Thursday, August 05, 2010

I Love Technology

All week I have been constantly aware of how much technology aids and helps me in my daily life.  Therefore, this week's Friday Fave Five is dedicated to technology.  If you are interested in joining Susanne and dozens of others in voicing your gratitude for events in your life this week, go to Living To Tell The Story.

1. I could never be a Luddite now that I know that I can follow the progress of The Professor's plane flights across the Pacific Ocean. During those long hours and layovers, http://www.worldtimezone.com/ helped me convert local times there to local times here.

2. I love the short emails in my inbox that inform me that he and the Grad Student arrived safely at their destinations.

3. Isn't it great when you can look online and found out whether your local library has the book you want to read so you don't have to use up precious gasoline and even more precious time to drive over there only to discover that, no, the library does NOT have the book?

4.  I can send a flight schedule from an email directly to my printer and have the information right in front of me on a piece of paper so I can remember exactly when The New Boy is going to show up with his Mama. AND I can check their flight status, too!

5.  Thumb drives are the best!  My friend and I can share teaching files without my having to rescan every page.  All I need to do is download those files, move the thumb drive to my computer, and put them in to my folders.  Moving information this way is going to save me uncountable hours.

Whoever thought up all these ideas, whoever knew how to take those futuristic ideas and make them a reality, THANK YOU!

These five faves are only a few of the many, many ways my life is made simpler and easier,
What technology has helped you this week?

23 comments:

Dorothy said...

I love being able to shop online. I really hate real-life shopping! So being able to sit at my computer and find what I need at a price that I'm happy with and then ordering it with a few clicks to have it show up on my front steps a few days later is just wonderful! Go Amazon!!

roxie said...

I love being able to contact all my friends every day! This is better than the old twice-daily postal delivery in Edwardian British novels. And you don't have that cheeky postal boy flirting with the downstairs maid.

Tracy said...

Oh, that's all so good, Willow! Pretty much everything is at our fingertips and a click away these days... I still find it amazing. I spend way too much time online..LOL! What I love most is that, living far from my family, my Mom and sister and I email daily and chat online--I couldn't live without that! Happy Week, my friend ((HUGS))

ellen b. said...

reservations, reservations, reservations, planes, cars,hotels. Very convenient!
Have fun down south and it sounds like 2 more are joining you down there? Wonderful!

Melli said...

LOL! I'm SO embarrassed to say that I had to GOOGLE to find out what a Luddite is! No... I could never be one either! I admit it... I'm addicted! I don't care for ALL modern technology - but I agree it has it's place for those who DO enjoy it! But I LOVE being able to google and find out what a Luddite is in a minute or less!

It's good to see you again Willow!

Susannah said...

A wonderful post. Can you imagine life before/without technology? I love the ability to do research online (the Great Google). Also, shopping, printing out airline tickets, and recipes. Not to mention blogging, and social media. I always say, the most valuable course I took in high school was typing... on manual typewriters. Where would I be otherwise????

Have a blessed day!

e-Mom @ Chrysalis

Brenda said...

The library search is one of my favs. I'm not a worrier so I don't fret a lot about family traveling, but I do not like to waste time searching for a book when I could be reading. I also keep a list of books I want to read handy so I can reserve them as I have time to read.

TXDidi said...

Now you just need to get an iPhone and then you can have files in programs like Evernote right on your phone, have flight schedules sent straight to your phone along with gates of arrival and departure, etc. Oh, there are so many neat things you can do...all from that phone. It's a marvel. I even have half of my recipes on it so when I'm at the store, I can look up a recipe and see what ingredients I need. I agree! I LOVE technology.

Lisa notes... said...

I knew I would like this list because I liked your title. :-) I love technology, too. We can do so many things now that we couldn’t have done in the past, like reading and posting to blogs. [smile] Even while I’m on vacation in a hotel room. Thanks for sharing your favorites.

Knitting Linguist said...

Those are all good ones. Thinking of the library, i also love being able to Enewetak books online. That started when i was in grad school (the last half year, of course), and i still remember the thrill of not having to spend the better part of three days lugging upwards of fifty books to the library to be renewed!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

Love the reference to Luddites ~ I had never heard that expression before!

My sister calls me a technophobe because I really don't like technology. Yet, the computer is my lifeline for my work (I'm on it all the time for research, writing, and communicating with co-counsel) and it has also become a means to meet friends with a similar hobby too. So I guess I'm grateful for the internet :)

Calfornia Vacation said...

really nice Post. I love being able to shop online.

momma24 said...

I love, love,love our online library and use the heck out of it! Technology is our friend until we push the wrong button, then my techie dh is my friend! lol

Laura@OutnumberedMom said...

I love #3, too!

How has technology helped me this week? Every week it helps me record a favorite show that we enjoy together. I love to sit on the couch nestled up against my husband and enjoy a little down time together.

Have a great week.

Maggie said...

Both of my jobs involve sitting at a computer - my day job as a mortgage analyst, and my night job as an online tutor for grade school kids. So if it weren't for technology, I wouldn't be earning a living! I'm very grateful for that.

I'm glad to hear you gave real food a shot for 3 days - I have felt a difference also after going back to processed food! It's a great experiment but I think there are some things I'm not ready to give up forever. I hope you had a great week! :)

Caroline said...

I think I would have chosen most of your choices. I love shopping online too, not because I love shopping so much anymore, but because I don't have to spend lots of time driving around shopping.

Susanne said...

Ahh, yes. Technology. I love it and sometimes it's my biggest frustration because of the learning curve for me. But I totally love the putting books on hold and renewing books online. I do love the Skype where I can talk to my daughter 8 hours away for free. And gotta love the texting. And the looking up info. And the blogging. Just please let it work the way it's supposed to and have nothing go haywire. LOL.

Reggie said...

I love technology too...sometimes haha. I think that technology, like most things, can be used for good or for worse purposes. For me technology is really just a tool to make my life easier but if I'm not careful, technology can also be a burden and that's why sometimes it's nice to just get away from it all for me.
It's really funny you mention not being able to be a Luddite. I took a class in college about technology and we spent a great deal of time on the Luddite philosophy -- I don't think I could ever be one completely either!

Unknown said...

Yes Kak Willow, tech is so good and can you imagine if we dont have them. All our tickets are booked online too, in fact..almost everything is online. saves time and everything else. Happy week ahead.

Cindy said...

Oh what this little word "technology" has done for our lives. We don't need stamps to send emails. We can type and correct a spelling word without the correct-o-tape. Read a book on line, order in shopping, and connect with people on Facebook. My favourite is Google this week - I went searching the google car and found the street I was on in Prince Edward Island when it passed by and put me on the google map. Fun, fun fun

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

I agree that technology has made so many things more convienient these days! I love online shopping and library renewals andreading blogs, of course! :-)

I'll be in northern CA on vacation soon! Can't wait!

Sharon Lynne said...

I like ordering a used book for 25 cents on Amazon and having it delivered right to my door. Even with the shipping charge, its cheaper than driving to the store to get it!

Anonymous said...

Love all your technology choices esp online library and thumb drive. My fav for this past week has been the air conditioner! BTW - I've enjoyed poking around on your blog.