Monday 30 September 2019

Gadgets ... Gadgets ... Gadgets ...

It's amazing how many electronic gadgets we have around us these days which didn't exist only a few years ago. Like cellular phones for instance, musical recording devices like MP3 players and similar instruments, tablets, electronic readers instead of books and so on.

A friend of mine is really mad about gadgets. He has a device which opens his garage door just as he approaches his house. Somehow, the garage door detects his car approaching and opens automatically and switches the garage lights on. Very impressive.

He is in the entertainment industry. So proud of himself that his telephone does not ring - it applauds him whenever someone calls.

And the applause does not stop there. When he's at home all he needs to do is tap his hands and the lights come on. One tap lights on. Two taps the curtains are drawn shut. Three taps they are open. Four taps the fire is on in the fire place. It's great fun when there's applause on TV and someone calls him on the phone at the same time.

I'll admit to something though ... years ago someone gave us a bedside lamp that lights up to sound. It did not have an ON/OFF switch. You tap and it lights up! You tap again and it switches off. I threw it away after a week. It kept switching on and off all night when I broke wind.

My friend also has a small device always stuck in his ear. I asked him what it was and he said it's his cellular phone. He says "Call Vic" and the device somehow dials my number and he talks to me without using his phone. He is often seen walking in the street talking to himself; or to someone else on the other end of this contraption in his ear.

The other day we went to the zoo as a family. His family and mine. It was a pleasant day throughout until we approached the ostrich enclosure. The ostriches are in an open area with a barrier separating us from them.

I don't know whether it was a floating ostrich feather or high pollen count but suddenly my friend started sneezing violently. He shook his head forward and the device flew out of his ear and into the enclosure.

Immediately ... an ostrich arrived from nowhere and swallowed the device.

There was nothing else to do but go home.

For the next few days, every time someone phoned my friend they heard a loud SQUAWK in their ear. They thought his secretary had just sat on a cactus, or had some other misfortune whilst answering the phone.

16 comments:

  1. I'm old school, I guess. I really don't like gadgets. I prefer paper to screen. Something I can understand vs. something that makes me crazy. Less chance of something breaking or going haywire, ya' know?

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    1. I totally agree, Linda. This new technology is confusing. I keep pressing the wrong button on my cellphone when it rings and I take photos of my ear.

      God bless.

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  2. I love most of the new technology, well new to me but probably several years old, but those bluetooth ear things do sometimes creep me out. Also I have a garage door opener where i have to push a button, I seem to be able to handle the button pushing...it sure beats the old way of getting out, hoisting the door open and then betting back in to drive through.

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    1. I sometimes think we have too much technology too soon. When my friend told me he had a bluetooth I told him to go to the dentist quickly before it gets worse. I tried one of those "no-driver" cars recently. I sat in the car and said, "To the pub please!" The car replied, "You're drinking too much. This is the third time we went to the pub this week".

      Too much technology. The fridge told me I buy too many fatty foods, and the washing machine refuses to wash my underwear.

      God bless, JoeH.

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  3. Like Linda, I'm rather technologically challenged, Victor. Yes, I know how to blog and use my phone, but that's about it. And I have to confess, I feel sorry for the ostrich who swallowed your friend's device. Hope it's able to pass it without too much trouble at the end of the line. Lol!
    Blessings!

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    1. As it says in the Bible: "And this too shall pass".

      But in the meantime, the ostrich was not a lonely voice in the wilderness.

      God bless, Martha.

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  4. Too funny about the applauding cellular. (You know I'm going to have to look for that feature … just because.)
    I remember those 'clapper' devices, particularly around the holiday season. "Clap on! Clap off!" I believe they were manufactured by the same folks who brought us the ChiaPet.

    I'd be too embarrassed to use one of those ear devices, believing people think I'm talking to myself. (Which I do, except in a whisper.)

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    1. Yes I remember the Chia Pets figurines. Amazing what they invent to keep us buying things. I also remember a dancing girl in a grass skirt on the dashboard of the car. I had to tell her to get out before my wife saw her!!!

      Keep smiling, Mevely. God bless.

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  5. Technology in the ear is not for me. I like to listen to the life's soundtrack not some phone. I would have been happy to lose it to an ostrich. :)

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    1. I agree, Bill. Especially when people walk in the streets seemingly talking to themselves but they are actually on the phone.

      God bless.

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  6. I am not a gadget person either though I do like my phone, but not in my ear!!
    Funny about the ostrich.: )

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    1. The ostrich was probably the first technologically knowledgeable bird ever.

      God bless, Happyone.

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  7. All it takes is a good EM burst and he will have to learn it all again. Has anyone checked ostrich droppings?

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    1. We didn't go back to the zoo to check.

      God bless, Susan.

      Delete
  8. Someone who has an Alexa and leaves the radio on finds the device coming on every time there's a commercial that says, "Tell Alexa to play our station!" It's all getting to be a bit much.

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    Replies
    1. That's true, Alexa and such devices are listening all the time.

      God bless, Mimi.

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