Work Smart, Not Hard

 

Today's topic: cell phones and public access videos.

First, when we changed cell phone plans today we got new phones as part of the plan. Getting new phones involves setting ring tones, wallpaper- all those little details that are supposed to make life easier. I was happy to turn these tasks over to a ten year old.

Hold on there! This blog is not what you think it is. It is not about all the fast changing technology, the maze of menus, the 'apps' and other newly coined vocabulary that is so mystifiing that it takes a child to understand it. No, no.

About fifteen years ago I produced television programs. Not only produced, but did camera work, sound, editing, graphics, all of it by myself. I laid down graphics and sound tracks with old equipment donated by the cable company. I operated commercial video cameras and sound equipment, pre-computer editing machines plus I had to haul all of the borrowed Comcast's equipment around by myself. (If anything happened to it, I would have to foot the bill.)

True story: Once, in order to tape a celebration in a local park, I hauled the camera, cords, backpack containing small necessary equipment, and heavy, awkward microphone stand a quarter of a mile from the parking lot to the hillside where the event was. Since I was alone, I had no alternative but to make it in one trip in spite of everything thumping against my legs and arms. I went to the doctor the next week for a standard physical, he asked me where I got the bruises. When I cheerfully jumped into the subject of making public access videos, he lost interest. Apparently all he really cared about was his legal requirement to report battered housewives.

Back to today'stopic. In my life I have learned to operate dozens of different types of complicated equipment. Just thinking about all I can do gives me a headache. So, you might wonder why, with all my proven abilities that I had a child set up my phone.

Because I can.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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