Why I Fucking Hate Technology

So after a year of not teaching, I decided to take a class this fall. Teaching the second half of the US history survey, a class that if I can not teach well, I'm in the wrong field. I start off on Tuesday with an excellent opening class. We talk about how things have changed over time and focus on subjects like technology and fashion, where I pose the question, "How have we moved from a country where women wore corsets to one where women wear low-cut jeans?" The students seemed to like it a lot, got lots of class participation, I'm really jazzed.

Unfortunately, I decided that since we live in such a visual culture, putting together powerpoint presentations would be a good idea.

Fucking wrong.

I believe that it's good to give an opening lecture in the second half of the survey summarizing the first half. So I know that this is an important lecture but maybe not the most exciting. So I'm already a little worried about losing momentum. But I prepare a really nice powerpoint presentation with lots of maps and cool pictures, etc. I bought a memory stick for the occasion. I get in there and the presentation totally freezes. Luckily I brought a backup copy on a zipdisc but by the time we got another computer and a zip drive and everything I had lost nearly 15 minutes of my class. I was totally flummoxed and my lecture was awful. The students were probably bored out of their minds, though the John Brown as Moses picture seemed to work well. I felt like a damn idiot. My memory stick is literally stuck inside the computer and won't come out. They have to take it to some technican. Jesus Christ.

Why the hell did I ever think I would be able to use technology without major problems? Is it really worth it? I love the pictures but Jesus Fucking Christ this sucked. Definitely my worst classroom moment ever.

Fuck technology.