Quote of the Day: Albert Einstein

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." Okay, so things aren't that bad with me and technology but it's getting close. I now have my iPhone privileges back which may or may not be a good thing.

Let me give you a little background to help explain why that fascist ban was instituted in the first place. I seriously hate meetings. It's hard not to look at them as nothing more than time-burglars taking me away from more important things. Historically, I have tending to use one of three coping methods to survive them: get bored and start daydreaming, sleep (a surprisingly easy thing to do when you get up at 3:30 AM every day), or make random comments to amuse myself. I've been caught sleeping so many times it's not even funny. Okay, maybe it is a little funny. I've really tried to stop sleeping in meetings because you know what happens when you do? People get mad at you. Apparently, falling asleep when people are talking is a sign of rudeness. My boss must have noticed that positive life change because he came up to me last week and told that he appreciated the effort I've been making not to fall asleep in meetings. I should have just graciously said thanks and went about my day but instead, I said, "You have my iPhone to thank for that." That was a big mistake because he's been on my case about playing with it ever since.

He finally dropped the hammer on Friday during our monthly All-Hands Sales meeting/conference call. Meetings are bad enough but they are almost insufferable when people are presenting from the other side of the country using nothing but Power Point. So I got bored and started reading an article on my iPhone. I can't even remember what it was about but I remember it was pretty engrossing at the time. My actions probably wouldn't have been so damning if I hadn't decided I was bored two minutes into it. I'll be honest, I wasn't even remotely trying to pay attention and my boss knew it. Pretty soon I felt a tap on my shoulder and then I saw a hand waving in my face trying to take my iPhone from me. I put it back in my pocket and said I was sorry. He said, "I'm serious. Put it away." By this time, everyone around the conference table was looking at us with looks of abject horror and surprise on their faces at the whole thing. My boss is usually pretty laid back about everything but I guess rudeness is one of his pain points. (In my defense I would like to point out that by the end of the hour everybody was playing around on their blackberries.) Afterwards, he told me my phone was not allowed in our next meeting. I didn't bother pointing out that maybe back-to-back meetings are part of the problem. His final edict on the matter was, "I don't want to see it again in another meeting. I'm serious." So that's how things stood until yesterday when I smuggled my phone into a meeting and started playing with it without getting into trouble. So even though no one told me the ban was over, I've decided to make an executive decision and end it. I'm hoping he'll forget all about it by our next staff meeting on Friday.

I really do need to stop playing with technology so much. The other night some friends of mine yelled at me for being rude every time I pulled my phone out to play with it and it did happen quite a bit. I can't help it. I feel like I need to have my mind stimulated all the time and reading does that better than anything else. (Maybe if people were more interesting I wouldn't have to resort to technology. Wow, that does sound kind of rude, doesn't it?) I can only imagine how bad I am going to be when I start using the Kindle application on my iPhone. It also doesn't help that my role at work requires me too be very responsive to customer emails and phone calls. I'd hate to think we missed a deal because I was to busy interacting with the real world. Pretty much the only time I ignore technology is when I am reading or writing fiction. I mean I even screen my calls during that part of the day. So if I ever answer your phone call in the evening it means I really like you or I forget to check who was calling.

So my new goal is to carry my fiction technology management strategy over into other areas of my life. Who knows, I may even enjoy interact with my physical environment if I can resist the urge to shout, "Come on, world, be more interesting." Especially in public.