i feel like i'm in the future?

I LOVED rotary phones. I think I'm going to go to my grandma's house and see if she still has one and then i'll put it in my house. Oh it'll be a pain in the ass to call out, because every number I call is long distance on my phone and needs the full 10-digits. And the sound of a modem dialing up is very nostalgic.

 

My perspective is remembering when there was little choice in what phone you had because the phone company provided the instrument... Ours was connected to a "party line" where several households phone calls rang in on the same line- you knew whether or not the call was for you by the ring pattern... ours was one long ring and one short... and when you were on the phone you tied the system up for the other parties on your line... if they picked up to make a call they could hear your conversation instead of a dial tone.

I remember having two channels that came in well on the television and having both of them covering the Apollo missions to the moon- I remember cigarette ads on TV- as well as the ad campaign when Esso changed its name to Exxon (put a tiger in your tank). I remember when no one owned a remote control and the necessary act of getting off your ass to change the channel wasn't looked at as an inconvenience. I remember when televisions that had to warm up for a couple minutes before there was picture or sound... turn on the TV then finish the dishes- one could easily arrange to not be inconvenienced by these things. It's not the novelty of remembering the objects but remembering when they were the only thing and reliving the sense of novelty when gaming systems first hit the market- at a time when most parents told their kids to go play outside and depending on what time of year we could get into all manner of trouble- having snowball wars, throwing chunks of ice at each other and at passing motorists... and running like hell if one hit the brakes- or maybe raiding a neighbors tomatoes for ammunition or building a summer evening bonfire out of whatever we could find (invariably including at least one old tire) directly beneath an old iron bridge sending a column of black smoke for the occasional car to drive through.

It's not that I remember these things- it's that I remember when some of them were the only choices we had and no one feeling particularly inconvenienced by waiting for the TV to warm up- to share a phone line with neighbors, etc. My perspective on dial up modems is from that of watching with fascination as a web page loaded on a friends computer as my very first exposure to this thing I had been hearing and reading about for a little while- the world wide web.

I remember before there were cell phones- when pagers first hit the retail market... how incredibly convenient- to be beeped anywhere so you know to locate a phone and find out who paged you and why. They were mainly the toys of doctors and fire fighters who were on call.

It's the realization of how much things have changed... undoubtedly most here are aware of these older bits of technology- but only as things already made obsolete. My perspective is from a time when they were in common use... when the rules of life were markedly different- when cigarette butts were routinely swept from the floors of grocery stores and leaded gasoline came in regular and hi-test and cost a whopping 52.9 cents a gallon. I remember when smoking was not only accepted in public but also accommodated. I remember ash trays filled not only with ashes and spent butts but also beer and soda can pull tabs.

I am confident that most remember these bits of old tech but only as the trappings of an obsolete life we were establishing some distance from... and not when they were in common use and taken for granted... and the requisite patience shared in dealing with things that we had yet to be convinced were slow and inconvenient.

 

I'd like to see what the next huge food invention will be, I mean in terms of something along the lines of the refrigerator or microwave.

Baked potato in 7 minutes????? Holy shit.

 

You ever seen one of those microwave convection ovens? Size of a larger microwave but can bake a fucking chicken. It's probably the most mind-blowing appliance I've ever seen. My in-laws have one and it works as a microwave or an oven. I want one so bad.

 

Ever seen the fifth element where they put a small little box and out comes a instant 40lb bird? Very cool. Or in the movie Alien Resurrection they have what looks like little ice cubes and get hit by a small laser that instantly turns it into a shot of Hard A your choice. Also very cool.

14:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL6nYIxC_Us&feature=related"]YouTube - The Fifth Element Part 3

 

my parents have a convection microwave too, it kicks some ass. they usually use the convection aspect for biscuits and rolls and brownies. who doesnt like brownies in double time, eh?

 

Waiting for the person who's gonna say "Argh microwaves cause cancer!!!" (hint, they don't)

Self cleaning ovens are pretty cool, they get so hot that all the heat they radiate off from them even being closed basically warms up the whole area without having the heat on.

Holographic TV I think we'll see within the next 20-30 years in a large scale kind of way.

 

i went to the verizon store to get an iphone. the line wasn't long enough for me to need my tent, sleeping bag and urine bottle, so i went back home to wait for the 5. just not enough inconvenience and brainless consumerism to entertain me yet.

 

I had a friend who had lymphoma and leukemia back in high school (he's in full remission now), so when people asked him how he got it, he'd tell them he ate too much Chef Boyardee heated in plastic bowls in the microwave. He really freaked people out, lol. Pretty sure he changed some lives with that B.S. Haha

 

We shouldn't be scared of change. We should plan for our future.

 

Agreed.

 

its like we're in bill and ted's excellent adventure...