Seriously though, me and technology, as a general rule, do not get along. Which is really quite lamentable considering that I'm surrounded by technology for most of my waking hours. As I'm typing this [paragraph] I'm actually waiting on one form of technology - known as CBS Newspath Now - to finish uploading the video and scripts I need for my morning newscast. It's really quite frustrating and comes in as a close second to my least favorite part of my job (if you're new to the blog, check out some of my older stories and you'll see how much I absolutely HATE posting stories to the web).

So yesterday I was thinking about my experiences with technology and trying to pinpoint where in our long history things went awry. And that's where I got the idea for today's post. I'm going to give you an abbreviated (I'll try to anyway) version of my past dealings with technology... all at the risk of making myself seem extremely old.

I remember my first round with technology. It was back in fourth or fifth grade, I can't remember exactly which. Anyway, one day out of the week I went to Probe and one of the things we got to do was use the new Apple computers. And what we did with them was use some computer program - that I can't remember the name of - to create pictures using codes that were remarkably similar to html, but of course that hadn't been invented yet. We actually created a whole series of these pictures, some of which had animation, and sent them off to a competition.

Remember when Encarta was the shiz? Well, I do. And I remember the first time I ever used it. It was in the cool, new computer lab attached to the library of the middle school. I was in 6th grade.

Then we graduated to PowerPoint. I created my first PowerPoint presentation when I was in 7th grade. I can even remember what it was about. At that point in my life I thought I wanted to be a psychologist who worked with injured athletes (how naive I was). That's what my slide show was about - what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Over the course of my education, I have created many a PowerPoint presentation. And I can honestly say that I do not like PowerPoint.

When I got in high school, I made the decision that I couldn't live my life without writing so I joined the newspaper staff. The first editing/layout software I ever used was called Ready, Set, Go! and it was on a computer that we fondly called the dinosaur (it's actually one of the original Apple computers I mentioned earlier). If I'm not mistaken, the dinosaur still works today.

We gradually evolved in our technology - we upgraded to the Macs with the colored butts and started using Quark photo-editing software. Then we purchased four extremely nice Dell desktop computers and the first version of Adobe PageMaker and Photoshop (remember that day, Christina?)

Then I graduated and went to college where the journalism lab was equipped with what I like to call the bubble computer. Those were only there for the first year of my career and they upgraded to these:

They actually still use these if I'm not mistaken. The newspaper and yearbook offices got a set of these before the rest of the school. We also got the newest versions of the Adobe Suite before anybody else. Sweet, right?

This is what I worked on my senior year - the Leopard. By far the nicest computer I have ever used in my entire life. One day I will upgrade from my pitiful-by-comparison Dell laptop that's served a dutiful five years of service to the top-of-the-line Apple computer (if you can't tell, I'm a big fan of Apple).

Now I've regressed back to a regular desktop for work, one that is so old they don't make them anymore. I do have a nice screen now though. Not that it matters all that much in the long run.

Come to think of it... all of my history with technology has been pretty successful when it comes to software revolving around my passions. Where my trouble lies is with the internet (just ask Christina). I can maneuver it just fine and find just about any type of information you could ever dream of looking up. But when it comes to modifying the things that I use online, I'm totally useless. It's sad really, and I honestly don't know where I went wrong.