Erica vs. technology

I’ve never claimed to be particularly adept at technology.

Exhibit A: I once got into a mini-fight with my then-boyfriend over Tivo. He asked me to set Tivo before we went out to dinner. I tried, I really did. Tivo obviously hated me as evidenced by its refusal to work. Then-boyfriend said something along the lines of “Oh come on, it’s not that hard.” I threw the Tivo remote across the room. Stupid remote had too many buttons anyway.

Exhibit B: I have never owned an iPod. I did own a generic MP3 player that I won at a work Christmas party about five years ago. Actually, I won a personal DVD player but after partaking in a few drinks in the parking lot (It was a dry county and the party was in the high school cafeteria. We had to smuggle our liquor in. Good times.) a co-worker convinced me to trade him for the MP3 player. So that’s what a few vanilla vodka and diet cokes will get ya, my friends: a crappy MP3 player.

Exhibit C: My dad bought me a new flat-screen TV for my birthday this year. My birthday is in August. I still can’t figure out the TV. I don’t have DVR, it’s just regular cable. Except it’s not. There are seven channel 11s. 11-1, 11-2, 11-3….Who needs seven channel 11s?

And now, in the latest battle in the Erica vs. technology war, I am sad to report that once again, technology has won.

I went to the park to walk the other day. Although I still do not have an iPod, I do have an iPhone. (Work paid for it.) So I downloaded (uploaded?) some songs to my phone figuring I’d use the iPod feature and get a good workout while jamming to some cheesy late '90s/early '00s pop.

So imagine my frustration when I’ve get a good pace going, singing along with JC Chasez to Nsync’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” and bam! The song stops. (Coincidentally, that was also the moment I realized I was singing out loud. Oops, sorry fellow park-goers. Also, no judging because cheesy pop songs are the best to walk to.)

I slow my pace, pull the iPhone out of my pocket, give it a quizzical stare, and advance to the next song. About a minute in that song stops, too. After several minutes of standing in place and pushing at random buttons, I figure out the problem.

Clearly, my iPhone has decided all on its own that it isn’t going to play songs all the way through.

The only way I can make it play a full song is to manually select one song at a time from the list. Which means that about every 3 minutes and 24 seconds, I have to stop to change songs because I’m not coordinated enough to walk briskly and use my phone at the same time, thus completely defeating the purpose of getting in some good exercise. I gave up after two miles.

Technology: 1, Erica: 0

Epilogue: So I told a coworker, who does happen to be particularly adept at technology, the issue I was having with my phone and that I thought it was broken. He took the phone, changed one setting, and everything works again. Apparently, techonology only hates me.