Watch your step into the 21st century

My brother called me on the phone last night. He's got a new webcam for his computer and we thought it would be fun to have a video conference so the kids can see each other even though we live in different states.

After exchanging ooVoo usernames, we attempted to talk to each other on the computer.

You would think that all you had to do was plug that little device in and off we'd go. But no. What followed was about an hour of trying to describe things to my brother that he should see on the screen. "Click on the button that is under your picture that looks like a blue thought bubble..." "Try clicking on the hang up button and then you call me. On the computer. Not the phone." Ultimately, we did an end run on the problem of getting the audio and vid working at the same time and instead ran the video while using the speaker phone on our land lines to talk.

Every day I find myself acting a little more like how I remember my parents acting when I was a kid. I remember my dad holding the remote control over his head and aiming it at the t.v. while pressing the button. He and Mom called it the "space age controller," and my dad swore that it really did work better when he held it aloft.

I remember when we got our first microwave. I don't remember what year it was, but I think it was in the late 70's. My parents invited the son-in-law of my Godmother (Ninang Emily) to teach us how to cook with it. Morris was a certified appliance repairman, not a chef or cook. But a repairman. We all gathered around the kitchen while Morris put in a raw scrambled egg in a bowl and out came a that same bowl with a yellow rubber like film that was allegedly cooked scrambled egg. You had to scrape the egg off the bowl and then attempt to eat it. For months after that lesson, my mother would start my day with egg microwaved in the bowl. For months after that lesson, I went to school nauseated or hungry because I had puked up that poor excuse for an egg. Morris also gave me and Mom some microwave cookbooks -- the official ones from the manufacturers of the appliances themselves. You'd think they'd give you edible recipes because they'd want to promote their microwaves. But no. According to the cookbook, there was nothing you couldn't cook in the microwave. Birthday cake? In less than 3 minutes! Fish? You bet! In less than 5 minutes! Thanksgiving dinner? Absolutely! In less than 10 minutes! Mom bought all kinds of special microwave cookware for our new oven, but no matter what, the food experiments were all just assaults on our senses.

But back to last night's foray into technology. It was really fun to get to see my niece and nephew. The littlest one was asleep so I didn't get to see him. I got to see Mom too. Unfortunately, all my kids were asleep but we're going to try to video conference again.

And probably use the speaker phone on the land lines again. Ahhh... technology.