Everything Changes

While I was watching TV the other day a commercial came on for a new toothbrush that has an on-board computer! [Uh... why?] It's made by Oral B and has a microchip in the brush head and an LCD screen.

"When you've polished enough, an image of a tooth appears on the LCD screen, with an asterisk of light glinting off a corner. And when one has brushed enough with the cleaning head, the LCD screen displays (heaven help us) a smiley face." [Jack Kapica - Globe and Mail Update]

Sheesh. The advances of technology. They never cease to amaze. But a computerized toothbrush??!! C'mon! Yeah, MP3 players = cool. Flat screen LCD TVs = sweet. But a toothbrush with smiley's?

I also heard that someone was developing clothes that don't need to be washed - they are self-cleaning! Now THAT'S putting technology to good use!

Weird. "Youngster" is not in my daily usage vocabulary. I was reading someone's blog the other day and they used that word. Youngster. It refers to someone who is between birth and puberty. But I knew that. I was just surprised to see it used. I don't know many people [if anyone] who say "youngster" anymore when talking about kids these days.

I'm sure there are other words we don't use anymore. [Yes, "we" = older people.] It's true! I even find myself saying things around youngsters that they don't understand! Mostly because the phrase or word I'm using is outdated; unused; or replaced by something hipper or more rad.

And to make matters worse, the youngsters themselves have NEW words! And sometimes they say things in CODE! [Okay, so maybe they don't say things in CODE - but extraterrestrial at minimum!]

Technology is not helping matters. Think about it - youngsters have never known a world without computers. They all know what a mouse is and how to use it! And they are chatting with their friends online in realtime - complete with smiley's, emoticons , internet shorthand [lol, ROTFL, BTW] and even the occasional webcam! Now THAT is something I wasn't doing as a youngster!

I was talking to a 9-year-old youngster last week who had never heard of the World Trade Centers and knew nothing about the terrorist attacks. He thinks "Diana" is a really good BBQ sauce and he knows how to olley, kick flip, grind, stall and get air!

Sometimes I go for a walk outside to get air...

[BTW - apparently you're "a poser if you were born before 1970 and don't get any of this" skateboard talk. OH!! Is THAT what it is!]

I had a skateboard when I was youngster.

While waiting for my morning bus to depart the downtown depot, I, (and everyone else on the bus), were disgustingly entertained by three teenagers who constantly injected the "F" word into their naive banter. These days people seem to think the F Shot is used by everyone.

Common, even.

And one day it very well may be. Even in our churches.

Think about it - do you actually think church goers 50 years ago used crap, suck, damn and hell in their daily rhetoric? Today those words are common vocab for the average Christian. [Unless you're my mother. She would be horrified to know that my pastor actually uses the "C" word in his creative sermons! Of course she'd also be horrified to know that I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the CINEMA - but that's an entirely different blog.]

10 years ago I was speaking to a youth group about sexual purity and used an example I had heard re: the origin of the F Shot = that it was derived from an acronymic phrase taken from a 100-year-old law called "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." Apparently that is a Folk Etymology Myth. Regardless, it was a GREAT illustration, and one that those youth have remembered to this day. [Of course, it could be because I wrote the F Shot in HUGE letters on a chalk board to drive the point home! Again, different blog, another day.]

I never swore as a teenager. In fact, kids at my high school used to say they'd pay me money just to say a bad word. I never gave in to their peer pressure, mostly because I simply never had those words in my head! Not even if I got mad. [Things have changed somewhat in my adult years, but THAT is DEFINITELY a different blog!]

Today I was reminded how I felt as a young person when I heard other teens use the F Shot - especially if adults were around to hear them. I was afraid of them. Because, back then, people who used language like that were very bad people - criminals, drug addicts, or just people with disregard for others. And when you heard someone talk like that, you felt afraid because you knew they were "trouble."

My how things have changed. Yes, I did feel a twinge of "concern" for the elderly folk on the bus who heard the frequent usage of the F Shot this morning, but mostly I felt sad. Those teenagers have probably been raised by parents who speak the same "common" way. And to them, they don't mean to have disregard for others, they just think their vocab is normal.

In fact, one day the F Shot will probably be included in all the dictionaries in our public schools, so kids can study its origin and usage. Wait. Maybe it already is... [The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000]

They have places that will do your laundry for you. Although I have become quite comfortable doing my own laundy [after that unfortunate "first time" incident in college when I put too much soap in - whoops] I probably should have sent my items out for "professional" cleaning tonight.

But the website said I could wash them myself! I even put a tennis ball in like it said!

1929. I'm sure it was a very good year. With, perhaps, the exception of the "Crash of 1929"... but I DIDN'T crash tonight. I just decided to do some laundry. [Washing two goose down pillows with a 1929 tag on one of them.] THEY WERE MY GRANDMA'S! THEY WERE DUE FOR A WASH! And, I guess I was due to clean up a LOT of feathers!

:-|

It seemed like such a good idea. After all, I was washing my bedding and blankets... surely I could wash my pillows - especially since I have personally never washed them. [Yes, that's gross, I know. But if you want GROSS, you should have seen the dirt that came out of those suckers... yuck.] But the dirt wasn't the bad part. In fact, that's the whole reason I wanted to wash them!

The online article said - "Wash the pillow in cold water using a detergent that has a degreaser so that oils are removed. Follow the pillow manufacturer's instructions for specific detergents to use. Very gently squeeze out any excess water from the pillow after washing. Dry the pillow with the dryer set on its lowest setting; put a tennis ball in with the pillow so that the fill doesn't pack or clump as it dries."

Okay, so I don't know if my detergent had a degreaser in it. Maybe so. But I DID put a tennis ball in the dryer! [Right after I cleaned out a ton of 80 year old goose feathers from the washer!!]

[Ugh. Someone came into the laundry room in my apartment building to wash their clothes. Hopefully my pillows get fluffed in time for me to clean up the rest of the feathers flying around the dryer before my neighbor needs to use it!]

For almost a decade, North Americans have been bracing for one cataclysmic threat after another - superbugs, bioterrorist attacks, apocalyptic plagues. There have been real threats (Y2K, West Nile, mad cow, SARS, anthrax), but in each case, the amount of paranoia surrounding the threat has been exponentially larger than the threat itself.

So fear has become the epidemic - and safety, or our perceived lack of it, an obsession. [Macleans.ca]

Why, as a culture, do we DO that? Spend so much time worrying about the "what ifs" of everything around us. Sure, we need to make sure people are safe in certain situations, but we tend to stir up the "fear of the unknown" all the time! And some people LIVE to do so!

It's like people who are obsessed with entertainment shows and rag mags. People whose lives revolve around movie stars and the latest tabloid gossip. "Did you hear about Britney's new baby?" Yes! We've all heard! Congrats Britney! [Maybe we should see if she's registered at Walmart and send her a gift? Ya think?]

The same goes for people who thrive on being afraid - just because they heard it on the news. [And we ALL know that the news doesn't fabricate or exaggerate anything!]

In my last blog I talked about the email "warnings" that I get on a daily basis. Got another one today. Got the very same email from someone else last week - "On the 1st of November, we will have to pay for the use of our MSN and hotmail email accounts unless we send this message to at least 18 contacts on your contact list. It's no joke!"

Uh... yes it is.

"Relax, everything's going to be all right." [Jude v.2 | The Message]