Confessions of a Middle-Aged Techno Geek

How can a (late) 40-something-year-old woman be so enraptured by technology? Am I not living during the perfect time? What if I were born during caveman time? Would I have been fascinated by the wheel? (Can I ask more questions??)

So what was your first clue that I'm a techno geek? Is it how I incessantly write about how much I love my iPhone, or the fact that I chose to buy a MacBook Pro over a new dishwasher last year? Or maybe it's the fact that I created an online journal (lucky readers of the Fabulous B@ker Blog!) where I espouse my love for technology at every turn. I guess I'm what the industry might call an "early adapter of new technologies." I would only qualify that by adding "if/when I can afford them."

With the release of every new gadget and development of every new technology, it seems that no idea is beyond realization. In the last ten years, and especially in the last three year or so, technology advances are moving so fast they and have forced us to constantly rethink and re-evaluate the way we do business and live our everyday lives, at home and at work. Grow or die.

This article caught my eye about 21 things that became obsolete in the last decade. Some of the stuff is really interesting. As the old going says, a technology item becomes obsolete the minute you take it out of the package. It can be a little overwhelming to think about, except if you're up to for the challenge. Along those lines is a companion article on 15 Gadgets that Changed Everything. I can't help it. I just eat this stuff up.

A friend recently showed me her Amazon Kindle. While it seems suitable enough for reading books, it's not something I would ever buy because just using it for a couple of minutes my expectations already exceeded its abilities. For instance, it wasn't in color, did not have a touch screen, and did not display pages with pictures as I expected. If I'm going to use a device to read books I'm probably going to skip all the gadgets that only get me part of the way there and go right for the "gold" standard: the iPad.

In our house, we've been having conversations about getting rid of our land line/telephone. How strange, the possibility that we will no longer have a home phone soon, although I know a lot of people got rid of theirs long ago, and function solely with their cell phones now. It seems to make a lot of sense now since the phone rarely rings, and many times, if it does, it's an annoying solicitation call.

I have a dream. It's not as revolutionary as that other famous "I Have a Dream" idea, but is a pretty exciting one for the Baker family. This year I hope to mount a new flatscreen television over our fireplace, and get rid of the cabinet of equipment we've used for the last many years. My TV will be controlled by any one of our laptops, which will communicate with the TV to play movies, games, music, display our photos...you get the idea. Gone will be the bulky stereo, CD player, DVD player, VHS player.

Basically, I'm envisioning a wireless home theatre system with surround sound. Getting rid of the big stereo cabinet and the bulky TV we currently use will free up a corner for another chair in our living room, which will also be cool. I'll post pictures when we are able to do this project, which might not be until later this year.

So, yeah, I love technology. It's also something I can talk with Cam about, since it's also an interest of his and he's also trying to stay ahead of the curve with technology trends. Keep up or fall behind, am I right?