my day in technology

rex had a good post on this. my post will reveal how behind the times i am.

5:40 a.m. -- Mickey Mouse screams at me -- My mom got me an obnoxious Mickey Mouse alarm clock when I was in high school. Plays the song while Mickey screams "Hi!! Good morning!!! Wake up!!!!" Seems it's pretty hard to wake me up. Definitely annoying, definitely analog.

Then, I turn in the small TV in the kitchen, which is close to the bedroom. The downstairs neighbors must hate this because I crank up the volume so I can hear it all the way from the bedroom. I tune in to the local news.

6 a.m. -- Yoga or cold cereal -- The Inhale show on Oxygen is great. Steve's lots of fun. My only complaint is that I've seen all of the episodes. If I skip morning yoga, I go directly to step two: cold cereal.

6:30 a.m. -- iPod mini with iTrip -- I usually catch the gist of what's going on from my TV listening (don't worry, I turn this off while practicing yoga), so I use the commute for music pleasure before a stressful day. I prefer Coverville or The Daily Source Code as my morning podcasts.

If it's warm enough to ride the bike, my only music is the sounds of the street. I just can't risk deafness with such busy roads. I've considered putting the iPod in only one ear, but I think that's a bad idea.

Weekdays -- TV, IM and Web all day long -- This is how I function on a daily basis. The TV is a must-have (unfortunately, I only have one), but the workpace is littered with TVs everywhere due to the business I'm in. I IM with my company counterparts around the country and sometimes get a ping or two from family.

Web is integral to my job, so I hit plenty of sites for research purposes every morning. I constantly check news via pages and RSS. I look at industry blogs, and check Google News while I'm at work, too.

E-mail, well it goes without saying that I check this constantly at work. I check and check, and keep my personal account up as well. I am on a few e-mail lists, so I'm always getting updates there too.

I only have one work e-mail account and one personal e-mail account (a Yahoo! mail account that I set up in 1995, I think). In contrast, my husband has, like five accounts. Well, okay, I do have a Gmail account that I never use and will probably get rid of. I never set up any e-mail boxes with my personal domain. No interest - I like my Google account even if it doesn't have the cache of an @myowndomain.com address.

Weekdays -- I usually pick up the morning papers -- local paper and the NYT. I am lucky to have a workplace that provides them for me. We work with the local paper, so I'm interested in their choices and presentation, not actually reading the news from a paper. (Wow, that'd be nonproductive.) I like to steal the NYT crossword for when I get home. I read most of my news from the web.

Weekdays -- Cell phone. Just an old one -- I don't have a Treo or anything fancy like that. Frankly, I don't want one. I don't text and I don't surf the web on my phone. I don't like those flip phone camera dealies. I don't even check news headlines with my phone. Nope, I just use it to make calls. I also don't have a leash, er, Blackberry. Don't want one of those, either. I do put the phone on silent and take it to meetings. I'm astounded at how some people don't put their phones on silent during meetings. So uncool.

7ish -- Wireless internet -- My wireless was a wedding gift several years ago from a friend who felt (and still does!) that our lives are tech-challenged. I must admit I'd never go back to wired Internet at home because that would mean I couldn't be typing this post from my comfy bed.

Weeknights -- some TV, if it's out of the closet -- We put the big color TV into the closet when we've been watching too much. There it stays until we feel the need to watch again. During these times, we catch up with the news via the tiny black and white TV in the kitchen that we have to hit on the side when the audio goes away. We have basic cable. That's it. I admit an affinity for House Hunters, but know that's such a vapid show that when I've watched it two days in a row, it's TV in the closet time!

Summary: I'm fairly happy with my technology life the way it is.

I used to be much more intense about staying connected, but shifted a few years ago from an unhealthy workaholic (I used to greet my boss as he was arriving and say good night when he left!) to someone who does what they can during the day, and stays a little late every day, but doesn't put in quite the hours I used to.

I don't even know where my old (circa 1998) Palm Pilot is anymore. I thought of replacing it, but frankly, I don't want to. I usually bring my laptop home, and if I don't, I just check what's on tomorrow's schedule before I leave. I do sync it before a long trip when I know I'll need to access addresses or maps (I can download beforehand) and I know I'm not taking the laptop.

In terms of personal technology, I kinda wish I had TiVo, but I am too much of a cheapskate to pay the monthly fee. I could make my own DVR, but I'm too lazy, and frankly, I don't have enough interest in watching TV.

I am a female non-gamer. In the olden days, we used to have company Quake tourneys during lunchtime. I even grew up adoring Atari and still own Nintendo 64, but I spent way too much time with my keyster glued to the couch -a way to unwind between marathon workdays, so I put down the controller a few years ago. Perhaps that will change (if!) when we have kids and I start sneaking turns after the youngster has gone to bed.

One other item to touch upon: Robomower/Roomba. I put Roomba on the Xmas list tow years ago, to no avail. It's okay, we don't vaccuum that often anyway so why change things? And we don't yet have a lawn to mow, so no need for outdoor Roomba, er, Robomower.