Technology....Gotta Love It?

I do like technology for the most part...I can't imagine life without a computer or cell phone today. Some think it makes life more complicated, I think it makes life easier...just another form of communicating and who doesn't love another way to "yak it up".

But....(you saw the "but" coming, didn't ya)....TV technology has me pulling my hair out! Thanks to the government's stimulus check, we HAD to quickly spend $1200 (we would have been locked up for years if we had just put it in savings, right?). I would have spent it on shoes and bags, but Max won this argument and we bought a high-definition TV. Please don't ask me anything else about the TV because all I know is it is HD and more rectangular than square.

Once we got the TV hooked up I was extremely disappointed in the picture quality! My little TV with "bunny ears" had a better quality picture than this new one! How could that be?
I put in a call to Shane....our electronic guru...he explained it best he could and said we HAD to get digital cable. To make a long story a little shorter, last time Shane was home he set up an appointment with Mediacom to come out and get us into the Digital/HD world with the DVR bonus!
Yesterday was the turning point....and it had my head turning! Learning a new technology includes a new remote control (those things are scary!) The workers were not the least bit helpful, they basically threw the control and a magazine (not even a channel lineup list) at me and said there ya go! Whoa, I said, can you help me out here a bit, maybe show me how to turn the thing on and a little about the DVR? Guess I was asking too much....he rambled on something about this button, this menu, blah blah blah...too hard to understand him because he had so much "stuff or snuff" in his mouth that it was oozing out! GROSS!! I showed them the door as quickly as possible!
I played around with the control for about 2 minutes and was ready to throw it out the window but instead I took a deep breath and called "tech support". Fortunately I talked with a very nice lady in Missouri, she patiently walked me through some basics and gave me a list of HD channels for a start. I gave her a rundown of the service I received and she was appalled! She said she was sending me the start up pack along with extra coupons and compensation for poor service!
Feeling better about the whole thing I sat down and thought, "ok this is my chance to learn how to use the DVR while no one else is around to complicate matters, (no offense Shane and Max.) I figure Shannon and Mike use their DVR on a daily basis so it has to be user friendly. Voila...I set up Big Brother for the entire season and was able to record a couple of movies too! Proud of me Shannon?
By the end of the evening I had the remote control mastered, the DVR mastered, and even gave Max a "how to" lesson when he got home! I am sure there is a lot more to learn....I will sign up for a lesson with Shane on his next visit. (Hope I didn't just scare him off!)
Shane, I think we are also in need of those little speakers like you got Shannon and Mike. I love the 45 Digital Music Channels we have now so we might as well go all out and get some good sound!

Technology....Gotta Love It!