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I Won That Round

February 25, 2013

For this weeks blog post, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about. There were so many possible topics from the hacks, google glass the PS4 “announcement” (and the lack of women at the event…). Sure, I could make most of these personal in some way, however I didn’t really feel write using them. Instead, I’m going to share the following story with you.

I was whatsapp’ing my parents during one of my study breaks (it is midterm season you know), and I was telling them about a flashback I had about something that happened when I was a lot younger.

Some back story: I was 11 years old, and had broken my knee badly enough to be in a wheelchair for a few months. This meant that getting up to my room would be difficult, so I moved into one of the guest rooms we have in our house, on the ground floor. I need some entertainment, and managed to convince my parents to move my computer down into my room for me. (Yes, 11 year old with a computer - I was the only one who used it frequently, so I’d like to think that it was mine). My dad and I are also extremely competitive people, which I love. He challenges me to do better, and makes me work hard (or so he’d like to think) in order to get anything. (I could go on a side tangent about how my sister only needed to smile and she gets whatever she wants… but that’s not the point of this story).

Back to the story. My dad had a friend stop by who had come to give him some “important documents” for work. He had brought them on a flash drive, which was the first time I had ever seen one. Up to this point, I only had interactions with Floppy Disks. As my uncle was uploading the files, he was explaining what the flash drive was: it’s a 2.0 flash drive, it can connect to the back where the mouse connects, gives you more space than a floppy, and is smaller - you can carry it around easily.

Naturally, the nerd within me took over and I absolutely had to have one. I started trying to hype up the flash drives uses to my dad, about how it will save money in the long run, since we wont need to buy as many floppy’s, and how it saves space since it’s smaller. I gave him every possible justification on why we needed one, similar to the way a normal child begs for a stuffed toy at a shop. While I type this, I remember I was 11 at the time, so I guess this was my way of begging for a stuffed toy. Except it was smaller, less cute and cuddly, and more tech-y.

Alas, instead of the positive feedback I was hoping for, the “yes darling, off course I’ll buy you one” response, all my dad did was look at me with a smug smile that told me “in your dreams”. The competition was one between me and dad on whether or now I would get the flash drive. Needless to say, I thought I had lost, as I didn’t get a flash drive then.

Now all I can say is “Haha, Dad. Haha”. Turns out I now have my own flash drive (more than 1 actually), and it’s amazing. Instead of the 256mb flash drive I could have had back then, I have a wonderful 16GB flash drive, as well as a 2TB hard drive. Just to add icing to the cake, I had to teach my dad how to use flash drives, and if it weren’t for me, his awesome TV/apple TV setup wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the 2TB hard drive I got for him, and the movies and TV shows I managed to store on there for him. It might have taken time, but I won! We both have flash drives now :)

I love you dad, but haha. I won that round!