A novice with an old telephone

A Notice uses the keypad on a telephone
November 22, 2009

Am I the last person in the world to learn to use a cell phone? I mean, to really learn how to use a cell phone? I can open a phone, type in a telephone number and send it, but that is the extent of my knowledge about the cell phone until today.

My new cell phone is Connor Pilling’s old cell phone now – the trickle down effect made an upgrade for him also an upgrade for me. Glen and I took the SIM card from the phone I ruined with a good clean wash, inserted it into Connor’s old phone, and I was good to go – except the used phone does not come with an instruction book.

I asked David if he could just tell me three new pieces of information about the phone and I also asked him if he could do that for five nights in a row. That way, I thought, I could retain enough information to make using this phone easy. I warned David about the learning process – any piece of information may have to be given 3 times before it sticks in the student’s head. He said he could deal with that.

I wrote in my note book and I also listened carefully as David taught me to turn up the volume on the ring, how to enter names into the telephone directory, how to delete old messages about how much money is still on my phone, how to delete texting that goes astray, how to take pictures (though I have no idea how to get them off of the phone), and how to use a small silver key as a mirror, should I want to take a picture of myself..

Half way through my evening practise, I wanted to know how to auto-enter words that I could half type and that were then presented on the screen to me. David and I couldn’t find out the answer, but I did notice for the first time, that he was holding the phone in one hand and texting with the thumb of the same hand.

“How cool is that,” I said. Yes. David agreed and he said that besides that, everyone does it that way. The rest of this evening I have been practicing thumbing my way around the keys so that I look assured and confident when I flip open the phone. I don’t want to be holding the phone in one hand and poking around on it with the other if the rest of the world isn’t doing it that way.

That is what I did for most of the rest of the evening. The other part of the night was spent in the kitchen because I passed through at 9 pm and saw the master’s degree engineering student beginning to make sushi. All of the ingredients were on the counter and on his computer he was running a video, “How to make sushi”.

Don’t you know how to do this? And you are still doing it? I was laughing so hard inside! I stayed in the kitchen to show him (and also them, for the other guys gathered around) how to make outside and inside sushi rolls: some shrimp, some salmon, some vegetarian.

Who would know to keep their hands wet while pressing the rice onto the seaweed. Or to wet the end of the seaweed for a better seal. And how about leaving a bit of space at the far end to allow the rice some degree of latitude to move as one rolls the seaweed. I couldn't remember, myself, how to do the outside roll. Do I really put the rice on the bamboo mat to roll it, I thought? I had a 30 second delay on that one. Then I remembered that saran wrap has multiple purposes. Keeping a layer of it between the bamboo and the rice worked for me.

Kelvin had a late night snack of sushi – my reward from Ed for helping him get going on his shushi making instead of spending the evening on a how-to-video. I have to say, I love those internet videos and am going to find one on how to carve a turkey, since I am starting to buy the $.99 a pound ones that are appearing in the grocery store ads.

Thanks for that real lesson at the lake on how to make sushi, Rebecca.

Love,

Arta