Hey mom, here's a credit card. Swipe it on that machine, sign your name, and at the end of every month you'll get a bill of all the money you have to pay back. Pay it off every month and you won't pay interest. Keep the balance and you'll pay an interest on the balance. Easy.

Mom: "What's bitcoin Chris?"

Geek shit. Download the bitcoin desktop or mobile app. Make sure your wallet file is backed up otherwise you can lose all of your money. Using Dwolla transfer money (takes 5-7 days) from your bank account into MtGox and buy bitcoins. The time you buy them determines their value (just like exchanging currency). Then when you want to pay for something put in the person's bitcoin address 1HULMwZEPkjEPeCh43BeKJL1ybLCWrfDpN and send them some bitcoins. The seller might want to wait until the network confirms a transaction. And in the event of a rollback? What then? Oh and you have to keep transferring money from your bank account to dwolla to mtgox to your bitcoin wallet every month if you want to seriously use it like a credit card or check.

All of this to avoid transaction fees and give yourself the feeling of "freedom". Wow.

Many of the bitcoin enthusiasts are what I call "repeaters". They simply repeat how great bitcoin is/can be without ever having actually tried to use it as a real currency. They saw the phrases "transaction free", "p2p", and "no government control" and assumed it was the best thing ever. I was one of those people. I have learned and moved on and hope others do too.