Too many remotes...

When I'm not doing stand-up comedy with Bingo's Clean Comedy, I do some work as a computer programmer - sort of. I'm taking classes to be a Crestron programmer. My job is to take those 32 remotes off of your table and combine them into one graphic-driven touch panel. Then I add in things like a motion-activiated video camera by your front door that will pop in in a picture-in-picture window, remote heating and cooling control that be adjusted or monitored by any place with internet access, or any number of other truly geeky things. But ultimately my job is to ensure that the technology designed by engineers can be used by the people without the least minutae of technological knowledge - like CEO's.

Yet the irony does not escape me. My coffee table is littered with remotes. I have one that I have to use to turn on the tv, one to change the cable channel, one to adjust the volume on my surround-sound, one to control the VCR, one to control the DVD player. Yes, I know some of those remotes can be made into "universal" remotes. But that just means they work the devices you do NOT have - kind of the one-size fits all that leaves overly fat and skinny people feeling left out.

Whatever happened to the simplistic walk-up and turn the big clicky knob on the TV??? Have we really made life so complicated that people pay people like me to make life simple. Wake up! I can't even afford to do that myself!

I don't know if there's an answer to this problem. I like to watch my DVD's sharp, clear, and loud. While I don't spend an inordinate amout of time channel-surfing, I like my History, Discovery, and Sci-Fi channels (oh.. and Comedy Central).

But I love my family. So I guess it's time to turn off the TV and spend some time playing Skip-Bo, Sequence, Scrabble - or any of the other games at which my wife perpetually wins. Now ... where's that remote? It was right here. Aw... come on!