Raise your hand -- or at least shake your fists at some youngsters -- if you are of the age that you can't help but look at some major technological advances and just shake your head at how exactly we got to this point. (Hand is raised, fist is shaking at the kids and their Lady Google or whatever).

Two very recent examples for us from last night:

1) After a quick 9 holes at the official RandBall golf course, we headed with Rocket to a local sports bar -- or sports theater, if you prefer. We've only been there a few times; Rocket had never been there before. We were hoping to be able to watch Game 7 of the NHL playoffs between Detroit and Phoenix. Instead, we had a visual [redacted]-storm featuring the Twins game, two NBA playoff games, the hockey game and a few other random baseball games. All on huge high-definition TVs. Now, this isn't anything particularly new. But just contrasting this to the square, one-TV setup what we (Rocket included) grew up was fairly astounding. Rocket looked like he might faint.

2) The hockey game was fairly disappointing (in contrast to Francisco Liriano ... is everyone ready to say he's back yet, or do we need another start or two in order to trust him?). But we headed home. Rocket, in town for a night before leaving Wednesday on some top-secret business, wanted to play a little Wii. So we showed him how we had just downloaded Super Mario Brothers via the virtual console, and how we could now play the biggest game of our childhood in a modest-size flat screen TV with top-notch definition. It kind of blew his mind, once again. It was a far cry from the tiny TV in the small old basement. He surmised that kids probably interact different with the games than we used to. Want to know how to warp to level 8 in Mario? Google it. You could probably find it on a 9-year-old's blog, complete with video.

Before going to sleep, we looked at RandBall on the TV via the Wii Internet function. YOU KIDS. It's all too crazy.

Questions:

1) What single piece of technology out there right now do you not understand at all and feel old just thinking about?

2) Was there a benefit to having to trial and error or watching friends play countless hours of those old-school Nintendo games vs. having so much information at your fingertips?

3) Seriously, Liriano. Are you a full believer?