Modern Technology

RB and I were going to a restaurant tonight that I thought I knew where was, but wasn't quite sure (always a dangerous situation with his and my poor sense of direction).

I said, "Oh, do I have my cell phone? ... No."

RB said, "Do you have a web browser on your phone?" (This would be genuinely surprising, given my ancient, frills-free cell phone ways.)

I said, "Of course not. I was going to call Robert and have him look it up."

So I used RB's phone, though the first time, it didn't work because I could not remember my own telephone number. Neither could he, but at least he had it in memory. Robert told us where the restaurant was (and I had two pancakes roughly the size of the tabletop. At least they were full of blueberries, high in antioxidants. Ahem. They also had good regular iced tea and the great decaf herbal "crocodile" tea.)

Robert is my web browser sort of the way that back before the machines existed/were common, "calculators" referred to people who performed mathematical calculations. It's nice the way he responds to semi-incoherent questions in plain English and so forth. I don't know that the artificial intelligence exists that could come even close to matching his performance.

In only semi-related news, I have determined that RB is my "magical technology friend." He has many other content areas in which he is a magical friend, but he is especially strong in all things tech-related. He is the magical computer geek friend for a lot of people, it seems.