The Grimm Adventures...

I was at a training session for work yesterday and was amazed at the reliance on technogadgets in the room. One guy walked in with one of those Bluetooth earpieces for his cell phone. I don't know if you've seen these things but I am a little baffled by how often and where people wear them. They are everywhere. They are small in comparison to a cell phone but their loud and flashy colouring make them impossible to miss. This guy wasn't on the phone when he walked in and, as it was a two-hour training session, one would think he would remove it. He sat there the entire time with his right ear plugged by this device. Don't get me wrong, I can understand the practical aspects of having one on these things while driving or even in the office when trying to work and talk at the same time, but take it off when you aren't in these situations.

Through out the entire two hours every table played the now customary Blackberry vibra-buzz and someone would pull out the gadget to check their latest email. No one seemed to care or even notice the disruption; does this kind of thing happen in high school now? Do teachers notice it or are cell phones even allowed in class? One guy had his Blackberry on the table in front of him right beside his flip phone that was open and ready to take calls or play a game or god knows what. It was like a status symbol. He was the king of the techno-geeks proudly displaying the crown jewels for all to see. I don't know if others were envious and they may not have even noticed the display, but the phone didn't ring and the Blackberry didn’t buzz the entire time so he could have left them in the car or his pocket and saved me the frustration.

I am not immune to the draw of electronic devices. It is probably obvious that by my writing in a blog that I have, to at least some extent, embraced technology and the "internet age". The truth is I have embraced it. In our home we have a couple of computers and have had for a number of years. The main computer is hooked to a couple of printers, a scanner is close by and I need a USB hub to connect to the Wacom tablet, two digital cameras and our two iPods. The cell phone is on the charger and the iPod FM transmitter is locked away in the car on the off chance I trust the mean streets again and use my iPod in the car someday. I use Firewire to hook up the DVD RW drive and tie in the video camera on the other Firewire port when I want to make a movie or do a video chat, which doesn't really work that well anymore as the computer is either getting old or bogged down by all of these peripherals. What I don’t do is strap on all of these devices to insulate myself from the rest of the world. I even take my iPod headphones out of my ears at the checkout at Safeway so I don’t offend the cashier or the others in line. This way I’ll know when the service is good so I can share the experience.

By Chad