Monday, March 7, 2011

Feeling all Luddite in Best Buy



I put off a trip to Best Buy for at least two years but the technical side of my existence was reaching case critical.


There’s an ad. when a guy goes on about how your computer is in trouble if it takes more than 10 seconds to react.

I want that guy’s number so as I can call him up and scream: “I’d kill for 10 seconds – try 10 minutes.”

And as for blue screens, if I was a successful actor (which I don’t believe I am) I’d be a star of the blue screen.

I’d be sitting there while that interminable hamster wheel turns round and round on the screen, wringing my hands together saying “winning Charlie, I’m winning.”

It has been a while since I’ve been to a store that deals with merchandise pertaining to modern technology, so Best Buy was a frightening experience.

Technophobia runs in the family, I’m told. My grandmother used a mangle instead of a washing machine which explains why she wasn’t invited to many social events. She didn’t do buttons.

Our family’s one attempt to introduce her to the late 20th century by buying her a microwave floundered when she heated up an apple pie for 30 minutes rather than 30 seconds, securing an unscheduled visit from the nice folks from the fire department.

I found Best Buy full of concepts I didn’t fully understand: iPads, iPhones, iPods, iTunes, i-m-confused, Wiis, Kindles, U-boats etc.

I mean I’m all for reading but how sad that we’re even reading novels on cyber pads, leading to the demise of book shops that are among my favorite places in the world.

We asked the geek at the counter if he could fit more capacity, plonking our big old prehistoric tower on the counter. He stared at us as if we had fallen from Mars, shot appalled glimpsed at the tower and flicked a large flake of dandruff from his hair onto his specs as he informed us our model was outdated and would only take 2 kilo bites of Dodge ram.

He totaled up the work to almost $300. “You might as well buy a new platform.”

“Ugh?”

Over in the sales department they had a great deal on a new lap top for just $399, with four times as much capacity. We stared glassily at the salesman as he spoke about hard drive capacity.

It sounded like a deal so my wife went off to deal for more than an hour while I let my daughter beat me at a computer game.

“Great deal,” my wife informed me an hour later. “After all the packages it only cost just under $1,000. We’ll even be able to access email.”

“How fantastic.”

Access to my blog may be somewhat limited this week but I am still out here, lost in cyber space. I’ll be transferring my memory between platforms. I think I’ll be running some guest blogs this week. Featuring photo blogs. That kind of thing.

14 comments:

  1. That is the greatest picture of all time!

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  2. 'U-boats and Dodge-Ram' ~ how you make me laugh David. Great blog today.

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  3. and my word verification was 'consl' ~ how appropriate.

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  4. I know exactly how you feel. My home computer just took a dump last week. Thankfully I have my work laptop as a back up.

    Now I just have to figure out what the heck is wrong with my computer and fix it.

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  5. I think the employees at Best Buy actually attend a seminar on how to make the customer feel technologically inferior. So far with me, they've been quite successful!
    Enjoy your new computer.

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  6. I totally sympathise, my netbook conked out in the middle of Jan and it was so good to get another computer though I didn't always understand what the people selling me it where going on about. Good luck with it all. x

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  7. Being a technotard myself, I don't envy your trip into Best Buy. I still hold a major disdain for their stupid Geek Squad that wiped everything off my computer when trying to do repairs - including my professional MS Office software. And then those effers wanted to charge me $1200 for new software. Stupid pricks but I digress. No doubt you will be loving your new computer in no time, and there won't even be any hampsters to feed.

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  8. I've managed to avoid Best Buy for about 5 years. I hate it too. That picture is very funny. Good find.
    Good luck keeping your memory intact.
    xoRobyn

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  9. i call myself technically challenged. I get intimidated with these gadgets! i'm not a fan of ebooks too. i'd like to buy a book, feel the pages against my fingertips, that's how i'd like to read it.

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  10. I know, Mollie, so retro. Glad you liked it Lidia; my blog involves word verification? That's a drag. Good luck with that Oilfield. The new laptop is super fast, actually. Thanx PAMO, yep they make me feel weel inferior. Thanx Frog, hope your netbook problems get better. No way Empress, sorry about that. that's horrible. I'm told the stuff is on my new computer but I can't find it. Thanks Robyn, but the memory's dodgy today, mine anyhow. For sure Maria, there's something about a book.

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  11. That picture is looking good ... thanks for sharing with us ...
    Best Buy USA

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  12. I find myself in a very privileged position, because my husband is a computer guy. The only thing that irritates me is that, if something doesn't work when he's not around, it will only start working when he comes in the room. (This is not just my observation; his colleagues experience the same thing. )

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  13. Oh dear. I can sympathize. We took my dinosaur tower in for a tune-up last summer. The computer guy did what we asked, but we could see the smirk dancing in his eyes. He advised us not to put any more money into it if we have any more trouble with it. HA! :)

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  14. I really don't like going into stores at all but I used to go to Best Buy every week or so to pick up movies for my ever going collection. It was a bit of an obsession at the time. Now I have 300 DVD's that I don't even watch because I have Netflix now.

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On Blog PTSD

Now then. What the heck. It seems I had forgotten about my blog completely rather than just neglecting it this time. To return after so long...