Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, being baffled by politicians supporting A-Rod, excited by your first potential Internet vaping stalker (and hoping that she’s a vampire), or Amazon’s rumored Prime mobile phone by HTC, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
I’ve read several stories about people that have dropped their mobile phones in the toilet. A few of my friends have suffered this calamity. As mobile phones have become more powerful and apps have become more compelling, this epidemic seems to be spreading. It’s very much a case of a first-world nerd problem. While I don’t use my phone in the bathroom, several of you RPadholics revealed that you do (remember this poll?). Still, it puzzles me. Is it really that difficult to avoid dropping your Android phone or iPhone in the toilet?!?
Then again, I shouldn’t judge. I’m guilty of another first-world nerd problem — one that involves tablets. I’ve always enjoyed reading in bed. Until recently, it was a fairly safe thing for me to do. Dozing off with a comic book or paperback in my hands was easy to deal with. Even hardcover books were relatively manageable. Then, the iPad (and Comixology) arrived. That’s when reading in bed became hazardous to my head. Over the last few years, there have been dozens of instances when I wanted to keep reading, but my eyes and brain were telling me to go the hell to sleep. I’d doze off and — boom! — my iPad would smack me in the face.
This first-world nerd problem is certainly embarrassing — I’d briefly wake up, feel stupid, and quickly fall back asleep — but at least I can own up to it. How about you guys and gals? Have dropped your iPhone in the toilet or smacked yourself in the face with your iPad? Are you guilty of any first-world nerd problems? Please share your stories in the comments section.
I use my cell phone on the john all the time, but I’ve never dropped it like some of the butterfingers on this site. My first world problems typically deal with my save files (games, work, etc.) being lost or corrupted. It happened just recently when I went to load up GTA 4 and it said that my save file was corrupted, so all of that hard work in doing everything in that game went down the tubes. I was kind of bummed about that. In fact, lost saves is what stopped me from playing Pokemon forever. I was a hardcore Pokemon player up until the third generation. I think I had them all with the exception of one or two. I was particularly proud of my bug/dark-resistant Mewtwo and Mew team. I destroyed most people I played against. One day when I was loading my Pokemon into the N64’s Pokemon Colosseum game, it said something about not being able to read the file and sure enough, when I loaded it up into my Game Boy Advanced, my save was corrupted and all of my Pokemon were gone. All of that hard work, effort and dedication just vanished. I swore off Pokemon right then and there forever. Even if I were to start the all over again, I couldn’t get my special Pokemon back that I got from the rare Nintendo special events. (*sigh*) Sometimes I miss my Aquashock and Hellfire (Lanturn & Groudon) that got me through so much of the game. Those little buggers start growing on you after a while.
-M