Technological Presumptions

I have returned from a one week vacation in the North. Not the north-North like in Polar Bears, Subarctic flowers, Inuit seal hunters and the Northwest Passage north. More like the near north. We went camping in Neys Provincial Park halfway between Marathon and Thunder Bay. Its beautiful country off Highway 17 on Lake Superior. This was our third trip up. I don't know that I have the courage for the winter up there but I do love the other seasons. Lots of Black Bears this year. Anyway, I can go on forever about the natural beauty of this territory but that isn't what I mean to blog about.

What I meant to mention in my blog is that I realized that I am a bit presumptious or perhaps naively arrogant when it comes to modern technology - which is a great oversight on my part. Heading north I was confident that my Motorola Dext would keep me in touch with my family and provide security if anything went awry in the wilds - the Park closes and you are on an honour system - just you and your fellow campers who won't necessarily be on the trails the same time you are. My hubby was equally confident his Blackberry would alert him of any emails concerning work opportunities. Then a funny thing happened. Out past Sault Saint Marie my phone conked out. I thought it was the battery, nope...I thought it was a temporary blackout zone, nope. We were stumped. We talked to others who assured us they had service on their cellphones and they were with the same provider as we were without problems. But we were dead. Can you feel my trepidation, my growing alarm?

Turns out that my Dext and the hubby's Blackberry are "3G" technology. They are on an old network system up north and it wasn't upgraded enough to handle our newer tech phones. Our phones are HSP network, and the network up there is SDMA. So, where I had made the assumption I would be connected - I wasn't. And I had become dependent upon my phone for browsing the web, retreiving emails, texting family & friends and of course phone calls. Suddenly, that was ALL gone and it was weird. Uber weird.

There is no wireless in the Park. So I used my laptop to play the DVDs in the evening and do a bit of gaming. Without my phone, I felt kinda isolated. We had to use a pay phone to stay in touch with family (an aging parent, a drama-inspiring son), which was a bother on the one hand but - and this was a part of the big weird part - made the calls seemingly more important and enjoyable. Maybe convienence has robbed us of a certain appreciation for communciation with one another. I dunno. I don't want to wax profound or zen mind-bending about this but it was....an eye-opener.

The worst part however, was being on some of the trails. Two in particular are challenges. The one on the high grounds, way up. Something could go wrong. The other is right along the shoreline amongst rocks - where something could go wrong. I can deal with sprains, abrasions, cuts, blood in reasonable non-vital-artery amounts....even a bear encounter (providing it isn't a predatory bear) - what I would find it difficult to deal with being cut off from help, is compound fractures, snake bites, heart attacks or loss of consciousness of one of our party. That troubled me. How did we survive without cellphones? Well, we took first aid courses and educated ourselves before heading into the outback and quite frankly...some of us DIED. I've seen people on the trails do boneheaded stuff - why not? Aid and assistance is just a 911 phone call away and phones have GPS locators nowadays. We can be stupid. Sort of.

When we returned to the Land of Service - I added a new app to my phone. It is all on First Aid. I assume too much. I eventually learned to keep my phone charged - now I need to get smarter in its use and limitations. Technology can fail and I was wrong for letting that slip my intelligent brain. Our best tool is ourselves because often it is our brain, under stress or in a crisis or threatening situation that still has to bail us out. I am reviewing my basic First Aid training. Am I a chicken? So what. Would you rather be in the bush with me or the bonehead. C'mon. I know what you're thinking, you can say it.

GUESS WHAT?

I am a Potty Mouth. No, not all the time. I work directly with the public so I do know the use of appropriate verbal expressions. Anyways, I came to the realization that I too often resort to bailing out verbally on my down time and decided I didn't like it. I am smart...so...I think I am disappointed that I have been verbally reduced to the linguistics of a cheap corner Ho (Yes ho, not Ho-ho as in a yummy chocolate cupcake or Santa's ho-ho-ho but Ho because it is softer sounding than prostitute and not as crude or potty-mouthed as whore. See, I am learning) Soooo, I personally am going to work on cleaning up my own personal doodie-mouth. I don't care what others talk, or how they chose to express themselves...I don't think that bothers me but I do have a different expectation of myself.

Oh - Side note: The Assistant Park Superintendent was kind enough to provide us with his home number - just in case. Which was cool. 

I THINK I MIGHT HAVE PURRED!

Okay. If that sub-titled caused you to think I was off on an XXX rant and got you a bit hot...I apologize. Its just that I am stoked because after some fiddling and frustration and words that were quite fitting to my potty-mouthed past (it was before my revelation, so back-off) I got two of my OLD GAMES to work on my Vista OS laptop. Whoo-hoo! Purrrrrrrr. So I am happily playing Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. For a game that was made way, way, way back in...what, 2004? This is still great fun to play and I have to admit...I miss Troika. *sniffle, tear brush away* Yeah, I am really having a gamer girl picnic with this oldie but goodie. The other game I got working is Myst V. I've had this game for ages but my Toshiba bit the dust before I'd played it. I replaced my beloved Toshiba with an Acer, um...okay...with the Vista OS (uh-oh) and it has taken me to now to get these games working. Now, I must admit that Myst is a little dated...but this is the end of the series so...I am playing Vampires primarily and then doing Myst on the side periodically. Turns out even as a gamer I technologically presumed a tad too much. It never occurred to me that my laptop would crash and a new OS would NOT play my games (some untouched but waiting simply because I nabbed them at a great price) and rend them basically garbage and wastes of money. Now...I know better.

What an educational curve I've been on.

GOT MY GAMER GIRL GLOW ON

I might be AWOL for awhile again. I got Halo Reach tonight...and I've been waiting for this....and it has me quite excited so I reckon I will be dropping it in the Box and glued to it for a bit.

PITY I DON'T RULE THE WORLD

Can I convince my boss of this....

http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2010/09/gamers-make-for-better-workers.html

....no, no I think not.

PREQUEL TO ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD FAIL:

My "What the....?" moment of this week came when I read that Bruce Willis and Jamie Fox were cast for Kane and Lynch. When is Hollywood going to learn? You have a game that already determines what Kane, and what Lynch look like and provides voices for each and so thus they become entities unto themselves and gamers get to know (and perhaps even love them) and then Hollywood comes along to what?....tell a story that has already been told and change the main characters...because bigger name, they think they can do it better. I don't know or care why they do this but I really think that have no right to wonder why these movies based on games fail? I like Jamie Fox. But I don't like him for Kane and Lynch, nope, uh-uh, no how, no way. Duh.