use, so I end up ignoring to-do lists, forgetting birthdays, and losing my notes. I mean, for goodness sake, I can't even remember to turn the stupid thing on every day, so when I finally do break down to look up a phone number or something, I get five minutes of "reminders" of events that happened months ago. Sheesh. So I am no longer PDA compatible. My one concession is I've gotten a Day Runner case that has a spot to hold the Visor, so if I'm ever jonesing for a round of Minesweeper, it will be there for me.