Random Thoughts

This post isn't going to have any cute pictures in it or anything but I figured I'd blog about what's been on my mind lately. Today's topic: Electronics. I have a love/hate relationship with electronic equipment. First let me tell you why I hate electronic equipment. The first reason is because I feel like this digital world has taken over all of us and it bugs me. It bugs me when people are constantly talking on their cell phones or texting others. It bugs me when people neglect other responsibilities to be on the internet all day long. Come on, I'm sure a lot of us have spent hours on the internet searching facebook, twitter, youtube, or blog stalking, hence the reason for the video at the beginning of this post (P.S., Conan O'Brien is hilarious). It bugs me that some people are addicted to video games and television. I hate it when I'm trying to have a conversation with my husband and he is distracted by the internet or by someone else texting him. Yes, I've done it to him as well and also to my daughter. I am guilty of all of these things that I just named off. Sometimes I wish that I lived in a simpler world where there were no such things as cell phones, television, and internet- a world where kids used to get out and play and use their imaginations.

As much as I hate technology, I also love it. We are guilty of having a big screen TV, an Xbox, cell phones, a lap top and a desk top, a digital camera, and even a digital picture frame. I am grateful to have a cell phone so that I can get a hold of my husband whenever I need to. I am grateful for the internet, which has helped me keep in touch with old friends and has answered many questions for me in the past when I needed a quick answer to something or a quick recipe or directions somewhere. I love reading others blogs or getting a quick email from a friend or family member. I also love to veg in front of the television at night after a long day. I love watching movies with my husband and I've loved playing video games with him in the past. Many lives have been saved because of digital technology and I am grateful for that. I don't really know if I could ever go back, knowing what I know now about technology, to a simpler time.

And now I'm switching back to the second reason I hate technology, the real purpose of the post....

Dealing with people's addictions to technology is annoying, but here's the real reason I hate electronic equipment: it's expensive and it breaks easily. Maybe Scott and I have just had bad luck, but it seems like a lot of people have had trouble with electrical equipment. In the five years that we've been married, we've had a somewhat new computer go bad on us (so we've now had two computers), we've had to take our DVD player in for repair twice, we had to exchange our TV because it was making a loud popping noise, we've had a car adapter almost start on fire on us, we've had to buy a fan for our lap top because it over heats, and we've had many DVDs scratched so badly that we've had to throw them away (and I really don't know how they got scratched). Ok, that list doesn't look very long, but if feels like we are constantly having technical difficulties and each time that we do, I end up wanting to chuck the object at the teeth of the person who made it.

You all know that we recently bought that '05 Dodge Caravan. I actually really like the van, but not two days after we bought it the power locks went out. We did some research about this and I guess a lot of '05 Dodge Caravans have had this same problem and there was nothing that anyone could do about it (and if there is, it would be really expensive). It wouldn't be that big of a deal if every door on the van had a key hole, but they decided to make the van so that only the driver's door has a key whole. This is going to be somewhat difficult with three children and a two year old who could run in the street at any moment while I'm trying to manually unlock all of the doors on the van.

Then this morning my husband tried to turn on the TV and there was nothing. The TV will not turn on at all. No lights, no sounds. We just bought this TV a year ago in February, which means the one year warranty is no longer valid. What I'd really like to do is take that TV and smash it to bits, but I've contained myself. My husband wanted a flat screen TV so badly and we finally used all of our tax return money to buy it last year, and now it doesn't work anymore. I could see the devastation on his face after he tried everything to get it to turn on this morning, and it broke my little heart. We really can't buy a new one right now with these babies on the way and getting it repaired is almost just as expensive. I started to make peace with the fact that I'd just have to watch some of my favorite shows online, a day after they've aired, and at least we still have our lap top so we could still watch movies. After all, it's really not the end of the world if we don't have a television. And then tonight my husband came up with a brilliant solution. We bought this TV with our credit card for this exact purpose. Our credit card will match a warranty (meaning if our TV was under warranty for a year, it would match that one year, making it under warranty for two years) if we purchased the item with that credit card, which we did. Our credit card company might just bail us out of this little pickle and either repair our TV for us or give us money to get a new one. I knew credit card companies were good for something!!! Please guys, bail us out and make me have a love for electronic equipment again because right now, I'm feeling pretty much against it.