Devious Devices

"I'm looking for a new cell phone," I said to the cell phone kiosk man in Sam's.

He glanced up from punching keys on a computer and suddenly got that 'resigned to the fate of dealing with a middle aged woman who is totally ignorant about computers, cells phones and any other current technology' sort of look.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, here's my old Nokia. It's about 6 years old and has served me well, but it's sort of big and the performance is falling off lately. I want all of the same features."

I pointed to a cute white business card sized cell phone on the display.

"Does this one have a video camera?"

He looked to be in his late 20's/early 30's. He was geekish in the way that a lot of young electronic sales personnel tend to look. He was thin and wiry and didn't have a particularly healthful aura about him. In fact he exuded overall dissatisfaction and a slightly stale odor.

"Well, let's see," he said, his voice spiced with sarcasm, "Your phone is about 6 years old and it has video. These are new phones with advanced technology, so my guess would be that they DO have that feature."

He smiled a thin smile. (Wow, is this broad dumb or what...how many more of these people will I have to deal with today.....Sam's is overrun with the retirees and semi retirees on the weekdays. The weekends aren't much better what with the overweight families and screaming kids in tow buying bulk frozen foods. How did I get here anyway?)

I studied him for a second and then said carefully in a well modulated 'I'm old enough to be your mother' tone.

"Are you being a smartass?" I looked at him and raised my considerable eyebrows. Then, with just a tinge of 'angry, but tolerant black woman' in my voice, I said, "Don't you be bein' that way with me."

This approach gave him pause. He didn't say anything, but his jaw kind of worked sideways and his eyes widened a little.

I picked up a different phone acting as if he wasn't a little twerp and that as adults, we could move beyond his petty insolence and do business.

"What about this one? How much is it?"

I had established my alpha position as the customer now and the tone of the exchange became more balanced. In a somewhat more civil manner, he proceeded to quote a price. We then chatted about the phone features and accessories for awhile. I think he was beginning to see that I might be a bit more savvy about the world of cell phones and computers than previously perceived. I had done considerable research on the Internet before entering this electronic jungle.

"You explained that very well," I said in true 'turn the other cheek' fashion. "Thank you."

He smugly smirked, then said in a defensive tone, "Actually, we are pretty professional around here even though our customers don't seem to think so."

I studied him again carefully. "We must have had a bad day today."

He didn't respond to that, but it was beginning to be obvious that yes, he either did have a bad experience earlier in the day or he was a terrible salesperson that probably wasn't going to last out the week or the rest of the day before he got the boot. Other customers would probably have reported his misbehaviour, but I didn't want to be the one to do it. Let someone else. I'm sure it will happen at some point. I bought the phone despite his help.

IT'S A SLIDER!

Two days later, it became apparent that we would have to take the plunge and buy a new digital camera. Here's the one we've had for several years now. It's a Sony Mavica and yes, it uses a 3.5" disk. In fact, when I ordered our last new desktop computer and found that the floppy disk option was no longer standard, I had to order one anyway so we could upload our pictures to the computer. It still works very well. It's only a 3 mega pixel camera. Again, well armed with Internet info, I visited another mega store staffed with young geeks. This guy was a little more respectful although I think these people don't really like it if you know too much, that way they can't give you the ol' sales soft shoe routine. (That reminds me about another prior encounter with a megastore sales geek who chided me about opening up portable DVD players on display. It was 15 minutes past opening time and I wanted my portable DVD player. No one was there to help me, all of the display units were closed, so I opened a couple to look at them. Suddenly, the geek was at my elbow, gently touching my arm and admonishing me. "These are very expensive and you should not be opening them, the sales people are supposed to do that." No kidding. So, why aren't you doing your job, Mr. Blond Curly Headed Geek Person?) Anyway, back to the camera. I knew what I wanted and it took about 5 minutes before I was out the door with our new digital camera.

IT'S A NIKON COOLPIX!

Electronic packaging is a maze of cardboard inserts, plastic shrink wrapped objects, little ziplocks of minute parts, cords, instructions, CD's and basically a whole mish mosh of stuff that you'd better make sure you don't throw away. However, the Coolpix is small, so the accompanying package materials weren't too confusing, although there are still two cords for which I have yet to identify the use.

Ahhhh. What a nice little camera. I put in the batteries, I turn it on. I start reading the quick set up instructions. I set it up. The CD goes into the drive - OK. It starts automatically..................not. I eject it and try again, two more times. Nothing. Big sigh and go to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee for the long haul. Read the instructions again. Says something about turning off the virus software temporarily because it could block the installation of this software. I can't figure out how to do that. I check the McAfee security center - no obvious instructions there. I check the Microsoft security center. Same thing. I try various other places on my computer and then go online for awhile to look for clues. At this point, I am not happy and I'm sure my blood pressure was redlining. I take a deep breath. OK. Read those instructions one more time. What's this word? Yellow. Yellow CD. There's a yellow CD? Where? Oh, there you are, you nasty thing - right in the back of the same CD sleeve. Well then, what is the CD that I've been trying to use? Ahhhhh. The Chinese language CD, that explains a lot.

Very Important Lesson: Always, I say ALWAYS, read the instructions CAREFULLY.

DEVIL'S TOWER COMING UP.....I said in my last post that I would talk about vacation planning and budgeting. I'll do that while we are on vacation next week. We are going to Wyoming to Devil's Tower and then to Glendo, a big lake/reservoir thing that is supposed to be very nice. We have never been to either one, so it should be interesting. My next post will be while we are in the KOA somewhere up north. (I remember when I said I'd never stay in a KOA and I'm pretty sure I did make fun of people that did stay there......:-)

Gotta start prepping some foods and packing the camper now. Although this post date is Tuesday, 8/28, it's now Thursday. Bye

This photograph was taken by Wyoming Aero Photo LLC

Yes, I've read recommendations on postings and I KNOW my postings are too long. I'll work on that.