The Technology Revolution

It is Saturday afternoon and I find myself at the local Starbucks.  I live in a small town and this is the only Starbucks in the area.  I have been here since 9am and I did not realize how busy this place got.  Well, this is the first time I have brought my laptop to do homework at a Starbucks.  I sometimes settle on the local library but I'd much rather deal with the whirring sounds of the coffee grinders than that of the 14 year olds on their cell phones speaking animatedly as only they can: "No way, dude!"  "Dude!  Dude!  Guess who I saw?!"  When one is trying to concentrate on the differences between ROM & RAM, it can be highly annoying.    I have also experienced the keys on the keyboard being rearranged like a selection of letters from a Scrabble game.  Luckily I type by memory and not sight.  I did not notice this until I went to type in the password for my email which requires me to concentrate on the keyboard and not the screen.

I am a 40 year old Computer Science student.  I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up so it's taken me this long to figure it out.  Of course this is all subject to change.  I have been a preschool teacher, massage therapist, web developer, and project coordinator.  Why not a computer programmer?  I've worked with computers my entire life.  My Dad brought home one of the early personal computers when he worked for Digital Equipment Corporation in the 70's.  We played archaic computer games on them that involved plugging the ear and mouth piece of the old fashioned telephones into a modem.  We played games based on text.  One that I remember involved the computer giving a line of text a long the lines of "You are walking through the woods.  You come to a tall brick wall.  What do you do?"  You would then enter in your possible escape and the computer would either place another obstacle in your way or congratulate you.

One time my sister was playing when suddenly there was a giant snake in her way.  When prompted to respond what she would do, she typed in "F____ it!"  She could not have been older than 8 or 9 at the time.  The computer responded, "Watch it!"  I remember her running into our parent's bedroom where I sat in repose watching the afternoon cartoons.  She relayed to me what she had done with her hand over her mouth as if in pure shock.  "It was by accident," she explained.  That was the reason she gave for having typed in such an expletive.  I, at the time, of course believed her.  Obviously nobody just accidentally types 'f___ it."   I always wondered if there was a man waiting on the other side of the modem for someone to engage the game.  Then he would put down his issue of Computer World and meatball sub, and with a sigh begin playing a game with an obnoxious pre-adolescent.  Or was this computer game completely automatic?  I have never found this out but I suppose it was possible at the time from what I have read. 

My sisters and I were lucky to have such an early experience in using computers.  My husband on the other hand, was not so lucky.  He is the son of Mexican immigrants who were lucky to even have electricity, let alone any form of computer.  Mainly things were done by hand.  I will not complain about this!  Once one has tasted some of the native dishes that take hours to create, it is easy to understand why automation is a process that hadn't completely come in to age for some immigrant families --my own included.  My husband was stationed on a submarine during the first Persian Gulf War.  He operated extensive computers at the time to keep that submarine accurately moving through the underwater canyons and reefs.  He currently works in construction and I have never witnessed another human being who can calculate numbers so quickly and accurately in his head.  But don't get him infront of a modern day computer though.  He is as lost as a child at a 4th of July parade.  -Of couse he'll never admit this.  I will get the proud  'Of course I know how to use a computer.  I was in the Navy' spiel.  This was twenty years ago.  His submarine has long been decommissioned and turned into razor blades.   

One weekend he asked me to look up a website for him.  It had something to do with construction materials like hard-hat accessories or something along that line.  I pulled the site up for him and then headed off to take a shower.  I had just lathered my head with shampoo when I hear him yelling from outside the door,"Honey, the screen just went black.  What do I do?"

"Just jiggle the mouse," I yell, over the spray of the shower. 

10 minutes later, wrapped in a towel, I walk over to the computer and see the screen saver up.  I of course jiggle the mouse and the website I had found a half hour earlier is still on it's index page.  He has given up and is flopped down in his Man Cave infront of the mammoth big screen television set that takes up most of the room.  I asked him if he did what I said.  He said he tried and nothing happened.  To this day I'm not sure what happened.  I don't think he even tried.  Apparently all this modern techology proved to be a little too much for this man that once chased Russian submarines away from US waters for a living. 

I find this to be one of the most honest and down to earth traits of my husband.  Although he does not like to admit that he does not know something, I love the fact that he works in the earth with his hands and body.  He arrives home most evening covered in earth and concrete.  Some may see him as computer illiterate but in this day of technology it is somewhat refreshing.  Many times he is up at 3am taking notes at the kitchen table before he begins his day.  His boss has tried unsuccessfully to get him to use a laptop but he has so far not given in.  In the meantime, I will be his link to an ever changing technological world.     

Ruben and Shooter

 My husband, Ruben and his rottweiler, Shooter taken on 5/11/08 -Phoenix, AZ