Saving Changes
Several weeks ago, the boy was sitting on my lap while I was at my computer desk. I was online trying to find directions somewhere. It was made slightly more difficult by his random pounding on the keyboard, and occasional clicking of the mouse. After I finished, I opened up Notepad and let him have a minute where he could type to his heart's content. A few seconds later, I briefly saw the words "Preparing to go into stand by mode" (or something like that), then the computer went to sleep.
My keyboard doesn't have a sleep button, and as best I can tell, in order to make it go to sleep, you have to press the Windows key, then the up arrow, then enter, then the left arrow, then enter. While that's not as complex as up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start; that's still quite an accidental sequence of keystrokes.
I had forgotten about that until yesterday. The boy was playing with the wife's cell phone. We try to discourage him from playing with real phones, because we're afraid he'll either call 9-1-1 or Brazil. And while we can lock the keys on the cell phone, we have to be consistent, so I went towards him to take it away. When I took the phone out of his hands, I saw the words "saving changes" briefly on the screen, before it went back to the general options screen.
"What did you press?!?!"
Blank stare.
"Daddy's not mad at you, I just want to know what got changed."
"Beep. Beeeeeep beep," he said as he pointed at the phone.
"Yes, the phone says 'beep,' but daddy wants to know what option got changed." I started going through the options individually, but I couldn't find anything. More and more, I'm starting to not believe this "he's too young to know what he did" crap. He knows what he's doing, and he's probably laughing at me on the inside.
We'll see who's laughing when he's old enough to ask about his college fund.
Comments
Katie said:
I see great things in your son's future. Just make sure he uses his powers for good, not evil. Don't let Hobo Bob get a good hold of his morals.
Glo said:
Oh yeah. He's playing with you. And now that phone routes everything through Brazil. *evil laugh, evil empire*
elasticwaistbandlady said:
Time to have the "bad touch" talk with the boy before it escalates into online shopping accounts for Wiggles merchandise or phone calls to Elmo's new live 1-800 number. $5.99 a minute.
Jon said:
Yeah, as soon as he starts tapping out the Konami code, you’ll know he’s arrived and that nothing is by accident anymore. Plus, he’ll have 30 lives to work with, which will make him that much more formidable… good luck with that one…
Jon said:
uh... can I get an edit from "we'll" to "will?" I have a degree in English, have I mentioned that?
ed. note: I fixed the hell out of it.
Radioactive Sleep Mode said:
"College fund" - you mean the one he has scheduled to transfer to a private bank on a Caribbean island as soon as the balance hits a preset target?
Book
said:
Unfortunately, that code is wrong. It's up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, Select, Start. And technically you don't have to hit Select. I always hit Start twice and ir works every time.
I said:
You know, Book, I had it in my mind that it was B,A,B,A. I wasn't sure though, so I googled "Contra unlimited lives" and came up with that. I shoulda gone with my gut.
Becky
said:
i'm gonna assume that it's a good thing that i have no idea what y'all are talking about.
cadiz12 said:
CONTRA!
finally, a videogame reference that i'm actually familiar with. i loved that code.
omar, that boy probably won't be needing the college fund anyway; his smarts will earn it. you and the wife can enjoy the payback for his shenanigans now when you use the money you've saved for a beachfront condo.
Cate said:
All this video game stuff has gone completely over my head.
But kudos to the boy for being such a smart cookie!
Jon said:
I think there’s a common misconception that video games aren’t important. That’s just not true. They teach you things and prepare you for real life situations… I remember this one time… I was fighting this alien heart, and it kept spitting these giant spider like creatures at me. I had recently modified my rifle to shoot multiple rounds in a spray like formation, but I never would have made it through to the end if I hadn’t had 30 lives. UUDDLRLRBABA select start really saved my bacon there. So you can’t call that useless, right? I wouldn’t be here writing this stupid comment if it weren’t for that little code…
Viking said:
I'll be honest... I'm just commenting because the new verification word makes me laugh.
Lianne said:
My children will periodically borrow my cell phone and then return it with EVERYTHING changed... the ring, the background, the pictures, etc. I have to remind them in my stern-mother voice, "This is my damn cell phone you spawn of satan. LEAVE IT ALONE."
I know they are laughing at me.