All it takes is a searing word, or two… shaping opinion, outcomes, sometimes even the course of history.
‘Little nuggets,’ I called them… searing words in a column, a few days ago, a column I’d written on my iPhone, because I’d screwed up something on my PC.
Among things I’m thankful for, this Thanksgiving, is that little nugget of technology, all jamb-packed with stuff I can use to be able to get this article together.
Just because some things about high tech allude me, like what I thought would be something simple I should try doing to upgrade my PC, left me and my PC wallowing in despair…
So, this article, I’m tap… tap… tapping out, one-fingered, on the phone’s tiny keyboard, typing with my thumb, because two-finger typing eludes me.
But indicating, at least, that, occasionally, an old horse can learn a new trick, or two?
That little nugget of technology, a phone, is keeping things going… and keeping me in a relatively good mood… so, at least, for a few days, I may even go easier on political follies, and the perpetrators of them.
And I’ll try doing the same, when I‘m opining about high tech.
What is it, now, three years of COVID? When the first version of the virus was detected, around December 2019? And then, over the years, the COVID variants emerged, and just recently, the respiratory virus, called RSV.
If you’ve seen war movies, with enemy naval ships on the verge of hitting explosive mines, maybe you’re thinking the mines — big metal balls, with spiky things all over them, bear a fairly close resemblance to the COVID viruses, shown up close and vividly, in the news.
Except, the viruses aren’t military, gunmetal gray. They’re reddish, sometimes purple, or some other vivid color.
And like ships at sea, in battle zones, my family and I have been trying to avoid sailing over any viral, explosive mines. And we’ve avoided running into any of the COVIDs, the first one that emerged, and the variants, and we’ve avoided getting the flu, and that recent bug, ‘RSV.’
Until a few days ago. It might be only a common cold in our family, since having taken that test, where they dive deeply with a nasal swab inside the recesses of one’s nose, it was determined we had no COVID, or flu, or RSV. We had avoided running across any of those colorful balls, festooned with spiky things.
But we’re still feeling under the weather, and my PC is feeling off kilter, too, chiefly because of human error.
That’s why I’m writing this article on my phone, tapping out words and sentences on my phone’s tiny keyboard. It’s slower, because I haven’t mastered typing with more fingers than just my thumb.
Should I try doing what younger generations do so well, holding their phones with both hands, and typing super fast, using at least one, or more, fingers than I’ve been using?
Speaking words into the phone? Using this advanced technology I’m gripping, in the palm of my hand, like an old-style, what were they called, long ago? Dictation machines? Would that work?
I could just kick back, and dictate my article, but sometimes the phone misinterprets what you’re saying, or it adds words, or screws up grammar, and you’ve got dangling participles, where they don’t belong. My wife’s been having that happen, occasionally.
Maybe some workaround will work for me, or my PC will get over its sniffles?
Sent from my iPhone
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.