These are a few of my favorite things.

Hello all.  Hope your weekend turns out to be great.  I'm heading to Universal, so there is no way that it can't be good for me.  Before I head out, I wanted to go ahead and "puke".  I have been thinking about this topic for the past two days and I finally think I have my complete list.  I wanted to "puke" on what are MY favorite technological advances that have occurred in my life span.  I was born in 1968, so to save you the math, I'm 504 months old. (just seeing if you have read my other posts)  I have seen some of the coolest changes take place and with the way things are going, there is a lot more to come.  I'm a bit of a electronic geek and Linda has learned it's best to keep me out of Best Buy for our bank accounts good.  So I have come up with my favorite ten "things" that I have been around to experience. I will give you the bottom five now and the top five on Sunday.   LET THE PUKING BEGIN!!!!

#10.  Digital Camera - When I was a child, we had those skinny sideways camera that had the big square flashbulb that you could get four flashes out of.  You had to advance the film yourself and then you had to take it to be developed.  Now remember, back then, we had to drop it off and then come back to pick it up like days later.  Then you would get it and find out that out of the 36 pictures you took, 28 of them were of one of your fingers, 3 of them was of the ground, and 5 were good enough to keep.  Not a great way to get those "life moments".

With digital cameras, we now have the ability to take just about as many pictures as we want and not worry about a thing.  We can delete them immediately, or just wait until we put them on the computer.  This is a huge plus for me because quite frankly, I DON'T PHOTOGRAPH WELL!!!  You point a camera at me and say smile, you will end up with a cross between Shrek and Corky from the TV show "Live Goes On".  I can't smile on command because I over think everything.  "Am I grinning?, Am I smirking?, Am I showing too much teeth?, Do I look like a pedophile?"  That is the soundtrack you would hear if you could.  Then. . . *SNAP*. . . .Too late, I look ridiculous again.  Linda on the other hand can look great in every photo, I wish I could do that but no, I got the goofy down pat.   Thank God for the Digital Camera.

#9.  Video Camera - If you know me or have followed me on Facebook, you know that I love doing videos.  I'm quite the amateur producer, director, and actor if I don't say so myself.  For the same reason I like the Digital Camera's ability to edit immediately, the new Digital Camcorders let me see what I just shot and lets me know if I have to crack the whip on the actors. 

8mm was what my dad used when I was a kid, and only HE was allowed to touch it.  Oh heavens me if I would have grabbed it to do a Persimmons video back then.  Then watching them was such an ordeal.  You had to pull out the projector and set it up like we were getting ready to watch a public service announcement for not driving our Big Wheel under the influence of Kool-Aid.  You would have to put up the screen and then it was movie time.  Of course, it was SILENT MOVIE time, because they had no sound back then.  You wish you could have at least had a soundtrack to kill a little of the silence, but no, the only sound you might hear is your brother ripping a fart during the screening.  Of course, that would lead to me laughing and then getting in trouble for it.  *Sigh*  Farts are funny!!!!!!  Grow up people!!!!

#8. MP3 Players - Notice I didn't say the "I" word.  Suck it Apple!!!  Right now I'm using an RCA Mp3 player and it's perfectly fine for me.  It holds like 1500 songs and I think I only have 900 in it now because I got bored putting them in.  How many songs do I really need?  I can walk four miles a day and not hear the same song twice for the week.  I'd say that's fine.  Plus I'm pretty sure the headphones weigh more than the device itself, so carrying it is a non-problem. My cell phone dwarfs it. 

About the earliest portable music device that I can remember is the cassette players that you could hook on your belt.  Trust me when I say, you had better hoped you didn't wear the pants that were just a little too big that day, because with the weight of that thing, you were going to show the world your Fruit of the Looms if you weren't paying attention.  It was like carrying a brick on your hip.  Then the headphones were actual headphones.  You looked like you were either listening to Men at Work, or getting ready to land the Mars Rover.  Todays headphones are nothing.  Just an ear bud with wires and I'm pretty sure wireless headphones will be around pretty soon. 

#7.  GPS - Can you remember the trips you used to take as a family when you were a kid?   Boy I can.  Dad would always be the driver and Mom would always be the Navigator.  Now back then, the Navigator actually had the toughest job of the whole trip.  They had to un-fold and re-fold that blasted map to find out just where in the heck you were all heading.  Of course, you always had the "Dad Moment" where he would not ask the Navigator where he was supposed to turn because "He knew where he was going."  Then 20 minutes later, the Navigator would pull out the map just to inform the driver that they went the wrong way.  Now that was some really good news to the children smashed in the back seat with the luggage poking them in the back of the head and a smell coming off your sister that smelled like spoiled milk.  "OH GREAT!!!  WE GET ANOTHER HOUR IN THE CAR!  THANKS DAD!"

Bring on the creepy thing called Global Positioning System (GPS).  Not only does it know exactly where you are, but it also knows where you are going and how to get there in the best way.  It seems a little "Big Brother" to me, but if it can get me out of Atlanta in the middle of rush hour,  I'm okay with it!!!!  The only thing I hate is the NAGGING!!!!   "In 200 ft. make a U-Turn.  Make U-turn now *DING*.  Why didn't you make that U-Turn you idiot?  Do you even know how to drive?  You must have gotten your license from Mongomery Wards."  And it's in an English accent.  Do I really need Simon Cowell telling me I'm lost?  Thank God the new ones let me change the voices.  I found one that said Stripper, but Linda didn't like that one too much.  So I now have Grandma on it.  She's so sweet, but I think she has Alzheimer because she keeps asking ME where we are going again.  (Ba Dum Dum)

#6.  Shower Puff Ball Thingy and Shower Gel - Okay, I'm going to have to show my estrogen here when I talk about this one.  I LOVE MY SHOWER PUFF BALL!!!!  Now I do have a blue one because I'm a MAN DANG IT!!!  I hope you know what I'm talking about.  It's the thing that replaced the wash cloth.  It looks like a sponge ball only in cloth form.  You squirt the shower gel on it and then a scrubbing you go.  It's such a great feeling to feel that you are actually cleaning yourself.  I just remember the wash cloth as being one of the most useless ways to clean.

You would rub the bar of soap on the wash cloth.  Then start rubbing it on your body.  The next thing you would know, you would hit a dry patch and your hand would keep going but the wash cloth would stay there.  Then you would have to rinse and repeat like a hundred times.  I would usually just give up on the wash cloth about half way through and just rub the bar of soap on me.  Then you would look at the bar of soap, and there would always be ONE HAIR sticking to it.  No matter what you tried, It wouldn't come off that soap.  So you would just leave it for the next person and scar their bathing experience. 

Thank you Shower Puff Thingy and Shower Gel.  For once in my life I feel CLEAN!!!!!

Okay, there is the first five on my list.  I will give you the next five Sunday night.  Be thinking about your top ten favorites and we will compare notes once I'm done.  Have a great weekend and. . . . . .  .

SMILE!!!!