My on-line banking service is currently not available. Or ‘temporarily unavailable’ as they are declaring on their website. The media are having a field day, reporting widespread problems including card refusals. And here was I, a mere three hours ago, joking with the cashier in the shop that I wasn’t expecting my new card to work. Luckily for me it did.
The orange bloggy speech-bubble thingy up there on the top right of the screen, the one that glows when a comment, or a reply to a comment on another blog, is left; the one that becomes a plus symbol when someone new very kindly follows the blog; the one that becomes a star when someone likes the blog; you know, that symbol… that seems to be having technical issues with me. Or me with it. Or you with me / me with you, now, as well. It isn’t glowing all of the time.
Well, I mean every time a reply has been left for a comment I have left on another blog. And when I say every time, I mean most times. Sometimes, it still works. Not every time. It’s all rather complicated. But, I’d like to apologise if I miss a reply to one of my comments that required another comment from me. Sometimes trying to catch up with the posts is a task in itself, especially when I get myself behind, but the comments used to take care of themselves. Now they too, ‘temporarily’ (hopefully), are taking a little longer than usual to process.
Have you noticed the ‘like’ strip has changed as well? The row of Gravatars that grows longer and longer as more and more readers like the post they have just read? It appears to have changed to an expandable box, that doesn’t seem to want to expand every time. Maybe I’m expecting too much.
I expect automatic doors to open at the speed I expect them to open. I find myself staggered and flabbergasted if they open slower than usual, and I have to wait. I find myself even more staggered and flabbergasted if they are actually out of order temporarily, and I have to (gasp!) open the door, physically, myself.
I find myself flustered when I settle down to watch a programme on TV that I’ve set to record through the series-link option, and, in needing to know how the characters got out of the cliff-hanger they found themselves in last week, I find myself, ten minutes in, watching a Russian news programme that has been recorded in it’s place. Not only the wrong programme, but the wrong channel!
I’m irked when part-time traffic lights, introduced to control the flow of heavy traffic at ‘peak’ times, cause more pandemonium when they are switched on, than when they are off.
And I’m discombobulated by modern day technology as it is anyway. Not necessarily modern day technology for that matter. I could never get a Furbie to speak (the ones I came into contact with all wanted to dance and then go to sleep). I could never get to the end of the ‘Snake’ game on the old black and white Nokia mobile phones (other types of games and mobile phones are available) without catching my tail. And I could never get the hang of the phone book option on any mobile phone for that matter either.
The thing is, each and every one of these technical hitches are completely different from all the rest. The only constant between them all is me. So maybe, everything is actually working as it should be, and there is only one technical hitch. Me. There’s a saying that says if a pattern starts to develop then look in the mirror, or something like that.
Whenever I ring any technical helpline, they always imply it’s me.
Technology. When it’s good it’s good. When it’s not, it’s my fault. Sigh.
(Graphics are artist’s impressions. Ethan, the Furbie, is from the people who make Furbies. Ethan… Sleep… Again…)
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