The curse of modern technology
Now that I am cooped up at home, devoid of much human contact except the occasional meeting up with friends or the mindless chatting with neighbours/salespeople etc. (time with family doesn't count), I am beginning to appreciate the existence of modern commiunication tools, most notably to me, the trio of the TV, the computer and the telephone. And this is all the more so since I have an abundance of time on my hands now...
Much as I appreciate them, I worry for their continued existence in this household because all three of them are seriously overworked.
The Television Set(s)
We have 3 television sets at home, one in the hall, one each in my room and my Grandma's room. This is nothing to boast about; almost everyone has more than one TV now. And having a TV in my room, I know I am fortunate. But it has turned out to be a bane at times. How to study with the blaring TV next to you? How to sleep with the blaring TV AND the glaring light on AND deafening laughter in the dead of the night?? (I sleep with my younger sis, that's why I am subjected to such torture.)
Thank goodness the TV in my room is only a bane during school time. Phew! But as a result of this, it is overworked. The situation is aggravated because a brand new VCD cum DVD player has joined it, courtesy of Grandma. She couldn't stand hearing Sis beating and slapping the old and beyond repair player. My heart skipped a beat a few weeks ago when the whole TV suddenly turned mute. I can't bear having to spend the money to send it for repair or worse still, get a new one!
It is still fine at the moment, although I can't help but worry for its survival. The TV is on at least 3 hours every weeknight and the figures at least doubles for every day of the weekend. The VCD player as well, gets worked slightly less or equally hard as the TV as well.
The TV in the hall, at least 8 years and *fingers crossed* counting, still works relatively fine except for the occasional turning green of the screen and the absence of NICAM. The latter especially, doesn't bother me much now because of the dearth of Japanese dramas on TV nowadays. But I am disappointed I didn't discover this function much earlier when it was still working and there were still nice and quality Japanese dramas on TV. Bleah!
There is the whole package in the living room as well. Short of the newest home entertainment system, our system is rather full-fledged, with the LD player, HiFi system, DVD player, VCR player etc. The first two are more of white elephants. The LD era seems to have gone. The situation is similar to the one in my room. Dad uses the VCD player the most, watching his favourite concert VCDs/Cantonese drama serials the Nth time.
The last TV in my Grandma's room is relatively new, and overworked as well. I think the situation is not as bad now, because the new-look Channel U has cut down (or removed totally?) on the number of Taiwanese Hokkien dramas. It was really bad in the past. Here's how it was.
Channel 8: Hokkien drama from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays (which she would watch on the TV in the hall)
Channel U: 2 consecutive Hokkien dramas from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, Mondays to Fridays. These two, she would tape them.
Then at 10.30pm after the news on Channel U, she would watch Taiwan Pi Li Huo, and during commercial breaks, watch a little of the shows she taped in the afternoon.
She hates it when I make only a passing comment about her watching TV habits, although I must admit that some of the shows are nice. Long and lo so yes, but the plots got pretty engaging at times! I missed not being able to watch Pi Li Huo after its finale, which was fantastic! But I digress.
Won't you worry for my TVs after learning of their "plight"? Sigh. And this is only the first of the trio....
The Desktop Computer
There is actually another desktop computer with no Internet access (no communication to talk of, and which I hardly use. So I shan't talk about.) and my Fujitsu laptop which requires dialup and has a snail pace speed of 56kps (Dial up is too expensive compared to the unlimited access at $47.25 on the desktop, and is too troublesome to connect as well. Besides, it is lying in my room like a white elephant as well because I only use it for churning out reports for school. So I shan't comment on it as well.)
The main computer that is excessively used has no particular brand. All its components were manually assembled by my uncle, keeping in line with the low-cost mantra. Unlimited broadband access is a godsend, although the incidence of virus attacks, spyware, Trojan worms increases exponentially. But I trust my anti-virus program, Zone Alarm firewall and AdAware to do a good job of maintaining my computer less-virus/worm/spyware-prone for me. At least it is so much more better than the ancient times of dial up, where I was practically keeping my eyes glued to the clock with every minute passed while my sis was using the computer. The fees then were exorbidant!
The computer has been reformatted at least 4 times and it is only slightly more than 2 years old. And I am always the one doing all the dirty work (i.e. reformatting, installing anti-virus, asking for help etc.) There is also bound to be lots of fingerpointing between my sis and I since we are the two main users. The virus came from your profile. No lor, I did the virus scan. More than half of the worms came from your profile. Something along that line. Childish right?
We are heavy users. The longest time I could recall was 9 hours at one shot, by my sister coz she was doing her project CUM MSN-ing, blogging, checking mail, checking Friendster and a hell lot of other stuff!
Checked our usage for the month of April. 119 hrs and 55 minutes. File transfer of 1463 MB. That is on average 3.97 hours per day. OK, reasonable. Could be lower, considering that we were both at school for most of the month and I shoild have been mugging for my exams.
It has become a routine for me to do a Disk Cleanup and an AdAware scan before I log on to the Internet AND after I am done with it. Plus an anti-virus scan weekly. Call me kiasu, but I am really tired of having to call for help when the system crashes!
The Telephone
I am not referring to my mobile phone. It is the cordless phone we have at home. I am a very light user of it, since I rely on SMS and mobile phone calls. But I still get so irritated with it.
Firstly, because it is cordless, everyone in my family has gotten so lazy (me included). We bring the phone into our rooms, bathrooms, kitchen etc to continue our conversation and leave it there. When the next call comes (which is rather frequent), we go round searching frantically for it. The last cordless phone we had was much better. Probably sensing the common habits of consumers, it had a "phone-locator" button when pressed would sound a constant ringing sound for us to *duh* locate the phone. I miss the old phone.
Secondly, this new phone also has a horrible, horrible ringtone! It screeches! It becomes a terrible nuisance to hear it if you are cooped up in the house or day (like me!) And given that we get calls at intervals of at 15 mins (sometimes shorter) at times, I hope I have not inadvertably become a potential candidate for the owner of a hearing aid!
Overwork or not, I am not too sure because I don't look/don't dare to look at the telephone bills, although I do know the phone starts to buzz with activity once my youngest sis gets home as she is bombarded with calls from her classmates! I wonder what they do in school all day. They are in school as well, but don't seem to note down whatever the teacher says. So they need to call my sis everytime for help! My sis is in Primary 6 now and this has started since she was in Primary 1!! The irritating parts are that most of the questions seem to require only one-word answers, the same girl can call back at the count of 5 after the first call, and the calls don't seem to decrease after the exams or even during the holidays!
Lastly, I hate it, hate it when the phone forces me out of my beauty sleep! i am always the victim, because my younger sis would never, ever pick up the phone. Either, she is sleeping like a log and can't hear it, or she is pretending to be deep in sleep because she knows I would have to pick it up. I suspect it is the second.
The phone is really getting on my nerves. I cringe with annoyance when I hear that ringing. Pui!
Yes, I know we need to reduce our reliance of such faceless forms of communication and build up our communication with real people. But for now, the second would have to take a back seat as I continue to immerse myself and fall deeper into the curse of modern technology.
Ciao! Watching TV...
Much as I appreciate them, I worry for their continued existence in this household because all three of them are seriously overworked.
The Television Set(s)
We have 3 television sets at home, one in the hall, one each in my room and my Grandma's room. This is nothing to boast about; almost everyone has more than one TV now. And having a TV in my room, I know I am fortunate. But it has turned out to be a bane at times. How to study with the blaring TV next to you? How to sleep with the blaring TV AND the glaring light on AND deafening laughter in the dead of the night?? (I sleep with my younger sis, that's why I am subjected to such torture.)
Thank goodness the TV in my room is only a bane during school time. Phew! But as a result of this, it is overworked. The situation is aggravated because a brand new VCD cum DVD player has joined it, courtesy of Grandma. She couldn't stand hearing Sis beating and slapping the old and beyond repair player. My heart skipped a beat a few weeks ago when the whole TV suddenly turned mute. I can't bear having to spend the money to send it for repair or worse still, get a new one!
It is still fine at the moment, although I can't help but worry for its survival. The TV is on at least 3 hours every weeknight and the figures at least doubles for every day of the weekend. The VCD player as well, gets worked slightly less or equally hard as the TV as well.
The TV in the hall, at least 8 years and *fingers crossed* counting, still works relatively fine except for the occasional turning green of the screen and the absence of NICAM. The latter especially, doesn't bother me much now because of the dearth of Japanese dramas on TV nowadays. But I am disappointed I didn't discover this function much earlier when it was still working and there were still nice and quality Japanese dramas on TV. Bleah!
There is the whole package in the living room as well. Short of the newest home entertainment system, our system is rather full-fledged, with the LD player, HiFi system, DVD player, VCR player etc. The first two are more of white elephants. The LD era seems to have gone. The situation is similar to the one in my room. Dad uses the VCD player the most, watching his favourite concert VCDs/Cantonese drama serials the Nth time.
The last TV in my Grandma's room is relatively new, and overworked as well. I think the situation is not as bad now, because the new-look Channel U has cut down (or removed totally?) on the number of Taiwanese Hokkien dramas. It was really bad in the past. Here's how it was.
Channel 8: Hokkien drama from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays (which she would watch on the TV in the hall)
Channel U: 2 consecutive Hokkien dramas from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, Mondays to Fridays. These two, she would tape them.
Then at 10.30pm after the news on Channel U, she would watch Taiwan Pi Li Huo, and during commercial breaks, watch a little of the shows she taped in the afternoon.
She hates it when I make only a passing comment about her watching TV habits, although I must admit that some of the shows are nice. Long and lo so yes, but the plots got pretty engaging at times! I missed not being able to watch Pi Li Huo after its finale, which was fantastic! But I digress.
Won't you worry for my TVs after learning of their "plight"? Sigh. And this is only the first of the trio....
The Desktop Computer
There is actually another desktop computer with no Internet access (no communication to talk of, and which I hardly use. So I shan't talk about.) and my Fujitsu laptop which requires dialup and has a snail pace speed of 56kps (Dial up is too expensive compared to the unlimited access at $47.25 on the desktop, and is too troublesome to connect as well. Besides, it is lying in my room like a white elephant as well because I only use it for churning out reports for school. So I shan't comment on it as well.)
The main computer that is excessively used has no particular brand. All its components were manually assembled by my uncle, keeping in line with the low-cost mantra. Unlimited broadband access is a godsend, although the incidence of virus attacks, spyware, Trojan worms increases exponentially. But I trust my anti-virus program, Zone Alarm firewall and AdAware to do a good job of maintaining my computer less-virus/worm/spyware-prone for me. At least it is so much more better than the ancient times of dial up, where I was practically keeping my eyes glued to the clock with every minute passed while my sis was using the computer. The fees then were exorbidant!
The computer has been reformatted at least 4 times and it is only slightly more than 2 years old. And I am always the one doing all the dirty work (i.e. reformatting, installing anti-virus, asking for help etc.) There is also bound to be lots of fingerpointing between my sis and I since we are the two main users. The virus came from your profile. No lor, I did the virus scan. More than half of the worms came from your profile. Something along that line. Childish right?
We are heavy users. The longest time I could recall was 9 hours at one shot, by my sister coz she was doing her project CUM MSN-ing, blogging, checking mail, checking Friendster and a hell lot of other stuff!
Checked our usage for the month of April. 119 hrs and 55 minutes. File transfer of 1463 MB. That is on average 3.97 hours per day. OK, reasonable. Could be lower, considering that we were both at school for most of the month and I shoild have been mugging for my exams.
It has become a routine for me to do a Disk Cleanup and an AdAware scan before I log on to the Internet AND after I am done with it. Plus an anti-virus scan weekly. Call me kiasu, but I am really tired of having to call for help when the system crashes!
The Telephone
I am not referring to my mobile phone. It is the cordless phone we have at home. I am a very light user of it, since I rely on SMS and mobile phone calls. But I still get so irritated with it.
Firstly, because it is cordless, everyone in my family has gotten so lazy (me included). We bring the phone into our rooms, bathrooms, kitchen etc to continue our conversation and leave it there. When the next call comes (which is rather frequent), we go round searching frantically for it. The last cordless phone we had was much better. Probably sensing the common habits of consumers, it had a "phone-locator" button when pressed would sound a constant ringing sound for us to *duh* locate the phone. I miss the old phone.
Secondly, this new phone also has a horrible, horrible ringtone! It screeches! It becomes a terrible nuisance to hear it if you are cooped up in the house or day (like me!) And given that we get calls at intervals of at 15 mins (sometimes shorter) at times, I hope I have not inadvertably become a potential candidate for the owner of a hearing aid!
Overwork or not, I am not too sure because I don't look/don't dare to look at the telephone bills, although I do know the phone starts to buzz with activity once my youngest sis gets home as she is bombarded with calls from her classmates! I wonder what they do in school all day. They are in school as well, but don't seem to note down whatever the teacher says. So they need to call my sis everytime for help! My sis is in Primary 6 now and this has started since she was in Primary 1!! The irritating parts are that most of the questions seem to require only one-word answers, the same girl can call back at the count of 5 after the first call, and the calls don't seem to decrease after the exams or even during the holidays!
Lastly, I hate it, hate it when the phone forces me out of my beauty sleep! i am always the victim, because my younger sis would never, ever pick up the phone. Either, she is sleeping like a log and can't hear it, or she is pretending to be deep in sleep because she knows I would have to pick it up. I suspect it is the second.
The phone is really getting on my nerves. I cringe with annoyance when I hear that ringing. Pui!
Yes, I know we need to reduce our reliance of such faceless forms of communication and build up our communication with real people. But for now, the second would have to take a back seat as I continue to immerse myself and fall deeper into the curse of modern technology.
Ciao! Watching TV...
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