Ah...The Words I've Been Waiting to Hear...

by patndoris on Mar.05, 2008,under Musings

Now that got your attention didn't it?! Who? What? Who said what to her? Well, I suppose it's not quite that exciting...but the techno geek part of me just melted when I heard the words.

...

As some of you know, my 13 year old male offspring is so not techno-geeky like me. I did run a chkdsk (DNA) test, and yes, it's confirmed - he's mine his OS and file structure is the same as me. I mean - GRRR! - you know what I mean!! As long as programs play nice, it's all good. A problem? Well then you hear the bellowing of a recently deepening male voice "...MOM!!!!"

Though to give credit where credit is due, he can download a file to desktop, unzip it, place it in the folder it needs to go in, and edit the .ini files for one of his games. IM? Oh he's right there with the best multi-tasking, chat lingo-ing, IMing teenagers. I swear he can have 20 IM windows open for text, keep them all straight AND play a RPG game online at the same time. I personally max out at 2 text, 1 voice conference and a game of Canasta.

So when he was having troubles the other day, and repeatedly bellowing for "...MOM!!!" in incrementally increasing signal strength didn't produce the appropriate snap-to-it response (likely due to an intense battle on the Canasta board, fighting for my life...oops - rating points...desperately trying to win the pack) he actually started messing with things on his own.

I'll give you the short version. Someone sent him a link to download a game patch. He saved it to desktop, installed it and all was good. He then recycled it (figuring he'd not need it again) AND emptied the recycle bin. (Um...but I can't get him to take out the non-virtual trash...wonder how we can transfer that to real life...must contemplate...) But I'm getting off track aren't I? So game goes ka-boom and we had to reinstall it. No that's not true - I had to uninstall and reinstall it. Of course it's a Win95/98 game being run on Vista, presenting it's own set of challenges to uninstall and reinstall which he has not yet mastered and leaves to "...MOM!!!" to do - oh the joy! And then...in an angry, accusatory, only a teenager could have voice, as if it was my fault - doesn't know where to get the link for the patch again. (Never mind I just recently tried to insert the del.icio.us code into his system file...I mean...tried to extol the virtues of del.icio.us to him and spark interest in having his own page - to not avail might I add.)

I promised I'd take a look into it, and try to find where the patch might have been saved in a download folder, or temp file, or something...possibly a system restore?...who knew...but I'd get around to it. Since I didn't drop it all right then and there - once again, likely due to an (now this is NOT a typo but shown exactly the way I'd like you to read it) intensenailbiting40cardpossiblyhighlyoverstatedtherefightforthepack (now c'mon tell the truth...wasn't that fun? Heehee ... it's fun for me thinking bout those of you who had to stop and read that twice to make sense of it - and I'm oh so glad you can't reach out and smack me just now!! ROFL!!) he started futzing (yes I'm quite sure that's a real word) around on his own. He came in and announced he didn't need my help, he'd managed to figure it out on his own. (Now, just what he did I have no idea and I don't think I probably really want to). Then came those magical words....Are you ready for this...?

"I just started messing around with it 'cause I figured it was already broken so how much more damage could I do? And I fixed it."

It was heaven. I thought I'd never hear those musical words...there's geek hope for him yet! And it gets even better....

A few nights later, while I'm sure I was embroiled in the midst of yet another life threatening battle of Canasta (but I won't run all the words together so you have to read them twice), he calls me into the computer room. I grudgingly tote the laptop with me, so as not to pause for too long between moves, thus giving the appearance I was actually thinking about taking that card...and ask what he wants. Are you really ready now? This was just beyond unbelievable coming from his so not-a-techno-geek mouth.....

"Mom? What's Beta mean?" You could have pushed me over with a feather! I was SO happy! I gleefully tried to explain, in far more detail than his teenage brain cared to hear, or was capable of understanding during a marathon 21 IM window chat, about the different between Alpha and Beta - and why I just adore Betas...but I suspect it was lost on deaf ears beyond "still being tested and not a final version."

I'm still rather hopeful that he'll come to his senses one of these days and embrace techno-geekism. I mean, I know it's a radical right wing group to some, but we're growing in number (or else our magnetic devices are simply pulling us all closer and closer together until one day our shared and common folders and files will merge and we'll become one unified....STOP! I MUST STOP! Anyway - I hope he'll continue to at least ask the questions so I can not-impress him with the fact that I know the answers. As my offspring, I'd be surprised if he doesn't come home with an honorary Masters in Hacking degree after a 48 hour, intensive, spend the night at a friend's house course by the time he's 16.
:musings