So my Mom came to visit yesterday and today.
It was great to see her and have some time to hang out together, etc. etc.
My only comlpaint is the fact that **good lard** the amount of "tech support" that she need was totally insane.

I mean one of the cool things about her is that at the age of 61 she is still super interested in learning all about new technology. She recently bought:
- a cell phone
- a digital camera
- a minidisc recorder & mic

Yeah, she's hip. It's just she still doesn't quite "get" it all... so I'm posting a hearty:

And here is my list of the things she needed assistance with in the short 24hrs that she was here:

- where the off button on our wireless phone was
- how to use her new minidisc
- how to turn on my computer and connect to the internet
- how to access her email remotely
- how to send pictures from her camera as JPEGs so she won't overload everyone's email accounts with massive pic files.
- oh... and we had to watch her favorite show... because she doesn't know how to set her VCR to record things.

I'm exhausted! (I think I'd have more patience if only she wouldn't do that clicking-on-random-things-on-the-computer-screen thing. Drives me crazy!)

But... like I said, I'm pretty proud of her for wanting to learn all of that (and for being a gearhead like me).


Anyone else kind overwhelmed by the whole technology-induced situation where our parents are now needing to be taught things by us and "walked through" everything like children?



(maybe I need a blog too...??? )

did you ever read this? Classic.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38572

My dad is the funniest because he will be totally clueless about something (he had me change the settings on his digital camera at my nephew's b-day party for example), but once you show him he might as well have Invented the actual technology.

Another recent convo:
Him: Chris, I heard that Dell has tech support where they can look into your computer over the internet and figure out what's wrong.

Me: Yeah dad, that's pretty common and has been around for a while. Why, is there something you need me to look at while I'm here?

Him: No, I was just thinking how they'd laugh at me once they saw how much Spider Solitare I play on such an expensive laptop...

heh heh. classic.

that's pretty cute.

Yeah, the whole "hearing about something" drives me crazy too. It's cute, it's like me learning one word in Spanish and then being so proud to use it with a Spanish person... but just kind of using it randomly and out of context.

My Mom "heard about" Oasis the other day and then was all "have you heard of this band from England?". And she was surprized she hadn't heard of them before, etc.

Funny Mommy.

<--- expecting chastizing from ayah in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

my mother is like this, except that she shuts down at a certain point. funny story: when she was teaching me how to tie my shoes as a kid, i couldn't figure out how to wrap the lace around the first bow and then pull it through to end the tie, so she was patient with me and said, "well, ok. we can stop here. we'll finish tomorrow." and now i feel like that every time something comes up with a piece of technology. she'll ask me how to do something and if i reference a term that she's not familiar with, she'll just shut down.

for instance, she only recently got over her fear of buying things online. she's been scared about being a victim of credit card fraud. when i explained secure sites to her, she didn't understand the "https://" and i realized i should've just said, "it works. now order what you want."

i took my mom's computer away when she told me she couldnt find any button with the word "space" on it.

my parents got a PC and i explained to them over and over again how if they got a PC that i woudlnt' be able to be much help when they had problems. Particularly over the phone. But the got a PC and sure enough the first 5 or so years i got call after call asking me how this worked and why this wasn't working. And the most annoying part is that my very inteligent brother uses PC's . . . why did they insist on calling me?!?!?!?

i got really tired of saying, "i know how to do that on a mac, but i'm not sure how it works on a PC."

Finally! Someone else with a MiniDisc!

What kind of music does she listen to?

I have one too actually, (she's copping my style)... but neither of us use it for music listening... it's for doing field recordings, and in her case, probably for interviewing people.

I'm not really sure why I've never used it for music. I really should! I had meant to and then kind of forgot it could be used that way.

<-- dum da-dum dumb!