Technical Mumbo Jumbo and Christmas Shopping Woes

Staring at the bottle of Absinthe my sis and j got for me from their recent trip. Thanks guys! I'll let the green fairies out another day.

It's been a while but the time in between has been the same ol'. I have tomorrow off but will be doing some stuff for work as usual. I can't believe the people I'll be visiting tomorrow at Coldwell Banker. I promised the staff a one hour tutorial on how to use a Blackberry in hopes that they would stop calling me. It looks like a complex device but the thing is just a screen with a QWERTY keypad and a scroll wheel on the side. Actually it's pretty easy to use after the setup since e-mail gets pushed to the device automatically instead of requesting a download at the user level. This is probably the most worry free, easy to use mobile e-mail client available which makes it so popular with the techies and businessmen. But this is what I'm dealing with: I told them that all they need to do is register the phone online and specify the e-mail addresses they want to have pushed to the device and then to install the provided software to the computer so they can sync their contacts, calendar and to do list with MS Outlook anytime. The last call I got the lady said, "I loaded the CD and tried installing it but I got stuck because the computer asked where I want to put it, so i typed 'in my blackberry' but the computer said it couldn't find a folder in that name. So where should I put it?"... After several calls from them like this one, I didn't know how to answer her without sounding like I was getting frustrated. Apparently the synching software hasn't been installed yet since they don't know how or where they save their programs. And they insist on using the phone's web browser to access their mail like they normally do on a desktop instead of going through a one time registration and setup so that their e-mail is automatically pushed into the phone's inbox from the server in real time like a text message, which is Blackberry's biggest selling point. I asked if they had an IT person on site that could maybe help them out but the supposed IT guy I spoke with had no clue what to do either. I don't know, maybe its because I work with these things everyday so it seems easy. On the other hand, from what I see, most people that decide to get a Blackberry know what they're getting, understand how it works even before they purchase it and have some kind of technical know how to at least install software on a desktop... and I never received calls like these from anyone before these people at Coldwell. Enough of this technical bull...

Christmas is about two weeks away and I haven't bought a single gift for anyone. I don't even have ideas of what to give. I need to do some brainstorming and make some lists or something. People have said that I'm hard to shop for, but I haven't got a clue what to get anyone. With my schedule I have only about three solid days for Christmas shopping. I hate the yearly mall olympics with the road rage, parking spot searches and the disappointment of finding out that something is already sold out. I feel like I won't get my shopping done on time.

Well, I'm buzzed up, tired, sleepy and listening to Sun Kil Moon as usual, and for some reason I feel like watching Donnie Darko for the hundredth time.