Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

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On Calling 911

July 8th, 2010 by Manda | 5 Comments | Filed in Technology

I called 911 for the first time today.

I was in the backseat of the car, with my mother behind the wheel and my brother in the passenger seat. I was looking out the window, listening to my iPod and not paying attention. All of a sudden, I heard my mom scream, “Oh my God, oh my God,” and I yanked my earbuds out of my ear and frantically tried to figure out what on earth was going on.

There was a sedan two cars ahead of us that randomly pulled out of our lane and angled his car so that it was perpendicular to the flow of the traffic in the opposing lane. I’m not sure what was his train of thought was or if there even was one, but next thing I knew his car had collided with an SUV that was driving in the other side of the street. The front of the sedan crumpled and the fender of the SUV fell off; the airbags deployed and everything seemed to happen so much faster than it actually did.

The SUV pulled over on the side of the road and the two passengers climbed out, both unhurt. The driver of the sedan wasn’t in great shape; his face was bleeding profusely. However, he was well enough to get out of his car and take his shirt off so that he would have something to stem the steady flow of blood (I’m assuming he had a broken nose as there was a lot of blood). My brother went to go talk to the SUV passengers and the man in the car in front of us went to talk to the driver of the sedan. Meanwhile, I placed a call to 911.

Help arrived within several minutes. The cops arrived first, then an ambulance pulled up and the medics checked on the driver of the sedan. After that, there wasn’t much else we could do, so we hoped that everything would work out okay for those involved and then drove away.

It’s so strange to look at my list of recent contacts in my phone and to see 911 listed.

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Gotta Catch ‘Em All

June 14th, 2010 by Manda | 10 Comments | Filed in Technology

This is what I re-discovered yesterday.

Yes, that is a red Gameboy Color. (Excuse the poor quality of the photo. The lighting where I am is bad and I am too lazy to do anything about that.) It is approximately 10 or 11 years old and is surprisingly in great working condition. My game of choice? Pokemon, of course! Part of my re-discovery when it comes to my Gameboy is a few of my Pokemon game cartridges. Currently I’m playing Silver and realizing two things: first, I have completely and totally managed to forget everything I once knew about the details of the game; second, it is just as fun as I remember it to be.

I know that they re-released Silver as SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS, but unfortunately I can’t justify the cost for a DS or any DS games. It’s just as well, really. Since I’ve been playing Pokemon on my Gameboy, I feel like I’m about 10 years old again. (Having said that, my 10 year old self would be appalled at how much I’ve forgotten about Pokemon in general.) Playing Pokemon has been like talking a walk down memory lane, which is pretty awesome!

My Gameboy, as well as a book and my iPod, will be keeping me entertained while I wait in the hospital today as my mom undergoes surgery. The surgery is meant to be fairly routine and low-risk, but I’d appreciate it if you guys kept her in your thoughts today. Thanks <3

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Constantly Connected

June 7th, 2010 by Manda | 6 Comments | Filed in Technology

Rebekah tweeted a quote about Rahm Emanuel yesterday that made me legitimately LOL. It’s from the book “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter, pages 165-166:

[Rahm] didn’t appreciate it when he reached only voice mail or when someone failed to call back immediately. One day in early 2009 he left a message for George Miller: “This is your best fucking friend, your only fucking friend in the world. Are you ever going to call me back?” No hello or goodbye. It had been two hours at most since Rahm called the first time.

I will be the first person to admit that I am attached at the hip to my iPhone. Having 24/7 access to my email, Facebook, Twitter, texting, calling and the Internet in general? Whoever decided it was a good idea to let me get a smartphone obviously wasn’t thinking straight.

It drives me absolutely crazy whenever someone takes days, weeks or eons to reply to an email/call/text/voicemail/tweet/Facebook message/etc. It gets really bad if I know the person I’m trying to correspond with also has a smartphone, because I just don’t see the point in getting a smartphone unless you’re going to use the “smart” part of the phone. (Or even the “phone” part, if that person isn’t responding to my calls or texts!)

Usually, I’m pretty good with not getting too anxious or annoyed about waiting for people to get back in touch with me. It only really gets to me if it’s a timely thing and I have to hear back from so-and-so by a certain time. For example, if I am put in charge of planning a surprise birthday dinner, I need to know what time works for everyone and what everyone is contributing to the party. If people don’t tell me, I can’t plan the party, which leads to no party (surprise, surprise). Pretty easy math, if you ask me. However, most people don’t see it that way and pin the blame for the lack of party on me. Or, they get me the necessary party planning details in the eleventh hour and have the audacity to grumble about me bothering them for said details. (Let’s remember that I wouldn’t have had to ask more than once if they replied to me the first time!)

While I wouldn’t say I’m as bad as Emanuel, I very well could be in the next few years. I already have a smartphone and my degree is best suited for PR and media… I may as well start drafting a marriage contract between myself and an iPhone or Blackberry (or Android, since they seem to be the next up-and-coming smartphone).

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