Hope everyone reading this had a great weekend - we got stuff done, I did some reading, I watched some TV and I cracked open my new Ipad and figured out how to start using it to draw.

Unfortunately I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make an Amazon Firestick work that we got from a friend at Christmas. We waited this long to use it because so often in the modern world, these electronic devices are just mass produced and thrown out into the world without any instructions. I guess they figure people will figure it out on their own. But more often than not, we don't. And then when we reach out for help, we are cross examined as though we are on a witness stand for manslaughter. 

I got on an Amazon customer service chat mainly to see if what I was seeing was an error, or the normal process... I ended up being grilled about the order number even though I stated several times that it was a gift and I didn't have the order number. After 20 minutes of that nonsense, I called Amazon customer service and got a similar go round. 

I put it out to Facebook friends, one who suggested a factory re-sent, which I tried to do following their directions and that didn't work either. 

In any event, I've plugged it in the HDMI port on the TV, I get the Amazon and Firestick logos, and then a screen that says it's "optimizing system storage and applications" and to wait for ten minutes. I've seen that screen roughly two dozen times over the past three days. It's like my TV is having a GROUNDHOG DAY  but without Bill Murray. 

As you can imagine, the joy of the gift has faded and been replaced with an undefinable rage at a culture that assumes, I guess, that we're all either 15 years old or have a degree in engineering. Neither is true, just in case you were wondering. 

You know, if someone in NYC was looking for a self-run business and even remotely tech-savvy, they could really clean up being hired to help people fed up with trying to help people figure out these devices.  Just puttin it out there (and if someone does start this business, my payment for the idea is that Im you're first customer).

So we'll continue logging on to our apps through our laptop and then hooking the laptop up by a cord to the TV. It ain't perfect, but everytime we get annoyed when we have to do that, we'll just remember this weekend and it won't seem so bad.