Monopsony Monday

monopsony ~ case of only one buyer for products of several sellers

Well, would you look at that. It’s Monday already. There I was last night, congratulating myself on having made it through another week and weekend, watching the first episode of Jessica Jones on Netflix, and completely forgetting the fact that I hadn’t written my Monday post.

Of course I could barely keep my eyes open to watch TV, it’s no wonder I didn’t have enough brain power to write anything. :-D

A friend and I were having a discussion on the weekend about how much the price of technology has come down over the last few years. I’d mentioned to her about how thrilled I’d been about 10 years ago when I found a 2 Gigabyte USB stick to back my files up onto for a mere $80.00.

This weekend I was using a 16 Gigabyte USB stick to back my files up onto and it only cost me $8.00. The lap top I’m using right now cost half of what my first desktop computer cost me and there’s just no comparison as far as speed, performance, and storage capacity. Anyone remember floppy disks? :-)

All this affordable technology can be a little addictive. I’m only on my second lap top, but the desktop computer in my office is about my fifth one, each one progressively more advanced, easier to use (anyone else have fun with DOS?), more powerful, and cheaper.

There’s no escaping technology. Like tablets. At first glance tablets seem really cool - you can do so many things on a tablet and everybody has one. So I got myself one, and yeah, they’re pretty cool ... if you know how to use one, which I don’t.

I’m sure it’s not as complicated as it looks - I can check my email or surf online, and I try to stay away from the many, many games you can access because I really hate using the touch screen for games. But all those “aps” are a little intimidating.

I admit I don’t use it much. But I figure if nothing else it’ll come in handy when my Kindle inevitably dies on me and I need a new electronic reader. One of these days I’ll sit down with the on-line manual (why do these things all have to be online now?) and figure out what else I can do. One of these days ....

My glucometer for testing my blood sugar will connect wirelessly to the internet to allow me to download my results and keep track online. Yeah, sure. Most of the time I’d rather not know.

The hubby came home from a bowling tournament this weekend with an electronic prize which he passed on to me. It’s a Garmin Vivofit - a fitness tracker, same idea as a FitBit. It’s a device you wear to keep track of your fitness level - the number of steps you take, the calories you burn, your sleep patterns. It’s waterproof so you can wear it 24/7. I’m sure it will be really cool ... once I figure out how to use it.

I finally got my first cell phone last year, but I have yet to turn into one of those people. You know, the ones who might as well just have the phone surgically implanted. It amazes me how few of these phones are actually used to make calls. They’re used to text, shop, check Facebook, take pictures, do banking ... the list goes on and on. I have one friend who tells me her whole life is on her phone.

Seriously? What happens if you lose that phone?

I use my phone to take pictures, check my email, text my daughter, and to *gasp* make calls. I got it because as my granddaughter gets bigger and more active (and listens less and less) it’s kind of worrisome that there’s no land line at my daughter’s in case of emergency. I refuse to do banking on my phone, or even Facebook.

The phone is just a device, not my life.

Mediagenic Monday

mediagenic ~ able to present a good image in the media

Well, last week was certainly a week. I tell you what.

The hubby took the week off for the bathroom renovation, even going so far as scheduling the plumber to come in to do his thing. So the first day he started to take out dry wall in preparation for removing the old tub and discovered this:

Fortunately it was not the extremely toxic black mould that forces people to abandon their homes, but it did set the work back a bit. And while the strapping did need to be reinforced, it didn’t have to be replaced. Mostly what was accomplished last week was removing stuff: tub, toilet, sink, medicine cabinet (which was trickier than you’d think because the light fixture was attached to it) - and ripping out dry wall.

So last week was all about removing stuff from the bathroom and re-enforcing the floor and walls. Right now it’s pretty much just a nice empty room. A little on the small side perhaps, but there’s not much we can do about that without tearing out some walls completely.

We have the tiles for the walls stacked up in the music room, the faucet for the sink and the toilet stashed in the work room, the new (to us) tub is in a trailer in the driveway, and the sink and the faucet for the tub will hopefully (knock on wood) be here this week. I have a fistful of paint samples to pick a new colour for the walls - paint and flooring are still on the “to buy” list.

I guess that’s just the nature of renovations, they take three times as much time as expected, and cost twice as much money.

Last night I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark during an Indiana Jones marathon (the Star Trek marathon having ended). It was maybe not quite as thrilling as the first time I ever saw it, but it was still pretty awesome.

And this was before the days of CGI (computer generated images) so the special effects really were special. That was a real person holding onto the whip being dragged under a truck. All those snakes slithering around in the Well of Souls were real. And I remember reading something about the lengths they had to go to, figuring out the timing to get that truck Marion was supposed to be in to tip over.

If that movie was made today I think some of the magic would be lost because computers would have been used for so much of it. A shame really. Just because we have the technology doesn’t mean we should use it. Which brings me to the other big happening last week, I finally broke down and bought myself a tablet:

It’s a Samsung Galaxy Tab E - whatever that means. So far I have figured out how to put a password on the screen, and take it off again because when the screen goes dark after 10 seconds of inactivity it got real old real fast, having to turn it back on and put the stupid password in. Then I figured out how to make the screen stay on longer. I can check my email, even send one if I’m feeling adventurous. And I can play solitaire on it.

I freely admit to being somewhat intimidated by this little piece of technology. I seriously have to sit down and have a look at the manual - I’m sure there are all kinds of handy dandy things I could be doing with it, if I only knew how.

I remember a time when computers were my thing. I knew all kinds of useful stuff about the technology. But then I let it get ahead of me and now I’m practically a luddite. However, unlike in those early years, today’s technology is so simple even children can use it - maybe I just need to find a child to help me. ;-)

And once I’ve mastered the tablet, can a cell phone be far behind?