I love technology, but not as much as you you see, but I still love technology, Always and Forever.

It has become especially apparent to me over the past month how reliant I am, and probably most people are, on technology in our everyday lives. Working in just about any field requires a certain amount of technological interaction, and reliance, to be successful.

As an equipment manager for a professional sports team, I find myself needing daily access to multiple email accounts, video editing equipment, and of course 24-hr cell phone access.

My service in the Illinois Army National Guard is no different. Last summer, I attended two courses for my military occupational specialty (MOS) reclassification, to learn the trade of Transportation Management Coordinator. I also attended my second and third Army Leadership Academies. For both the MOS reclass and the leadership schools there were distance learning phases that I had to complete online before attending the actual schools. They basically send you a disc loaded with several powerpoint courses that you have to click through, culminating with a series of online tests. When I arrived at Fort Eustis, VA (the transportation capital of the US Army) for the first phase of MOS reclass, I was met by a stack of hefty technical manuals (TM). The instructors spent the next 10 days teaching us how to manually fill out military shipping labels (MSL), transportation control and movement documents (TCMD), etc...I won't bore you with the specifics any more than I might already have :) Throughout that course, they continually reiterated that we were only learning the manual processes because they hadn't been abolished from the Army's training doctrine (TRADOC) yet, and that this particular MOS was exclusively performed with a computer, and a software called Transportation Coordinator's Automated Information for Movements System (TC-AIMS II), wordy, I know.

Two weeks later, I was back at Ft. Eustis for 12 days of TC-AIMS II training. We spent the time learning how to successfully deploy up to division-level elements' personnel, cargo and equipment by air, land and sea, anywhere in the world. As complicated as that task may sound, it is really just a matter of being able to input information correctly into TC-AIMS II, and generate accurate records that would accompany the movement of those elements (usually electronically).

On to present day Billy, the Kit Man, Stat-O and Weekend Warrior.

The wireless card went out in my laptop at the beginning of June; well, months sooner, but I finally got around to taking it to Best Buy last month. They had it for two weeks, replacing the motherboard and CPU, and then decided to replace the keyboard as well, adding another 10 days to the job. When I got it back last week, I decided it was time to write my first blog. Not long into that, I realized that the 0,-,+,P,[,;," and ? keys were not working...that didn't make writing a lengthy blog very smooth. After copying and pasting or inserting individual characters for that blog and a number of emails to follow, I decided it was time to once again go on the road without my computer.

To make matters worse on this trip, I set off on foot for the laundromat in Cambridge, MA yesterday morning, with the usual ball bag full of dirty training kits slung over my head. I left the hotel with my training jacket on, as I thought it was more of a brisk Massachusetts morning than my walk proved to be. I stopped and put my jacket in the bag and continued on to the "mat". I was in a rush to get the kits back to the non-starters before their morning fitness session, so when I got to the mat, I quickly removed my Hint water bottle full of detergent and Puma glove bag with quarters and dryer sheets, and dumped the bag into the biggest washer they had. I brought the newest edition of Soccer Journal along, and spent the next 30 minutes reading about Pia Sundhage and Bob Bradley's coaching philosophies and practices. When the washer finished, I pulled the damp clothes into a laundry cart and transported them into a couple dryers, inserted quarters and hit Start. I had seemingly done this a thousand times this season, and still didn't realize at the time what was different about that particular visit. I sat and continued to read. Half-way through the dryer cycle I thought that maybe Denise would have called by now if players were waiting for clothes to do fitness in the hotel...it then hit me. I tapped my pant pockets, in what I knew was a wasted effort to feel my bulky cell phone there. I quietly rose from the bench, removed my jacket from the dryer, and my ruined cell phone from the pocket...

In the couple hours following my return to the hotel, I thought, what a relief! I will just go a couple days without a cell phone, without being connected to anyone who wants to get a hold of me, and maybe look for an AT&T store when we get to New Jersey. After thinking about that foreign concept during Nate and my five-mile up-across-and-back run along the scenic Charles River, I came to the conclusion that I had to get a new cell phone, immediately. Mostly due to the fact that I was to meet up with a friend from U of I who was playing for the Boston Renegades after our game, and I didn't know her number, or anyone's number in my phone for that matter.

Short story after a long story is that I ended up running another three miles or so through the streets of Boston, until I came across an AT&T store that would let me first access my account online on the store computer in order to add myself as an account manager of my mom's family plan, and then buy a new phone. Eight foot miles and $130 later, I had a Motorola Karma QA1 in hand and was connected again, at least to anyone who would respond to my Twitter cry for cell phone numbers, as I had never saved one on my previous SIM card...

So, that is my technology story for the month, and hopefully lifetime, because as I sit here with Nate's laptop warmly melding to my lap, I realize how long this blog has gone on.

Stay connected!...because you have no better choice :-)


-BB