Wednesday 12 October 2011

How I.T. is Like Cathy Freeman.

In one of my last ‘posts’, I mentioned that I had my SIM card stolen out of my USB connector-thingy. O, the lack of Internet.

This event (for details see September entry ‘Stolen Optimism’) led to a series of visits to the phone-shop, which in turn led to feelings of resentment towards all I.T. People who use tricky sentences like ‘Are you on a plan or a contract?’

Because my answer is always a resounding “I’m not sure.”

The epic story of Kathryn & The Stolen SIM took an unexpected turn this week, with my most recent phone-shop visit. Because this time, I remembered to take the USB connector-thingy with me.

Me: Hi. My SIM card has been stolen.
15-Year-Old-Working-At-The-Phone-Place: Ok, do you have your USB connector-thingy? (She definitely didn’t say that.)
Me: Here it is.
**15-Year-Old-Working-At-The-Phone-Place opens up a mysterious compartment in the USB connector thingy, pulling out a SIM card, which is mine.**
15-Year-Old-Working-At-The-Phone-Place: Here it is.
Me: Ok, thanks……… **Kathryn shuffles nervously** ……..Bye!

Damn it, those tricky I.T. People win again.

Don’t get me wrong the 15-Year-Old-Working-At-The-Phone-Place was really nice. All of the above dialogue on her part was delivered with sincerity, looks of kindness and no laughing at all. All feelings of unpleasantness were undoubtedly coming from my end of the conversation.

Which somehow makes it much worse.

Because now I know that in a contest of Kathryn versus I.T. People, I am considered a truly inferior. If this was a running competition, then I.T. People would be Cathy Freeman, and I would be me.

Hey, I’m sure Cathy would be nice about it. She’d probably talk to me about my technique with kind looks that say ‘Hey Kathryn, we’re all just running out there. It’s possible you’ll beat me”. And I’d give her looks that say “Hey Cathy, I’m wearing shoes, and I even put them on the correct feet”.

I think the moral I’ll take from this story is that when I next have an I.T. problem, I will ask an I.T. Person. And I’ll pretend we both don’t notice my own stupidity. Because when I finally am able to use the internets on my own computer, I’ll be the real winner.




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