Keeping up with the times

What could this be?

Board games were not something I enjoyed when I was a child.  I didn’t have anyone to play them with, and you can only play Monopoly and Clue alone for so long before getting really, really bored.  Being a child of the 1970s I was on the ground floor of the electronic entertainment age.  In my day electronic games evolved from buzzer of Operation to more sound and light interaction in games like Merlin and Simon.  These were the games I liked.  These were the games you could play by yourself.  I would spend hours pressing those lighted buttons, repeating the sequences the internal computer had laid out as a challenge.

Since then I always have leaned towards electronic gadgets for entertainment.  In my teens the rage was the Walkman, a portable cassette tape player with headphones.  My version was more of a Radio Shack knock-off, but it served the same purpose. 

My generation played Donkey Kong and Pac-Man on huge machines in arcades.  Now our children play them on gadgets they can carry in their pocket.

I took the first computer programming class ever offered at my high school.  I learned quickly Pascal was not for me, but being in the same room with the computers and the line printers whirring in the background gave me a certain sense of belonging.

Moving forward in college I had an electronic typewriter, a precursor to the word processor.  I wrote all my papers by first viewing my words in the LCD screen at the top, and then printing it all at once.  It took time to learn the coding, but satisfaction of that printed document was worth it.

When I first started my job in 1989 I used a similar word processor, but in the early 1990s I convinced my boss a PC would be so much more efficient.  I was the first person in the entire department to have a PC on my own desk.

 With each phase of the latest and greatest I have been on board with one exception.  My cellphones have never been the latest or the greatest.  When I got my most recent one two years ago I was (ahem) told I had to get whatever was free with a contract.  What I got was a piece of garbage, something I have mentioned to the teller quite often.  There was no need to mention it, actually, because he was reminded every time I got a phone call and had to go to the porch for enough reception to talk.

Which brings me to today.  

My waiting period is over, and my cellular provider has graciously allowed me to upgrade my phone.  This time I am not going for the free one.  I have been weighing my options and researching every aspect and my choice has come down to the (drumroll, please) iPhone 5!  When Mike at Wal-Mart took it out of the box and handed it to me I heard a choir sing.  When I felt the sleekness of the cool metal backing in my palm I knew I had made the right choice.  It sits beside me as I write this, waiting for me to enrobe it in the new magenta and teal case I bought for it. 

I have an older iPod Touch, so I know the basics of an Apple product.  But, if anyone has any pointers or tips I welcome to hear them.  Meanwhile, I’m signing off to sit and relax and choose my new ringtone.  Joy!