Friday, July 25, 2008

Symbolic of what?

I have a small complaint.
 
It's nothing major, especially in the big scheme of things, but it IS an irritant. It is also one that isn't going to go away any time soon, no matter who I complain to or how many times I do it, so I'll just vent here and move along.
 
Why is it that there are symbols for everything now? There's no "on" or "off," there's no "lo" or "hi," it's all pictures of things. Sometimes I can't even tell what the picture is supposed to be..."Is that a face? A star? What does it MEAN?!" The one that ticks me off the most is my Krups egg cooker. It's a fine product, don't get me wrong, Eggs were on sale this week, so I bought another dozen. I cook the entire dozen, so Ken has a hard-boiled egg to take in his lunch a few times a week. If this egg cooker came with a manual, I've lost it, but I'm thinking that it just came with instructions of where to find the instructions online (if that makes any sense.) Here's the switch:
 
See those two little symbols? One means "cook" and the other means "keep warm." But which is which?
 
One the left, you have an egg in an egg cup. Is the egg supposed to be completely hard-boiled, ready to serve in the egg cup? Or is the egg cup indicating that this choice will cook your egg so that you can serve it up? On the right, you have what appear to be heat rays coming off of a surface. Does this mean that THIS is how I will heat my egg and cook it...or does it mean that once it's cooked using the egg in the egg cup choice, I will switch it here to zap it with heat waves to keep it warm until I'm ready to eat it?
 
I'm not kidding, every single time I pull out this egg cooker, I cannot remember which is which, and I have to go to the Krups website to see the instruction manual. I had finally had it today, and got out a Sharpie and underlined the appropriate symbol.
 
I rarely use my blender, but the Osterizer leaves nothing to the imagination: "mince," "blend," "puree," "frappé." Now if I only knew what "frappé" actually does....
 
I haven't finished my book yet, but I read a really good one today--one that is right up my alley! Hephaestus (he fest' us) was the Greek god of smiths, or blacksmiths, shown working at his forge. His Roman counterpart was the god of fire and forge, who worked in the depths of Mount Etna, the volcano found on Sicily. His Roman name was Vulcan, and in fact, that's where volcanoes get their name!
 
And here's where it gets really cool. Astronomers had noticed that the planet Mercury (the one closest to the sun) had a small unevenness in its orbit. The French astronomer, Urbain J. J. Leverrier, hypothesized that there was a planet even closer to the sun than Mercury, and this planet was what was causing the uneven orbit of Mercury. Since this would be the closest planet to the fiery heat of the sun, Leverrier proposed calling the new planet Vulcan. That's right...the planet Vulcan!!
 
Sadly, although astronomers searched for Vulcan for years, they were never able to find definitive evidence. In 1915, Albert Einstein proposed a theory that accounted for Mercury's orbit, and it was shown that there was no planet Vulcan.
 
But WE know better, don't we?
 
They were just looking in the wrong place! Five years after Asimov published this book, the original "Star Trek" series debuted, the planet Vulcan was immortalized, and it lives on over forty years later. It's only logical.
 
Live long and prosper, my friends.
 
 
 
P.S. Natalie, thanks for your comments, hon, but you might have me confused with another journal. I know there are a couple of Betty's out there, but I'm Beth. :)
 
P.P.S. The symbol for actually cooking the eggs is the one with the little heat waves. Which one did you pick?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I picked the one with the finished egg!  Sheesh!  That is confusing!!! I can't blame you for not understanding it!  Ugh!
Love ya,
Connie

Anonymous said...

I picked the one with the heat waves, honest. Guess they are trying to do this for people who can't read English but what about us that do? I bought a product the other day that says use 1.0 MIL but the dropper shows 1.00 & .001 so there you go again LOL. I used the first one listed as it was the lesser on the dropper, I have no idea which was right. Helen

Anonymous said...

Simple tends to be rather complicated *winks*. I thought it was the egg in the cup for cooking. The other symbol is widely used for heat or air flow. It's kind of like having directions with something and the directions are actually for 4-5 different kinds. Inevitably you may or might not be able to figure out which directions are suppose to be for whatever type you brought. (Hugs)Indigo

Anonymous said...

I find those stupid things very confusing. Ditto for iinstructions on the care and washing of garments. I am not sure what they are trying to prove other than to just confuse all of us. I thought it was the egg in the cup. I had to look for something similar on my rice cooker yesterday. I also have to stop and think before entering any washroom. Am I a cowboy or a cowgirl, do I have a dress on or pants, am I a filly or a heifer. Damned if I know most of the time. What happened to the words Men and Ladies. Now that I can understand.

Anonymous said...

I know, I know!  I always get confused as to whether you are a Geek or a Nerd! :o)

Anonymous said...

I chose the steam rising pic as the keep warm function!  Guess I'm not much on symbols :)  When I received my iPod...no instructions either...I've been kinda plugging along guessing.  I swear I didn't know how to turn it off for the longest time.  
xoxo ~Myra

Anonymous said...

Betty, Betty, Betty.....er, i mean Beth,

i understand rants about machines....like my coffee machine.....i would not be able to keep which switch meant what either on your egg cooker.
HUGS

Anonymous said...

... hate to be a stick in the mud of a perfectly good rant ... but I thought they used symbols so that it could be understood in any language ...

... forgot to mention that the B' 52's will be a part of a future entry ... I love that band ... STILL ..!

Anonymous said...

I was wrong.  I figured it was the one of the cooked egg in the egg cup.  I guess I'd better keep that in mind if I ever buy a Krup's egg cooker!  Vulcan is out there somewhere, but doesn't it have TWO suns???
Lori

Anonymous said...

I don't blame you for getting annoyed at the symbols ~ my cooker confuses me all the time and there is no instruction manual :(

Jenny

http://journals.aol.co.uk/Jmoqueen/MyLife