Life Changing Technology

My PVR is the first technology that came to mind. On rare occasion I will be visiting with someone who will actually watch live TV (even if they own a PVR!) and it drives me absolutely nuts, but not as nuts as having to watch live TV without a PVR. I could not watch TV without the ability to pause it, rewind it, nor to skip through the commercials. Nor can I express the freedom we have to watch TV on our terms. We don't have to manage 6 hour video tapes, we just monitor our hard drive capacity. We have gone days without watching TV, but not missing a single episode of the programs we like. We are free to visit with friends and not feel rushed to get home to watch a season premier/finale. Even if I still had to watch commercials I would want a PVR because of the freedom it grants me.

Our TV watching has been enriched by the PVR, because we now have the ability to pause the show and explain a point, predict an outcome, or comment on a scene. If the phone rings or we are otherwise interrupted we can put the program on hold. If we miss something we can rewind it. This feature is quite fun during football season. Forget waiting for instant replays, we've got our own! And if we cannot start watching when the game starts, so what? It's being recorded and we can start at any time, even if it's not done. We have been able to skip through meaningless chatter, half-time shows, delays of games, and still watch and re-watch the best plays. Sometimes we spend less time watching the game than most people, and that keeps the wives happy!

The other technology that has changed my life is still developing, and still holds potential to change my life, or be taken away from me: eBooks are my new preferred method of reading. There are some new devices coming out that might make reading books in an electronic version even more pleasant, and for those I am eagerly waiting. Right now screen sizes are small, but still reading in an electronic version is a delight. I can carry a small library with me at all times, have a harder time losing bookmarks, and even quote and annotate from the book without altering the book itself (I cannot bring myself to write in a book). I can search electronic versions, and my reader of choice even has a dictionary plug-in so I can lookup words without losing my place or interrupting the flow of my reading too greatly. In the few short months I have had my PDA I have read more books than I would have in three times the amount of time! Since I love to read this has been a fantastic boon for me.

I play with new technology frequently, a part of me hoping to find something that will enrich my life the way these two developments have. I yet wonder what the future will hold for me, and I eagerly await the possibilities.