Technology

I am an engineer by education. No, not a namby-pamby software engineer, but a blacksmith-mechanical one. I spent four years learning how metals work, how things are built, how engines work and take them apart and put them back together. As it turns out I work as a namby-pamby software engineer now, moving bits in machines that are of interest to few geeks like me… to send out things like email and stop viruses from infesting your email system and arcane things like that.
Yet, there are times when technology takes my breath away.

I bought a sewing machine last week. A computerized sewing machine, Janome harmony. It has a microprocessor that controls thread tension and needle placement. I am in love.

I learnt to sew when I was very young; my mom had a mechanical Singer, a black thing made out of cast iron with black shiny paint and gold lettering. By the time I was 13 I knew how to take apart the bobbin housing and put it back together, change the needle, the belt, and pretty much fix anything that was wrong with it. I used to love that machine. My Barbie’s had the best wardrobe ever and I even remember making a huge patchwork quilt out of that mechanical contraption.

My mom replaced it with a modern expensive electronic machine while I was in college. I could never work that ... it was like trying to work with VB after programming in C. I couldn't use pointers and make my application have a smaller footprint... it had a lovely UI though. Needless to say, my love for designing and sewing waned.

And then I got the Janome. It adjusts to the fabric and changing the needle is just like old times, It responds well to pedal pressure and best of all, my love for sewing is back. It was like that when I bought a Steamer for my clothes or the Kitchen Aid kitchen machine which could knead the dough to the perfect elasticity for rolling out the yummiest chapattis or the mix the best chocolate chip cookie dough.

I have never stopped to marvel at the tin box that I can drive to over 150kms/hr to get where I need to, or the rolling belt on which I can run indoors or the perfect temperature of the hot water in my kitchen or bathroom, or the wonder of inoculation or traveling at the speed of sound or the incandesent glass bulb that makes candles an ornamental fragrence source. I do marvel at the sound of a CD, it seems like the orchestra is playing just for me or the amazing photosensitivity of my digital camera that gets wonderful pictures in almost any light or the clarity of the images from the DVD which brings places I have never seen so close...and then there is my steamer and the kitchen machine and sewing machine which makes me marvel at this thing called technology..
I guess I am girl after all :)