Cell phones and new cars and blogs, oh my!

Do not let the blogging fool you, I am not a very technologically-inclined person. I clearly remember changes in technology: accessing the internet for the first time, being amazed by my neighbors who e-mailed their daughter at college way back in 1992, listening to my mother rant about how thoughtless call-waiting was when it first came ("To interrupt conversation just because someone else is calling is just rude"), and using a GPS navigation system in my great aunt's car. Each time, I was amazed by these changes, but I do not have the type of imagination that thinks beyond that and asks, How can we make this better? More convenient? Or downright amazing?

In recent days I have learned of a few new inventions that surprise me still. The best of these is the 2007 Toyota Prius, which comes with the added feature of hands-free parallel parking. It uses sensors to park itself! I don't even need to say anything else about this. I think it's spectacular, especially since parallel parking has become such a daily part of my life.

Slightly more disturbing to me (on the we-spoil-kids-so-much scale) is the new cell phone service that will be offered by Disney beginning in June. Yesterday after school one of my students went shopping to get is very own Motorola Razr. If you know why a ten year old needs a cell phone, please let me know. Until then, maybe I should at least be glad that while Disney will be raking in money with the highly talkative 4-12 year old age group, the company will also appeal to parents who can use the parental controls to set specific times their children can make and accept calls, and specific numbers they can call or receive calls from. (Yes, that was sarcasm folks.)

And, in the numbness I'm experiencing after the midterm I just completed, I can't actually remember what the third item of technology was that I learned about today. So, now I'm going to finish up some reading for my next class, and think about what future technology might be able to help me with this ever-growing forgetfulness of mine.