Best Buttons

There are lots of buttons and/or keys to press these days on your computer keyboard, device or video control and I think they should be rated and awarded usefulness ribbons. I have discovered the very best button or key, the blue ribbon contender. For computer folk, it's the silence button, you know, the one with the slashed circle beside the speaker icon?  It's the same one that reads "mute" on the control board for my TV. Since discovering this, number one, very important tool, my viewing stress level had dropped to something close to zero. One of our modern frustrations is ads. I know they have to be there if we want viewing at all, but seeing them once is quite enough. Even the cute and clever ones can become monotonous. One of the very small programs I peek into each day, is a series of short clips on fashion, celebrity and film. Each clips lasts less than three minutes, but prior to each is an ad, the same one that takes mere seconds but its repetition is maddening. But thanks to the blue ribbon winner button, when I enter the program, I am ready to instantly snap the silent key down and gaze out the window until the real action begins again, and I can choose to hear sound once more. Whew, such a boon, that key! It's the similar effect when watching sports and there is that annoying half time frou frou with the good looking pundit guys who spout their game smarts when all we want is to get on with the game itself. Worse, there are ads involved throughout this beautiful people segment, with slender long-haired, sport-smart blondes or brunettes interviewing the same foot ball hero over and over again. No matter how handsome these folks are, their appeal is lost in over-kill. That's when the red ribbon winner comes in handy. It is the fast forward or re-wind, arrowed one. During a recorded piece, it is invaluable. With it, you may zip past the ads, unwanted messages and other interruptions and get on with what you really want to look at. I like it for self-run  re-plays. It's the "Hey Charlie, come look at this" button. Occasionally in some movies where the sound is not pristine or maybe my ears, I miss a word or line or perhaps, I want to see a certain scene over and over, there is the FF or the Rew to offer assistance.  Great little helper. Prize number three, the green ribbon,  is for the delete key. Spam Killer is another name for it. Like everyone finds, there are countless interesting sites but they often come with their miserable little unwanted companions, spammies. They are the "love me love my dog" sorts that cling to your computer like lint. Or maybe you have a perfectly wonderful person who decides to offer their choices of sites that are full of inane trite jokes and pictures that they persist in thinking you are the in least bit interested. You are not. Delete! It's that easy. The only complication is when the sender asks you about what they have sent - "Didn't you just adore...". Being the polite person you try to be, you don't want to say, "No, not on your life" but this moment can be rescued while gritting your teeth, nodding your head and looking as though you know some fascinating secret,  with " ah, ohh, hmmmm". The effect mystifies the asker and thus works every time.