Luddites...Unite

Oh, for the love of God - all I want to do is vegetate in front of the TV. I can't. Apparently someone watched a DVD last night and the system is still on DVD. Add to the fact I'm in a foreign country, the TV is an early 90's model, the cable information card is in Kanji - and now you've got me writing a blog about how I'm weighing the option of becoming a Luddite.

I am not against invention or innovation. Really, I'm not. I just want to watch TV. I want to turn on an appliance of any type and have it work. That's all I'm after.

I finally got my Japanese cell phone yesterday. All I wanted was a way to communicate if the need to communicate arose. I held out on my original cell phone until this century. Sad as it sounds - I was forced to finally obtain a mobile phone because if the rest of the world had them (and I'm using the word "world" to mean coaches, parents, teachers - people in my children's life.) It was super easy for them to change plans on a whim because they had a form of instant communication. I showed up early, late, and during many a practice because I didn't get the information. What did the world do before cell phones? THEY SHOWED UP AT THE RIGHT PLACE ON TIME!

Anyway, all I want out of a cell phone is the ability to call. The Japanese businesses are very wise. They have a captive audience over here that think living without a cell phone is to be a pioneer with Lewis and Clark. So, your plan includes an IPhone 4 with every option available. I didn't text too often in the states - who am I going to text on this island where I know about 5 people? And to add to my trials - all, yes, all the directions and contracts are in Japanese. I might have sold my first grandchild. I'm not sure what I signed. I still haven't made a call yet because you have to dial different configurations of numbers. I'm good with 7 digits. That's my limit. Any more and I'll go back to using a tin can and ball of string to communicate.

I received an Ipod Shuffle for my birthday about six years ago. It has exactly four songs on it because I can't stand the process of downloading songs. I don't want to drag anything on my computer. I want to push a button that says "record" and be done with it! What ever happened to tape recorders?

Back to the TV. We've had cable connections that offer 500 channels. And that was a low end contract. We usually watch three channels. ESPN is one of them. I don't know what the other two are - but I know what shows are on them. Growing up we had three channels. Channel 6, Channel 10 and Zanesville. Sometimes we could get a channel out of Wheeling and sometimes we could get another channe from Columbus. We got cable somewhere along the line. TBS was the bomb. I think TBS may be one of the channels we routinely watch. It shows "The Office" a lot.

I think our cable here in Okinawa gets 75 channels. When we lived here before - we got one channel - The Far East Network - and you watched what was on. It didn't matter that Silver Spoons had been off the air for six years. You enjoyed it and anticipated the airing of the show! Of these 75 channels - I have watched A&E - Toddlers and Tiaras, and Bon Jovi on David Letterman. The kids have watched Comedy Central. Hubby is excited because we get the Big Ten network - although he has yet to watch anything. I might watch something else - if I could just figure out how to get the TV to work.