I dont claim to be the greatest techie alive. I was a BBS goon. I can make my way around computers. I have a little audio and visual knowledge. I get buy with the tech that I have.
Unlike a lot of people.
I can jury-rig with the best of them. I once performed internet tech support with a friend in Denver via cellular phone while taking a shit in a McDonalds bathroom in Raton, New Mexico. Believe that yo! Thats right, Im capable.
And word gets around.
I am always one to offer a glad hand, to friends or family. With my mom, I am obligated to help with all sorts of technology woes. That's blood, kin. But mom's friends and work acquaintances?
All of a sudden I am getting requests from her, second-hand, as if she is the tech drug dealer offering out my services, to go over to a friend of a friends house to show her how to record a television show on VHS or program the VCR or play a DVD or watch a show on one channel while recording on another, all while transcribing step-by-step instructions for the woman to refer to in the future, a cheat-sheet for idiot-box operation.
All of a sudden I am getting emails from her friends requesting me make house calls to remedy computer problems and install printers. It is as if my mom is pimping me out.
And if I dont do it my mom will find someone who will. Why is she in charge of these peoples lives?
Are we slaves to the Baby Boomer generation now? Am I obligated to help her friends with their problems? Am I a bastard if I dont dish up some community service? Will I be on call forever, building a customer base of epic proportions, ending up delivering meals on wheels to them in the far future; mowing lawns and performing car maintenance and heavy lifting, my soul captured in a limbo between my generation and the ones previous?
Posted by RAD at July 16, 2007 9:13 PMI don't know that I'd call her the 'tech drug dealer' so much as I'd call her the 'tech pimp.'
Posted by: M at July 17, 2007 7:36 AMI was berated by my family for the exact same thing.
So yes my brother, you/we are slaves to the baby boomers and thus the greatest generation. Never mind that they created the struggles, the technology, and the society... but we have to adhere, bend, honor, and serve. Less you become the ungrateful bastard gen-X child that your parents told you nightmares about.
I can relate but from a little different point of view. I and a few of my fellow tech-savy-enough-to-make-a-living-at-it B-Boomers have had to resort to wearing "No, I won't fix your computer" and "Damn it Jim, I'm a sys-admin, not a baby sitter" T-Shirts around our non-tech-savy B-Boomer friends. We get called 'bastard' too for having a family and a life that doesn't include fixing their busted shit at all hours of the night...I feel your pain!
Posted by: Beast1624 at July 17, 2007 4:33 PMWelcome to the F-in club! It happened to me today, I offer my services to this really cool girl I met and then she sells me out and starts telling other people I know everything about computers. I'm going tell eveyone to get a Mac, I don't know shit about them.
Posted by: PLJ at July 17, 2007 8:42 PMBUNS!
Posted by: Shannon at July 19, 2007 5:37 PM