Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom with a brilliant idea, like the lock-down cure for cancer or the next blockbuster movie concept, smiling and nodding to yourself how you’d change the world in the morning only to wake up and forget not only the details, but even the “big picture” concept that you’d settled contently back into bed with?
That’s why I keep my 15 year old Panasonic Brick on my bed stand. The Smithsonian Museum has repeated bid on it, unsolicited through eBay, begging to add it to their “History of Ancient Technology” collection.
Not so fast, cha-cha.
I had one of those moments last night, recorded my gems of knowledge and slipped blissfully back to sleep knowing that in the morning I would rule the world.
The morning alarm went off and I grabbed the brick, thumbing the rewind switch. The tape backed up with more promise than John McCain’s campaign and I crunched the play button down.
Nothing happened. I checked the batteries, which was stupid on the face of it because the tape had rewound. I pulled them out and reinserted them on the off chance that the connections were not sound. I considered the possibility that the “play” setting required more power than “rewind” and replaced them with fresh AA Duracell’s.
Still, nothing.
Failing any other sane logical diagnostic plan, I chose the default… “Percussive Maintenance”. I threw the recorder across the room with an overhand twist like Roger Clemens delivering a slider. It twisted in slo-mo through the sparkling morning light, flying across the room and smashing into my oak highboy.
Plastic and batteries exploded out into a remarkable radius, and I was immediately embarrassed by my loss of anger management. Gathering the parts, and reassembling the amazingly intact device, I pressed the play button to no avail. I tried the rewind lever and it spun the tape with a speed that mocked me.
Frustrated beyond imagination, I squeezed the play button in raw anger.
It worked! Unfortunately, the sleepy, babbling discourse that burst from the speaker, interspersed with insane laughter, was incomprehensible, and at best, pathetic…
I was stunned. How could that be? It was brilliant 5 hours previous! WTF.
Hell of a day to quit drinking.
nice way to get your feet wet! i love the picture!
By: noviashley on April 8, 2008
at 9:52 am
“Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom with a brilliant idea..”
YES, so …I kep a pen and pad of paper next to the bed. My ruminations were usauly solutions to computer problems tha I had been working on for weeks …When I awoke the enxt morning and read what I had written, it was it mad no sense whatsoever! I shredded the paper (so no one could ever witness I wrote such nonsense!)
By: Anne W on April 13, 2008
at 10:33 am