How Has Technology Changed Your Life?

Bill Quick wrote about how technology has changed his life. I've got some thoughts myself:

1. We got rid of TV seven years ago and only brought it back to watch on a flat screen. I watch TV rarely.
   
2. I communicated the physical injury of a friend through a blog. Another friend is doing the same. This shared information quickly, efficiently and to many people.
3. My washer and dryer have computer chips and front load. My kids can do it themselves (8 & 10). They're smart and use less energy. And you can't hear them! (The washer not the kids.)
   
4. I don't watch the news on TV. All my news is through blogs and I'll skim the New York Times and Wall Street journal.
5. Still read shelter magazines and love books, but buy them (mostly) through Amazon. I take the kids to Barnes-n-Noble because they like the experience.
6. Building a DVD library. Hate the theater. If the movie is bad, it irritates the poo outta me. I just wasted two hours and twenty bucks that I'll never get back. Pisses me off. Better to rent and stop watching if it sucks. Note to liberal Hollywood: Not everyone thinks like you insulated jack-asses.
   
7. Digital camera, man. I take hundreds of pictures and have a fairly consistent record of my life because of it. Rarely print them, though, unless they're really awesome. More great pictures because I take so many.
8. Internet all the time. Without it, I feel disconnected from the universe--no news, no friends.
9. Almost all clothes shopping for the kids is over the internet. Most of it for me. Still haven't gotten into the swing of Zappos, but people love it. (I've ordered from them once.)
10. We get take out a fair bit, but I wish that business where it was like a food taxi--they'd pick up the food and bring it to you was in business around here. I'd use it.
11. iPod, iTunes, iChat, iPhone. I buy the songs I want. I DO NOT steal music. The music companies should know that they would have gotten zero of my business before. I mostly borrowed friends CDs and copied the music or just kept their leftovers. I'm a cheapskate that way. But the iPods? Glorious! With iChat, I don't just hear my sister rolling her eyes at me, I see them roll. We feel so much more connected. Just got the iPhone. I LOVE IT!!! It is awesome. I get my email there. I listen to music. I take pictures. I hear phone calls. I see voice mails. Rock on, Steve Jobs.
    
12. IMing. Instead of picking up the phone, if I see a friend on-line, I fire off an IM. Friend fires back. No effort involved. Two-minute interaction. A lot of these calls I wouldn't have made or would have had to make but dreaded. I love IM!
13. Email. Remember when you actually had to talk to someone? Yeah, I do, too. I hated the old days.
14. Tech shopping, oddities shopping, stuff shopping. All on-line. Best Buy is a den of iniquity. I look at reviews. Other readers and respected people share opinions and I do what they recommend. And THEY are always right. Always. I have yet to go wrong when following on-line advice. It's like all the smartest, detail-obsessed people in the world share their smarts and obsessions. It's save me a lot of time, money and grief.
15. TripAdvisor. That's right, bitches, this girl reads reviews before putting her head on your skanky bed. I went to DC and followed a bunch advice from travelers with children. DC nirvana, baby. No more AAA talking to one lady whose never been there.
16. I read restaurant menus and make reservations on-line.
17. I book my own plane trips, at the times I want, in the seats I want. Plane travel is one of Danté's levels of hell. I hate the FAA. I hate HLS. I hate airport screeners. I hate the Philadelphia airport. I hate waiting. I hate the lack of fresg air in airports. I hate CNN. I hate dirty bathrooms. I hate dirty politicians in dirty bathrooms. In short, I hate traveling by plane. All those snobby Hollywood types jetting around in their private planes can suck my butt.
18. We have three computers (one iMac, one Dell and one MacBook) and two adults. We have one TV we rarely watch. We have a $99 christmas deal little flat screen in the guest room and an old Samsung that rarely gets used in the living room). I look forward to the day when I have my computer projected onto the inside of my sunglasses so the computers don't take up so much room. You know we're going to complain about that some day.
19. We have one non-digital phone in the emergency box in case of, well, emergencies.
20. I work from home. I home school. I blog. I can indulge my interests because the efficiency of technology has opened up my life--that and getting rid of TV.

H/T Glenn Reynolds