Technology Follow-Up

A few weeks ago I went on a violent blog tirade about technology. I am not sorry for doing it, and hundreds of times technology has still solicited a foul curse from me since that post's publication, but here is an important follow-up post to that one.

My mom sent me a birthday package; the wonderfully-wrapped contained, among other interesting and delicious gifts, a sleek new digital camera. The reader will perhaps recall the clunky old behemoth that I had been using up until now, the one that had literally sixteen megabytes of memory (hence the post from 2010 entitled “Sixteen Megabytes of Destruction”). Though I had a very close relationship with this piece of equipment, I was no dummy; I knew that obtaining a newer, more efficient camera would not be difficult to obtain and would allow me new photographic freedom that I’d never imagined before. However, old habits die hard. Despite the fact that the screen on this previous camera was absolutely useless, the fact that it was large and cumbersome, and the fact that it had such a small capacity for memory, I was comfortable using it in its decrepit condition. And – likely the more important reason – I was stubborn and scared of change.

But the new camera seems awesome! I took it out to a temple that Dawna and I visited, and it works a million times better than the old camera. The pictures are clearer, I can see what I’ve captured after I’ve captured it, and I can photograph more. We took an inaugural first picture with this camera; it's of us inspecting the box and instructions of the new Canon ELPH 100 HS. I even left the file name unchanged as IMG_0001:


The second reason I thought that technology was going to add me as a friend was because Judy the Unparalleled sent me instructions for setting up a VPN, which stands for Very Proper Noun because it’s always capitalized in all circumstances. Just kidding. A VPN is a virtual private network for your internet connection. The main thing is that the IP address is from somewhere other than in China so you can access any website you want (Blogger! Youtube! Google Docs! Facebook!) instead of only Chinese government-approved websites (Sina! Youku! Zoho! Renren!).

Which was incredible news! News that lifted me up from the depths and from the pit! Judy’s text message summed it all up quite well: “Welcome back to the free world^^” Perfect. I immediately went to my blog and hugged it. Then I went to Youtube and hugged that. And then I went to Facebook and...did not dare enter into its lair until a week later. But enter I did, for the first time in ninety-six days. I had 22 friend requests, 26 messages, and 3 notifications. The last thing written on my wall was from Nasty Nate: "Reuben told me to tell everyone to leave really obscene messages on his Facebook wall. Boy, will he be in for a surprise when he gets home next summer!" Thankfully, no one adhered to his ("my") instructions. Here is a picture of my laptop a couple minutes ago:


Anyway, after this second success, which, in my opinion, opened up the floodgate for the rest of my time in China, a third victory occurred. It was not so much a victory over technology in a fight to the death, as had been the case with the VPN, or a triumph over technology in a fight for survival, as had been the case with my camera. It was just a win for me.

Last weekend, near Barnes, Wisconsin, eight of my best friends in the world gathered together at a cabin in the forest. They chopped wood, played football, ate delicious food, sat around the campfire, and did other manly things that I am not worthy to report. I, however, could not attend, because I had to grade some papers, write a rec letter for a kid, and plan for Monday. However, at midnight on Sunday night (for us Chinese folk here) and at 10 a.m. Sunday morning (for Sunshine, Justin, Orvis, Micah, Cole, Paul, Clayton, and T-Duck) we had a Skype party. It was awesome and I wish it could happen more often. Nevermind that I went to bed at 1 a.m. with school the next day at 8:20 a.m....I’d do it again.

Here is a picture of the stallions without me. When I saw this picture, I felt like the stump. Dudes: it was awesome seeing you, even though it was only on a video screen.


So I entered this week feeling good about technology! Even though my hard drive crapped out at a key moment even though a Prezi that a student made for a big homeroom presentation didn't want to work for us, even though I couldn't find places to print Thursday or Friday, even when my phone ran out of minutes and I couldn't find a recharge vendor, perhaps the tide is turning. Perhaps all this that humanity has created will work in my favor. Perhaps I will not yell and pound and swear and degenerate. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. We'll see.