“What was the question? Wait, I know that one. I know that one!”
I answered a Final Jeopardy question right last week. Or questioned the right answer?
Either way it was the first time in 37 years. Not that I watch it often, or should really count the years before I could even read but still…I was due.
I was proud, for like a minute. Until I realized that I have to give up calling myself a technophobe now, because the category was “technical terms”.
The answer was: “In a July 1990 post Yisrael Radai called this 7-letter term “a word I just coined for Trojans, viruses, worms etc.”
My pleasure was doused by the knowledge that I may just have to admit that I may no longer be a technophobe, and my husband’s technical ways might be rubbing off on me. Nooooooo!
I’ll have to look it up in the contract but I’m was pretty sure that one of the rewards for marrying a guy that is the guru of all technical things was that I could be wilfully incompetent. I was pretty happy with that. But then I got the question right. Was he was just pretending to let me be incompetent all the while educating me behind my back?
Sure I’m happy that I got the question right, but seriously does this new knowledge mean that I’ll have to learn how to set the digital clock on my oven? Does it mean I have to stop calling tweets “twittering”? Is that worth the momentary pride of knowing Mr. Radai invented the term malware?
I was conflicted. I was in an identity crisis. I was at a loss, until I managed to break the speaker on my cell phone (by you know, touching it, or talking or some other mis-use of technology). The world is as it should be and I’m still fighting the good fight.
By the way…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I’ve been here, but not here. I’ve been sick and sad and busy and writing has felt very wrong for all of December but I’m on the mend. I wrote today.
Writing Exercise:
My husband has an aura that allows him to fix computer problems simply by being in their presence. (For his birthday I made a movie style poster portraying him as “Aura Man”.)
His skill is useful. Creepy, but useful. I on the other hand, manage to break every cell phone that comes into my possession. I routinely mess up the computer (that he has to fix) and have some sort of alarm clock setting disability. I’m pretty sure the Universe uses us to balance each other out.
Create a character with a super aura. Maybe they cause people to laugh or dogs to howl or busses to stop and wait for them when it’s raining (I want that one). Choose an aura (it doesn’t have to be useful, just well defined) then imagine what the opposite aura would be. How would the universe balance out the gift? Give that gift to your character’s partner then spend twenty minutes writing about how they would work together (or against each other) to use their powers. Happy writing.
