The Future of my Past is now my Present

Growing up in the 60's, I used to wake up at 5 a.m. (!) just to turn on the little black and white tv set so I could wait through the test patterns and the national anthem until my favorite cartoon came on --

 The Jetsons! (Can you hear the music? Here's George Jetson...dooDOOdoodooo..Jane his wife!)

Remember  Rosie the Robot rolling along? Astro walking on the treadmill outside was so cool? How video phones & tele- conferencing made your eyes bug out? And admit it -- you hoped you'd be flying your commute in a space capsule by the time you grew up. Me, I  wanted to drop out of the trap door like Judy & Elroy to go to school. 

So... here I blog and write on my tiny little laptop, while my roomba scoots across the floor. No personality or little lace apron, but I'll take all the hands- off -remote- housework help I can get. 

We  don't have a dog, but I've seen dogs on Youtube and AFV run on treadmills.  Duchess,  who rules Planet Mason,  would never deign to walk aimlessly on a conveyor belt, much less run. She has her minions (namely, moi) do the exercise thing for her.

Video phones? Please.  Skype and the 2way camera on Ipad 2.

But we are still waiting on Dick Tracy's wristband 2way skype. If it's out there somewhere, please leave directions in the comments.

And flying saucers for your commute... well, if gas prices keep rising, we may ALL be lucky enough to skip that in favor of a commute to the home office in our pj's. Then Jane Jetson's facemask for Skyping with the boss before the makeup's on will finally be sold on Amazon!

The future of my past is now my present. 

 BabyBoomers were the imagineers for what Steve Jobs and Bill Gates created, and now my teenaged sons and their friends have run away with it. I can keep up (says this little engine) if I don't try to figure out the 'how' or the 'why', and just push the OK button. But as soon as I master something, like Facebook...
What was once new and exciting is now just 'hip', daddy-o.Sad.

Kindle is on my son's android and my other son's iPhone will have its own ereader. If we wanted to splurge on an Ipad we could have the enhanced ebooks, complete with videos, links to related news coverage or even streaming to a book club discussion (check out this story on forward thinking in publishing) . On twitter last week, author Stephanie Bond (the Body Movers series) posted:

Romantic Times conference eye-opening...it was clear that industry is moving toward e-books more quickly than almost anyone envisioned.

And on DeeDee Scott's group blog on indie publishing, Bob Mayer of Who Dares Wins Publishing,
on wg2e.com:

I think what we all have to realize is that this change is happening at a much, much faster speed than the majority of pundits are predicting.  Those who are on the front edge of this wave will be in a good position.  The one thing I tell authors is that it’s not about what’s happening NOW, it’s about what will be happening a year from now.

 Did'chya get that? ...A YEAR from now. 

I know it's hard for me to remember to take out the clothes in the washing machine that are going sour....

Flying saucers and molecular transporters are looking more and more hip, aren't they? 
Beam me up, Scottie.