Technology Woes

Monday, 2-28-11

***Warning***
This blog contains large amounts of sarcasm and cynical humor

I grappled with what to call my blog today. Technology is evil? Cell phones are computers are a pain in the neck? Why are we so dependent on things we don’t like? No. None of those worked. “Technology Woes” is much catchier. Now, where do I begin with the reason behind the name of my blog. Well….I finally went out and bought a cell phone today to use here. The one I had from last year was still here and other delegations had been able to use it. But it only got a signal in one area. That area was in the little courtyard area up by Kathy’s office. Not great but it could be worse. And it was worse. Even after I’d charged the cell phone it didn’t seem to stay turned on. It kept turning itself off. I figured the battery was shot. So I avoided putting minutes on the phone because I didn’t want to waste money on a phone that would only stay charged for an hour. That all happened a little over a week ago.

Today, Cecilia and I made a trip out to find me a new one. I had scoped out some places yesterday to see what the cell phone prices were like. Only a few stores in town carry phones. The least expensive one I could find was $22. Not bad. But Cecilia said the ones in the store were more expensive so we went and bought one out of the back of the truck. Seriously. There were people from TIGO (a company like AT&T) in the truck selling and setting up phones. The one I bought was $18 and the exact same model as the one I’d looked at in the store. Perfect. It was even in a color I liked. I purchased it and took my new toy home.

I let my phone charge for a while. At one point Cecilia looked at it and saw that it was “locked.” She and I both tried to figure it out but to no avail. The phone also looked liked it wasn’t getting a signal. I signed and thought, “Oh boy.” So we asked her brother, Mauricio, to help us out. As Mauricio tried to figure out my cell phone I could feel my frustration growing. At that point I seriously considered running away to the jungles of the Amazon and never returning because I was so sick of technology. Mauricio played with it and eventually got it unlocked. I figured I’d wait for a while before looking at it again. Because maybe if I didn’t look at it until it was fully charged, that would somehow magically allow the phone to receive a signal.

Twice within the next hour Mauricio came into the dining room and asked for my help with something on the computer. He couldn’t read something that was in English the first time and the second time he needed help copying and pasting something from the internet into a word document. He then showed me a piece of paper that he’d got at school. He was supposed to copy everything that was on the paper into a word document. The image I had just copied and pasted needed to go into a certain place. Well, I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I told him that if my phone was working then I could call and ask my husband what to do. We both laughed.

I eventually checked my phone and it still was not receiving a signal. Now, the reason the cell phone doesn’t work well has nothing to do with the phone itself. It’s the service provider, TIGO, that is the problem. At least I’m pretty sure that’s the problem. Who knows. I looked at my first cell phone and it was still on and appeared to be working. What!?! It wasn’t working a week ago! So now I have two cell phones and I’m not sure which to use. Neither seems very reliable. All I want is a phone that works. I don’t care what it looks like or if it does do any “cool” things. Not a big deal. Please, just let it work.

Additionally, my Skype is not working again. It wasn’t working last night when my parents and Matt tried to call me. So today I restarted the computer and that seemed to fix the problem. I was able to talk to my parents when they called around 7:15pm. A little while later I saw that Skype wasn’t working again. Why!?! I restarted the computer again. It still didn’t work. So I sent Matt a frustrated email saying mean things about Skype and technology in general. My threats to inanimate objects must have worked because Skype suddenly started to work again. But by then Matt had gotten off the computer. I decided to try to use cell phone #2 which I have decided to call “Blue” since it’s blue. The other one is “Black”. Guess what color it is! I know, I know, I’m terribly creative. I had to turn off the phone then turn it back on and finally I got a signal. He seemed surprised to get my call. As I was talking to Matt on the phone hoping I wouldn’t lose the signal I realized that it was just last week I declared myself a genius in all things technology. That figures.

Since I’m taking this time to complain about things I’d like to announce that the fan in my room is making some weird noises that’s really distracting. I seriously considered shaking it but have learned from past experience that shaking things that don’t work usually doesn’t help. Also, my leg is hurting a little bit. My guess is that it’s because my muscles are tight. I took some Aleve and did a few stretches to help relieve the tension. Additionally, I had fully intended to take a shower tonight and then get to bed early. And here it is 11:45pm and I’ve accomplished neither task.

I’m feeling kind of grumpy and whiny right now. If I were to meet myself acting like this I would tell myself to “suck it up.” I keep hearing a meek voice in the back of my head saying, “Alisha. Alisha. You need to chill out. You need to be happy with what you have and stop agonizing about the little problems you’re having. They could be much worse.” I’m trying, little voice, I’m trying. That’s all for tonight. Tomorrow is a new day. Thanks for listening.