20th Century vs. 21st Century

I bet you can guess what this is about. We (and I mean Justin and I) are in the midst of a hilarious argument right now (not as I'm typing, but in general). He wants to make our brand-new home a 'smart-home.' I say cool as long and I know how to work everything--without having to take a course. But so far that has not been the case.

Upstairs is what I like to call 'the 20th century.' A place where I know everything works. I don't care if I have a remote for my DVD player, my t.v., my cable, and *gasp* my VCR. I know how to use it all and it has never failed me. Unless you count the time the old VCR kept eating my Star Wars tape. It chewed it up so bad that the tape broke and I had to hack the case to fix it--3 times! So I threw that VCR out and got another one. I know, I know VCR's are so old and dated, but I don't care, I've got some great movies on tape and I don't want to have to buy a DVD. I don't care about quality, I care that it works! So don't try to convince me otherwise. You can't tape a dvd when it breaks.

The 20th Century works, but downstairs is a different story. That's the 21st Century and it doesn't work as well. It's not 'Jessi friendly.' First off, there is no VCR. How the heck am I supposed to watch Home Alone or Fargo or Strange Brew ? Yes, again I understand that I can now get these movies on DVD, but again, I don't care. So that's problem #1-no VCR. Problem #2 is bigger than number 1, but VCR is pretty big. #2 is you have to use a keyboard to change the channel! Ya, I'm totally not kidding! Basically you have to be a computer programmer to watch t.v. in the 21st century.

I spent all day upstairs today working on the computer. But when Justin got home I wanted to watch a little Seinfeld while cooking dinner. Um, impossible when the keyboard is upstairs being used. And even if I did have a keyboard, I still had no clue how to change the channel! It's very sad.

20th Century Good (everything works):



21st Century Bad (notice the keyboard and all the programmer jargon on the screen, that's where I'm supposed to watch t.v.):


We both agreed that this was called 'Get-Tivo.' I think the Dell box posing as a t.v. stand gives it away.

I'm sure one day I will come to love it as much as my VCR. I know it won't eat the tapes, but just like any other computer, it can crash. So nothing is safe. I will admit that when Justin gets a remote, makes the font bigger, and programs it to act just like cable then I'll probably think it's pretty cool. The computer is a Tivo so I can record all my favorite shows if I had any. And if I missed something, I can rewind. So I guess it won't be too bad.

But until then Justin, I'll stick with the 20th century. Hey I think Home Alone is on cable, can we 'get-tivo' it?