Friday, April 16, 2010

Did You Ever Feel Like Killing a Teenager?

Ok, so you wouldn't actually do it. But, be honest, you've felt like it, right? Here's what happened:

My 17 yr. old grandson, Nate, has built himself a new computer. He spent hours deciding what kind of computer he needed - how much ram, operating system, all those things computer junkies and teenagers can't live without. Then he spent hours on my computer researching components, comparing prices and checking compatibility. Then came time to purchase. He used my credit card (with my permission) to order all the items and waited somewhat patiently for his order to arrive. He then set about assembling it and installing the operating software. And, not to worry, he paid me back for everything he's spent. Made me proud to be his Grandma.

Now comes the part where I'm tempted to end his life. Of course, being a new computer, he had no games on it. And we all know teenagers can't live without their games. He bought his favorite, the name of which escapes me at the moment, put in the disk, and the computer whirred and sprung into action doing it's computer thing. The message on the screen told him it was installing but that it needed to download some information from the internet. What it didn't tell him was that apparently the disk was just to initialize it and it would proceed to download the entire game from the internet. He left it installing and went to bed.

The next morning it was still downloading! It took nearly all day to download all the information to install the game. Which used up all my bandwidth, putting me in violation of the terms with my internet provider, Wildblue. They, in turn, lowered my internet access to near dial-up speed until such time as my usage average drops below that allowed during a 30-day period.

I can get online in the morning to check e-mail, even though the connection is slow. But I can't get online at all during peak hours. Forget downloading anything anyone sends me, or watching a news video, or checking anything out on YouTube. So until the usage drops, and my full internet access is restored, Nate is on my hit list.

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