The war with technology continues on in one Aromas home
You know those scenes in the
”
Terminator
”
movies where the machines decide they’ve had enough of humans,
and their newly developed consciousness impels them to start
rebelling against their masters?
The war with technology continues on in one Aromas home
You know those scenes in the “Terminator” movies where the machines decide they’ve had enough of humans, and their newly developed consciousness impels them to start rebelling against their masters?
That’s kind of what it felt like at my house this past weekend.
Yes, I have been fighting against technology for several days now, and losing is not an option. However, the fight has been long and arduous, and I have won several battles, but not yet the war.
It all started when my brother talked me into buying his TV. He had bought a fancy new one, had thought briefly about keeping both, but then decided to dispense with the older one. (When I say “older,” let me point out that the TV is still only four years old, which makes it about a decade newer than the one I’ve got.)
So, with prompting from the men in my life, who thought it was a good deal, I decided to buy it. My brother, Stewart, delivered it to my living room, where it then sat for several days waiting to be hooked up.
My son Ross, the techno-whiz kid, arrived Saturday to lend support for the endeavor. We got the TVs moved around and such and he plugged in the cables. Huzzah! It worked.
Kind of.
“The picture’s kind of fuzzy,” he said. “Hmmm.”
We all took turns playing with TV options that might make a difference (sharpness, contrast, etc.) and it got slightly better. It is still a work in progress.
Then, in a totally unrelated incident, we lost the Internet.
I woke up Sunday morning, reached for my laptop, and there was no Internet service at all. I had to wait until the boys got up (about noon) to inquire why this was so. Apparently Hunter, the younger one, decided to reset the wireless router the night before. It hadn’t worked since.
I hate my wireless router, and in fact, I don’t seem to have a good relationship with any wireless router. They all have their quirks. Wifi is so wonderful when it works, but it’s so horrible when it doesn’t.
It took Ross and me several hours to figure out what was wrong. There was some kind of internal password conflict, which I was able to finally resolve. But the wireless still didn’t work. Ross came up with the answer, which involved changing the name of the router.
“I don’t know why this works, but sometimes it does,” he said.
Isn’t all this technology stuff supposed to be supremely logical? Why would a machine respond to a name change and nothing else? It doesn’t seem logical to me, but whatever. It worked.
Then, later on, I had to take a bunch of aluminum cans to the recycler. The cans had been in my car for several days because I kept running out of time in which to do this task. I got to the recycler, opened up the back hatch, and the hatch promptly fell down.
Luckily I moved out of the way before it could clunk me on the head.
Apparently the back hatches of cars don’t work forever, and periodically have to have a part replaced back there that allows the hatch to stay up when you put it up.
Technology. So much depends on the parts.
So the van is going into the shop, and we’re still working on the TV. The Internet works … for now … until the next crisis comes along.
Next I’m expecting either a toaster rebellion or an uprising of the washer and dryer. Mark my words; it’s coming.
