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Peeve of the Week: Technology Glitches

June 18, 2009
The most unbelievable thing happened to me that I couldn’t even begin to explain.  It happened on my blackberry and now, not only am I afraid of it, but I am also convinced that it’s possessed.  See, I was in a difficult situation with a colleague that only went from bad to worse during a “conversation” on email wherein we consistently managed to either miscommunicate with, an/or misunderstand one another.  

I was getting frustrated and I could tell that he was too.  Plus, we were in two different time zones, which made the possibility of a call-for-clarity impossible.  So I started over, “doing over” what I wanted to say and thought I already said, but had somehow apparently failed.  I addressed his points, concerns and questions thoughtfully and thoroughly - again.  Finally as I closed, I wrote, “Please don’t misunderstand me…” And then what followed remains the biggest, funniest and most mind-boggling technological mystery of all time. 

I wrote, “Do you want to talk when you return?  I have questions.”

But my blackberry changed what I wrote and sent, “Do ou oh tonto tank ho? I gave question,” instead.

It took awhile for me to realize what had happened and it was only quite by chance when I glanced down to delete messages.  So now I couldn’t call. I couldn’t send another message for fear that it would happen again.  He must have thought I’d completely checked out – or perhaps more appropriately, “checked in.”  Imagine, that the last thing I said was, “Please don’t misunderstand me!”  And then I go on to write in a language recognizable to no one - or so it seemed that's what I'd done at least from his perspective.  Luckily he had a great sense of humor and we laughed ourselves to death once we finally did have the chance to talk about it and everything else. 

Posted by Donna Flagg on June 18, 2009 | Comments (2)