Remember when you got your first electronic. Mine was an AM radio, I got for my birthday. I was the coolest kid on the block. We either had to go across the street and sit on the curb or go around the block to get a good signal. And forget about the night time listening, there was just too much static. The next electronic was a portable reel to reel tape recorder. I got in trouble with that a couple of times, but after a day or two of playing with it the batteries ran down. Back then you had to buy more batteries because there wasnt rechargables yet and the family was too poor to go out and get them when needed, so the machine was put up in the closet till I mowed another yard to raise some money for more batteries. Lets see...the next electronic was an 8-track player in a tabletop system. You know the one with the turntable, am-fm radio, and two speakers and of course the 8-track player. You could play the one 8-track all day long without changing it. I could listen to Captain and Tennille all night long. That system stayed with me for awhile because you couldnt drag it around like a portable. When I got my first car I had to have an 8-track and a CB radio. O man I was uptown now. Then music started changing over to cassette. I couldnt believe one album was on such a small piece of plastic. And of course the only way you could play it was on a portable one speaker cassette player. I think my first cassette was either Three Dog Night or Chicago. Then cassette players started coming out in vehicles. Then you were either REWINDING or FAST FORWARDING to skip songs. That was so fun. And how about those BOOM BOXES. If you had a audio cassette you had to have a portable player. The bulkier the better. You couldnt put it anywhere because it was so big, but it looked good and sounded great. Lets talk about Videos. Dad had an 8mm camera that he was using all the time. Of course they were of events that other people had to see too. So we would gather up the projector, the screen, and the new film of birthdays, weddings, Christmas, Easter, animals, vacations, and that one moment in history you looked your worst was on there. And the TV movies, the only time we got to see the same movie on tv again was when it was a rerun, usually the next year, like "The Wizard of Oz" or "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer". Then came along VHS or Video Home System (I guess that is what that means) When you said VCR, everyone knew what you were talking about. I know I was living on my own when I got one of those. It was wild, you could play the same movie over and over again. My first movie I bought was "Romancing the Stone". I loved that movie. And of course one had to experiment with their first Adult Movie. I borrowed one from a friend. It was just weird. You were getting up every five minutes to see if anyone was outside looking in and checking the door to see if it was locked. I could never figure out what the plot of the story was with all that humping and moaning. And as with the VHS tape you were always REWINDING or FAST FORWARDING. And with the Video Rental Stores popping up everywhere you had to "BE KIND and REWIND" or they would charge you 50 cents. I think Cable TV came before VHS. That was so cool, instead of 4 channels you got 15 channels, without rabbit ears or an outside antenna. Then one of the most important electronics came into being....the PC (Personal Computer). I was already out of college when they started infesting the home. I had a portable typewriter to do my term papers on. Lets see I am on my third PC. My ISP was AOL. I started with them when you paid by the hour, that is when I got my first credit card or was it on my phone bill because it was dial up. UNLIMITED was unheard of and no one had heard of a virus on a computer, get real. And someone hacking into your computer system, you were insane to think of something could happen like that. You could have said the Martians were landing....LOL We went from floppy disks to digital hard disc and went from 256K to 750G on the hard drive. I think I saw something about 1T???? Then came along DVD (Digital Video Disc). Need I say anything else about that except it has cost me a fortune replacing from VHS to DVD format. I have purchased a DVDR which I have found fabulous. I had my Dads 8mm movies converted to VHS when that was popular. Then recently I have converted the family movies from VHS to DVD. I have made several copies because its kinda easy to make for the family. The movies I bought cant be converted from VHS to DVD because for one thing it is a against the law, it says so at the beginning of the movie, and for another the DVDR wont let you, of course I tried. I have converted my brothers wedding from VHS to DVD. When the VHS came out, then came the VHS Cameras and alot of peope had them. So we have alot of home movies on VHS Tapes but then again I need to find them. Cell phones came somewhere in between the VHS and DVD. The cell phones went from bulking handset with a large battery to something that will fit into your hand about the size of a saltine cracker. I have had a cell phone for about two years now. I usually use it for emergencies, dont have any friends to talk to. Now we cant forget the conversion from Audio Cassette to CD (Compact Disc). This was the best change yet. A 4 and 3/4 inch plastic disk that had the album burned into it. I wont go into the technical terms which would confuse me even more. Now you could carry and play your CD on a player with ear plugs, but you still couldnt jump around with it because it did skip. We had to wait till the anti shock players came out. I used mine for working in the yard. And of course we need to talk about the TVs which have changed dramatically in the past two years. I grew up with a black and white large tube tv and you had to turn the knob to change the channel. WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL, you were put in a crazy house if you thought that would ever happen. Then came color TV, still no wireless remote, but Color. That was great. And I think the largest TV was about 32 inches, I think we had 19 or 23 inch TV. The screen wasnt very big but the rest of the TV took up some space. Gradually wireless remote came in with several other different options...stereo sound, brightness adjusted to room light, sleep timers and some of the portables had the VCP (Video Cassette Player) built into the TV. Now TVs have changed from large tube to Flatscreen Plasma, LCD, and DLP. And in February 2009 if you dont know by now will be changing from analog to digital signal. Lets say I am equipped with a 47" HD LCD 1080i in the den and a 23"HD LCD with DVD player in the bedroom and both hooked up to cable. The one thing I havent got for the TV yet is a HD DVD. I think I will wait on that for awhile. Price still to high. I need to say a few words on my Kodak EasyShare Z650, 6.1 MEGAPIXELS with 10X OPTICAL ZOOM. I probably have taken more pictures on this camera then I can count. Of course I also have the Easy Share Photo printer 500. I just love it. Most of the time I load the pictures on computer to view or print later. Ok we are coming close to the end because I want to talk about my most favorite electronic in the world. 
The iPod. I noticed some of the young people carrying around a small
gadget with ear plugs. It came in an array of colors. Didnt want to ask because I didnt want to feel embarrassed. So I did some research on my own. I didnt know there were so many options. But I had to see what was the best for me. The question was...how was an iPod going to make things easier? I got tired of the CD player on the desk at work. I got tired of getting batteries for the portable CD player and wrapping the bulky thing around my waist to mow the lawn. And I think I had the same 6 CDs in the truck since I bought them. I had so many CDs I got tired of sorting thru them to see what I wanted to listen to. Ok...so I opt for the iPod Classic 160GB in black. There is not an adjective that best describes this piece of equipment. It is an appendage to my body. I do not go anywhere without it. I just love it. It has the music of every mood I can be in, the pictures of everything I have taken with my camera ( ok maybe not everything I have taken, just the important stuff), Important dates on the calendar that I need to remember, every address and phone number I need to remember, I can order music, music videos, movies, audobooks so if I am waiting on someone or the traffic I can watch (not while driving of course) a movie or listen to a book. To make things easier in the truck I got this iPod accessory that plugs into the cig lighter which sends a signal to the fm radio so the sound from the iPod plays thru the speakers. It is the best ever. Whoever invented this is remarkable. They are up there with the Weed Eater...now if only the Weed Eater had a wireless remote control...
