they looked at porn last time, now they are looking at shoes – let’s present them with specific further alternatives…

Cas is currently with a side-order of

Ok, will someone please explain to me why I am suddenly the go-to girl for all problems of a vaguely tech-like nature that my father has? The Crazy Canalman does seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that I am capable of solving every dilemma over the phone. My favourite has to be when he asked me to help him set up a wireless network across the marina. Seeing as how I am living a few hundred miles across the country, and have never set up a network in my life, I was at somewhat a loss.

Then there are the “The laptop has stopped working!” and “How do I get it talking to my mobile phone again?” questions. Once again, I’m the other side of the country. Not to mention, it’s thankfully been a few years since I was up to my elbows in Windows (*strokes her shiny mac*). The vagaries of getting an XP laptop talk to a Siemens mobile via a Belkin bluetooth dongle are thankfully a closed book to me, though the Crazy Canalman is doing his utmost to make it otherwise.

Tonight’s problem was (temporarily) solved by suggesting he check on his temporary internet files. 248 MB later, things were running slightly less like they were trapped in treacle. That, and a short lecture on the evils of cookies, and I left him loudly fuming and cursing every invention since the printing press.

Let me get one thing straight – my father is not a stupid man, nor is he an idiot when it comes to technology. He has been working at the forefront of telecommunication engineering for most of his life. We have owned computers since they first started selling them. He uses them, and some much more complex technology, each and every day at work.

So what is it about this laptop, and most of the Internet, that completely flummoxes him? Why does he have a complete blind spot about it?

Also, where along the line did being an Archaeologist qualify me to solve all his problems with the said beast? Ok, so I am a mild geek in that I can turn the bloody machines on (most times), but even I am defeated at the simplest task. Ask the CC about the absolute balls-up I made whilst trying to burn a cd last night.

I have no answers for any of the above questions, nor for why my mother (a very intelligent lady) is incapable of even turning her MacMini on without someone there to hold her hand, whilst she just has to look at the video machine and it works, and she was the only one of the five of us who could turn the Crazy Canalman’s new digital camera on last Christmas.

Grrr.

(Oh, and check out Moose’s new blog. Mwhahahahahaa. Blogs are great.)