After a long hiatus from the blog, I’m back. Please don’t think that I’ve not had any errant musings to share. Well, there was that dark time during my first trimester when I pretty much had no other thought except that I really really loved my bed. Now I find myself so backed up with trivial ramblings that I have no idea where to start.
In honor of my husband, who I have actually referred to as Data before, I’ll re-inaugurate the blog with an ode to technology. I have an iPhone. Generally, I love it. But there is one thing I cannot stand and that is typing on it. I’ve never considered my fingers particularly chubby, but apparently the iPhone disagrees with me. Since I am an aspiring college professor I can’t simply leave the nonsense that gets typed initially and move on, thus I spend an inordinate amount of time spellchecking, retyping, and swearing.
Enter the iPhone 4S and a little program called Siri. Essentially the voice-activated program acts as your personal assistant and will do all kinds of things for you like a pocket-sized Hal. Well, let’s hope she’s not all that much like Hal. With Siri I may never have to type on my iPhone again, or at least I’ll only have to do so very minimally. When I need to ask my husband when he’s coming home, I’ll just tell Siri to text him. When I need to look up the year “Midnight Cowboy” was released and who that actor was that played the guy who wanted to be a gigolo, and then fall into the Wikipedia rat hole by following the clicks through to his famous daughter and end up somehow at the United Nations via a history of anorexia, I’ll save a lot of typing time by getting Siri to do it for me. I figure I can increase my extraneous information download by at least 15%.
But Siri’s “Reminders” feature is the real reason why she’s won my heart. I’ve acknowledged for a long time now that I need a keeper. What I mean is that I need someone to remind me to return that book I borrowed when I go to dinner at a friend’s house, or that I need to call my grandmother, or to remind me when I’m at the grocery store to look for a shade of eyeliner that will make my eyes look more green and less hazel. With a baby on the way I’m going to need a lot more help in the reminders department, like “remind me that the baby is in the back-seat.”
Unfortunately, my husband is the one who’s next in line for the upgrade. I’m keeping my resentment in check with dreams of the iPhone 5. What new and wondrous things will Siri be able to do then? And unlike personal assistants, butlers, and slaves of the past, all Siri needs is a little 30 minute power re-charge now and again. Until then I’ll bide my time with the new iPod Nano, which can ingeniously track my steps while camouflaged as a Kermit the Frog watch. Technology, how far you’ve taken us.
