The Dude of Contemplation

Everyone knows I'm the lover of all things Mac. I'm the soap-boxer-extraordinaire when it comes to tormenting those poor, misguided Windows users. However, this morning I discovered something very frustrating about my little iPhone and that is that I too have become a victim of Autocorrect.

Autocorrect is a seemingly handy application designed to provide on-the-fly spellcheck-and-correct as you type text messages or make entries in application boxes while using your phone. Unlike spellcheck in Word for Mac or other such programmes, Autocorrect doesn't just give you the option to use its 'corrected' version of your misspelled word, but rather simply dumps it in. If you're not paying close attention, you may end up saying something you didn't intend.

Case in point, this morning I rode over to the University for a morning coffee (which, by the way I made at home before leaving - saving myself the $2+) sat outside the bookstore and proceeded to check email and of course, my Facebook. (Look at me, a guy over 40 checking in with "social" culture! ;)) A couple of my friends had recently used the "Check In" feature which allows you to post your current location as well as comment on what it is you're doing. I don't often use it - in fact, practically never - but this morning I figured... why not?

So I checked in at MacEwan Student Centre, with the intended comment attached:

"Sipping morning coffee with a side of contemplation"

Pretty simple, right?

As I look down to read the post, I notice a glaring error. Thanks to Autocorrect, my clever little post now read:

"Sipping morning coffee with a dude of contemplation"

At first I was furious. After all, I'd gone to some trouble (not really) to show to the world my cleverness. Then my mind raced to blame Autocorrect for not first checking the intended connotation of my post. Then I thought, hmm... a "dude of contemplation". As it read it wasn't all that bad, really. According to this I must be having coffee with some really deep dude. I guess I could live with that.

On my way home it occurred to me that perhaps Autocorrect is smarter than I give it credit for. After all, it knew I was indeed that dude.