13 Modern Conveniences that I would hate to do without. I will try to do it by order daily use.
1. ATM card- how did I ever survive without this simple little card! I fondly remember my first one senior year in college, yep spent my loan and ended up owing the hospital where I did my clinical.
2. Microwave- Used mostly for thawing, not so much for cooking. I love the convenience of popcorn. Plus, since I don't have an electric blanket, it comes in handy for heating up my heat bags for my bed.
3. Laptop Computer- I first bought an Ibook when I started teaching 5 years ago, I am now on my second and every evening, here I sit, my husband watching tv and I am off playing games at POGO (janmcwb2 is my screen name)
4. PDA - I am on my second palm pda and now have a Tungsten T|X. Now I don't miss appointments, I always have phone information for family, friends, doctors and businesses. I can sync with my calendar at work, play Bubblet while waiting for kids and listen to music. I need to take the time to learn how to download and watch movies. It came in handy on my trip to Denmark when I used it for currency conversions and as an alarm clock.
5. Wireless mouse- It's my favorite pet and I bring it to work every day! If you don't have one, it's well worth the cost.
6. Cell phone- Not that I am on it arguing with my kids while shopping, but it is nice to call home and find out if we need cat food or litter while at the store. We live six miles away from the grocery store. My two oldest just got phones this year and I like being able to talk to them when I need to.
7. Ipod- Not at the top of the list, but a good middle. I am still on my first 30 gb photo Ipod, but it's been a tough couple of years. The screen cracked when my son brought it on a trip, through no fault of him, it just cracked when he plugged it in to charge. The apple warranty was then void, so I found a great repair shop, Powerbook Medic and it got fixed for what I thought was a reasonable price. However, there is something loose in it and I occasionally have to slap it to get it to work. ( not recommended, but check out google, there are a lot of Ipod slappers out there) My birthday wish is for a nano so I can work out without worrying about a hard drive.
8. Cable Television- Back in my day, we had 4 channels and an antenna on the roof and we liked it. Now I can't imagine, not having the choices. I am more of a reader than watcher, but my husband loves his sports and old movies. Oh gee, another James Bond movie......
9. Remote locks - So I am a blonde and can't always remember if I locked the doors. I also like the automatic back door opener on my mini van.
10. Mini vans- I think I am one of the few people who can claim to love their mini vans. I grew up driving a ford econoline van that my dad had fixed up, so I like my cars roomy.
11. Instant Messaging - It comes in handy when travelling and for communicating to my son in college.
12. Wireless Internet - One printer and multiple computers/laptops and I got it to work. Also used for the pda, if someone had told me about this 10 years ago, I wouldn't have believed.
13. Technology- I guess this should be first, but just thinking about how we used to file and distribute results in the lab over 20 years ago with limited instrumentation, it is amazing to see how much more can be available to doctors and patients 24/7.
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Oh my goodness...what a great topic. I may have to explore this one in a few weeks. There's so many convenience items I don't think I could picture my life without.
ReplyDeleteAnd I see what you mean about our blog names...great minds think alike, I guess. :)
That's a great list. We are products of our time. I love my laptop, microwave, cell phone, MINIVAN, etc!!
ReplyDeleteI make no apologies!
What a wonderful reminder of the things we take for granted now. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't imagine my life without everything on your list.The only thing I'm doing without now is my ATM card, but it is handy to have instead of carrying cash or writing a check, if you can remember to write down you've used it. Now I just use only one credit card and pay that off at the end of the month!
ReplyDelete#1 and #7 are essential to my life as well. I'm also hooked on Tivo -- I'd think about it more if I had time to sit around waiting for a show to be on, or even worse sit through the ads -- but thankfully I don't! Thanks for visitng my T13
ReplyDeleteoh, IM and wifi are definately the keys to my heart with email as a very close third. my husband and i travel so much with both our jobs, though to vastly different places, its definately technology that gets us through roadtrips and deployments.
ReplyDeletehappy TT
wireless internet. I am so with you for almost all of the above (except the minivan thing).
ReplyDeleteI was going to cover this topic, but I went a different direction instead. With two toddlers, I couldn't live without TiVo! Great list! Happy TT!!
ReplyDeleteYou are very modern!
ReplyDeleteTerrific Thursday Thirteen!
Thank you for your visit.
Have a wonderful day!
Happy TT'ing!
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Raggedy
Great list. Is it any wonder how we ever survived without all these gadgets now days. I don't know if I could.
ReplyDeleteMy 13 are up.
I was introducing my niece to I Love Lucy. It was the episode where Lucy locks herself in the meat locker. My niece wanted to know why Lucy didn't just use her cellphone. I realized then that we take these conveniences for granted!
ReplyDeleteGreat great idea for TT.
ReplyDeleteI can't live without them either...
Me too I am happy to use all this, although there are a lot of women (my age) who are still very afraid of all these "new" things. Cable TV we always had. Belgium is the first cabled country in the whole world. We already had cable TV everywhere since the 60th ! The cables were automatically put in together with electricity, telephone etc. But the TV program only had 2 channels at the beginning and was in black and white, lol !
ReplyDeleteGreat list!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting me today!
I work for the company that produces the BlackBerry handheld. I would die without mine now hehe. And my iPod rocks. I was hooked on personal music back when I bought my first walkman when I was a kid. :)
ReplyDeleteTerrific list. I'd go through withdrawal without my laptop. It's amazing isn't it how fast technology changes. I live in Japan where they are always coming out with something smaller, sleeker, faster. We have refrigerators and rice cookers that talk and all sorts of mind-boggling stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe place where we put our phone doesn't have an outlet because when this apartment was built over twenty five years ago, answering machines and fax machines didn't exist, so there's only a phone outlet and no place to put the plug. The speed at which technology changes nowadays just blows me away.
Happy TT Day! My #9 is up.
I don't care much for my cell phone, it's just for emergencies when I'm out of town on biz stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut my laptop and ATM card, love them!
Great list! I can agree with all of them except the cell phone (don't have one), mini van (can't stand them) and iPod (I have a Creative MuVo MP3 player that is better than any iPod I've tried!) I do make good use of my microwave, laptop and wireless internet however.
ReplyDeleteHappy T13. :)
Gosh, I couldn't agree with you more on your list, especially ATMs, or rather debit cards for me.
ReplyDeleteI seriously can't understand how people functioned without a debit card (and I was around before debit cards caught on!).
Great TT!!
Cool list.
ReplyDeleteHow in the world did we ever function without cell phones? LOL!
Oh i want a laptop. just so that i can watch TV and blog at the same time!
ReplyDeleteBritish slang definitions are up now, hope you enjoy them.
Toodle pip.
Good list.
ReplyDeleteI have a great aunt who is 90. I love talking to her about her childhood and young adult days. How so much has changed in one lifetime!
My laptop was sold a while ago as lately I don't go out much :\ Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteMost of these I have. I could probably do without all of them, but do not want to try. I did do without a microwave for a few years when mine burnt out. But, talked my husband into us buying another one.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we've never had until this new SUV is OneStar tracking, and I love the idea that we could be found anywhere. Also, if our cell phone died, we still could call out! Amazing!
A very good topic. I could never do without most of these things :-)
ReplyDelete