insanity in action!

When my mom hits some technological wall, like the error message on her fax machine this morning, if there's nothing I can do to help because I can't decipher the squiggly lines the Japanese call writing (yes, I'm almost totally illiterate. Don't laugh!), it's interesting as an exercise to just observe, like a scientist, and see what she will do next.

Today's observation revealed that the subject's first step toward problem-solving is to try the failed action several times in a row. As each action yields the same (unfavorable) results, the subject will make frustrated noises and raise her palms upward in the gestural version of "What the hell?" and utter the discontented expression "Nandenanoyo!" which translates in the most insufficient way into "Why!"

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Obviously my mother qualifies under Einstein's postulation, but I don't know how I think I'm exempt when I've always flicked the light switch up and down rapidly and repeatedly once the bulb has clearly burned out. I suppose I've said it before, but I'll say it again: the apple does not fall far from the tree.