T-68: Getting Ready--Technology Version



How many hours in front a screen?
 

I am still mixed about whether taking all this technology on the bikes is  a good idea.  In rides past, part of the beauty was being untethered.   For our last big trip, in 1998 (!), I don't think we even carried a cell phone, which were still novelties at that point. 

Now, however, screens are us.  I am on my 3rd smart phone.  There are many nights where I am on my phone, Wes is on the pad, and conversation is slight to none.  There is irony here.  We chose to give up television when it went digital at least partially to participate more fully in conversation, reading, and activities.  How ridiculous is it that we are now staring at our small screens instead.

I am also mixed about it because technology is never as easy as it seems it is going to be, as you want  it to be, or as it should be.  Inevitably, it takes me 20 minutes to figure out where that one necessary button is,  or because I cannot figure out how to do that one simple thing...like change the font size, or saving to a new directory...that I did in the previous version of the software or operating system.

Right now, I am struggling to figure out a new Nokia 920 Windows Phone, after happily using my tiny WebOS Veer for the past two years.  That is certainly going better than the fight I am having with this new Asus Windows 8 Zenbook.

I spent long frustrating hours trying to do something which was very simple on my previous technology...put a photo on my blog.  Blogger fights with Windows 8, so I can't automatically take pictures with the great camera on the phone, and put them on the blog.

This, of course, was my big idea.  I could use my great new phone to document our trip and preparations for the trip.   So no, I have to save to the cloud, then find a way to download it without tripping up the stupid blogger photo interface.

That is assuming that the more than a little erratic track-pad on the Zenbook isn't popping my cursor all over the page without warning.  Not only does it flip around without warning, because it is Windows 8, I find myself on the tiles, or on the previous page without ever having meant to go there.

So now I am wondering about the whole damn thing.  On previous trips, we were unbound and free.  Technology is looking and feeling like a tether.  About the last thing I want to do is spend my lunchtime and camp-time fighting with technology, instead of enjoying my surroundings, meeting new people, and losing my stress.

I do want to record my experience.  I do want to share my experience.  I know we are undertaking a life-changing challenge.  Why can't the technology be simple and seamless...like they promise?