After we had ordered our food, we made our way over to the soda pop dispenser to find that it had mysteriously been replaced with this strange, new object:
My reaction to it was none too different from the monkeys' reaction to the appearance of the monolith in the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. And if you haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, may I recommend it? It is a fine film-watching experience provided you happen to recently have had surgery and are taking either Oxycontin or Lortab for pain.
At any rate, we learned that this strange new device is the new, 21st-century version of the soda dispenser. Speaking of movies, the Hill Valley café of the year 2015 probably had one of them in Back to the Future, Part II.It turns out that it is quite an amazing machine. I've since discovered that the local Wendy's has one of them, too. By touching the screen, you not only get to choose the soda that you want to drink, but you can also choose a particular flavoring of that soda - Lime Coke (not that anyone would actually choose to drink Coke unless he/she had lost a bet), Strawberry Fanta, or Cherry Dr. Pepper, for instance.
I'm pretty easily entertained and amazed sometimes, and this machine did not fail to entertain nor amaze me. Its very existence also creates a rather difficult conundrum for me, as making important life decisions is not really my forte.
In my college days, for example, choosing my class schedule and then registering for those courses was a much-dreaded exercise and was pure mental torture.
So, how can I be expected to choose something as important as one of more than 100 combinations of soda? I ask, to no one in particular.
The world may never find out.
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