Also known as... the post in which I list all the crap from 2006.
My new years resolution... drum roll please... is to totally not be electronically jinxed this year.
For sure.
Last January, it began. I help out at this church camp for teens... about three hours away from home. It is a weekend thing and is loads of fun, but not when you are electronically challenged.
My one job that weekend was to do the video... walk around recording things, download them to the laptop, and then create a fabulous video of the weekend to show to parents when they show up the last day of camp. No big deal. Just DO the video. OH but that was before the curse of technology.
As we pulled up to the camp and unloaded the things, I noticed something strange. The electronic alarm/door lock on my car wasn't working. It would give a very weak beep, if that, and mostly wouldn't work at all. (Bum Bum Bum)
Then I pulled out the camera and got to work. Oh the funny things that I saw through my little lens! What a masterpiece this would be! I had oscar dreams!
I recorded and recorded all the first day. Oh what a delight!
And then I noticed. I had forgotten the cord that went from the camera to the computer. I had no way of downloading my entire day of images. OH great! We searched and searched for the cord. I was sure I had set it aside to pack. No not there.
Ok, I said, "Maybe I can run down to the Wal-Mart and get a cord." Surely Wal-Mart, the only real store in Gilmer, Texas, would have a cord. Surely.
I prayed and prayed and prayed about it that night. I woke up early the next morning and drove my happy self to the Wal-Mart, camera in hand. I was ready. I should have known though, when the little toothless man in the blue vest with his name on it was the only one in charge of electronics that morning, that I was in trouble. "We don't got no cords in Gilmer, Texas" is what I heard.
OH great!
We finally got a cord brought town and I finally could piece together something. Nothing wonderful or even Oscar Worthy, but it was something. That was all I could ask for at that point. Score one for the technology...sweet electronics. You won your first match!
Oh, then around March, my beloved laptop Hobbes just sort of died. I had seen it coming. The mixed up screen, the problems when I would turn it on. I tried to make it limp along and pretend nothing was wrong but then the day came. The laptop totally flipped out. Needed a new logic board, they said. Would take 12 days, they said.
I am beginning to sense a pattern, I said.
My laptop hadn't gotten home and comfortable when the ipod started doing strange things. It would skip, then it would not even go to certain songs. "Oh, I see," I would think, "you don't want to play that song today. I guess I play it too much anyway. OK. We can listen to a different one." But then the terrible triangle and the exclamation point. Oh the triangle, symbol of woah and angst!
That was it. The pod was toast. Blah.
Scoreboard: Susie 0, Technology 3..
August rolled around and the church camp happened again. Time for another chance to redeem myself with the video thing. This was the year of Oscar Worthy Greatness!
I had used the camera, it was working fine. I had all cords needed, plus some...oh I had learned my lesson. Things were great. As soon as we got things unpacked and ready, I was ready to record, and that is when I noticed the camera was dead. Not a "let's just charge the battery" kind of dead but a real, honest to goodness, no matter what you try it still won't work, dead.
But aha! I had called for backup and asked someone else to bring their camera! I was no dummy!
So I used that camera all weekend. I directed, I moved, I knew it would be fantastic!
Once again, using the cords, I realized with the new borrowed camera, I still didn't have the right one. I was doomed! There was no way of downloading video onto the computer to edit. No way. Darn you technology! You suck!
I took the tapes home, hoping that I would be able to do something with them at home. Surely I could make a good situation out of this! Surely I could fix it.
I borrowed a camera from someone and eagerly tried to download video. Much to my surprise, there was NOTHING on the tapes!
Nothing. Ugh. It never ends.
I still, to this day, haven't been able to see the video from that camp. I try every once in a while, and then I quickly concede to the technology gods and hope for a better/easier time next time.
Today is the first day of 2007. I have decided that I NEED to be unjinxed by technology. I deserve it.
Or so I thought, until this morning I was working on my laptop and realized that the return key wouldn't work. Neither would the shift key!
NO!!!!!! I will not go down lightly! I have a chance to make it better!!! I MUST make it better!
OH yes. I fixed the keyboard!
I have defeated technology and its grip on my soul.
I VOW to if not beat technology, then to go down trying....
I will let you know how it goes...
