Category: Technology

Categories
Awesome Books Memoir Nonfiction Sentiment Technology

The real function of the internet

Yesterday I brought up the old adage that all quotes are either from the Bible or Shakespeare. Last night I was thinking about this. Before the internet, how did we know whether any particular quote was Shakespeare or Scripture?

If I had wanted to know where “Not with a bang but a whimper” came from, I would probably have to first have an idea (my idea was Yeats) and then I’d have to go through my poetry books from high school and college and try to find “that Yeats poem” that the quote was from.

If I were trying to narrow it down between the Bible and the Bard, I guess it’s possible that I would have a concordance of one or both of those things (my parents had a Bible concordance) and I could search for it that way. Is it likely, though, that I would have either of those books? (Maybe…as I was an English major, they would have been great pre-internet gifts.)

But then what happens in this situation, when all my guesses are wrong? I would have to just ask people if they knew, and keep an eye out for it in the future? Or maybe in a non-internet society I would be trained to remember these things better? And like a good English major, I would have just known: “Oh, that’s from TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men. It’s a reference to the Gunpowder Plot, and how instead of ending with the planned explosion, it ended with Guy Fawkes’ whimper as he was caught and executed.”

Man, I’d feel so smart all the time. And probably do better on Jeopardy!

But instead, the second I come up against something I’m not sure of (or something I’m pretty sure of) I run to Google to double check it.

New project: instead of just Googling things all the time* I’m going to try to remember some of them, using my brain power. Let’s see how this goes.

*Things I have Googled while writing this post: Yeats (correct spelling?); concordance (correct spelling?); “not with a bang but a whimper” (which Eliot poem was that again?); Shakespeare concordance (does such a thing exist?), “if I were” vs “if I was” (and now I finally understand the different between these two – so today is a success).

Categories
Awesome Being a girl Drew Memoir Self improvement Sentiment Technology TV

Google me

I wanted to go back through my Google search terms in my phone, because I like revisiting the things I’ve needed to look up while I’m on the go. It’s amusing and can bring back some happy memories. (Like all the Harry Potter stuff I’ve googled.) Unfortunately, I realize that my phone actually only keeps the terms for a couple weeks – major bummer.

So, in order from most to least recent, here they are:

Rampion – photo from flickr.com (click for direct link)

Rampion – I had radicchio at dinner last night…which led to me wondering if that was in the Witch’s “rap” in the opening song of Into the Woods…which led to us doing the rap…which led to Drew saying, “Do you think she entered her rampion in competitions?” (“my rampion, my champion”)…which led to me googling rampion to see exactly what it was. (I was positive that it was a type of lettuce, but it’s just a flower.)

BART schedule – took BART to Berkeley the other day. Checked the schedule a lot.

Lakeport English Inn – I had to find their phone number so I could call and double check that they weren’t cash only. (They’re not.)

Not with a bang but a whimper – The title of the final Dexter episode is “This is the way the world ends,” so then I said, “Not with a bang but a whimper,” and then Erin and I were debating what that quote was from. Then we were talking about how in The Westing Game (the best kids’ mystery book ever), one of the characters says that every quote is from the Bible or Shakespeare. I guessed that this was actually a quote from a Yeats poem, but it’s TS Eliot, which I totally should have known.

AJ Jacobs Drop Dead Healthy – Potentially my next book club pick, although it’s just come out and I’d like to wait to get it until it’s in paperback. At any rate, I love AJ Jacobs!

Fiona Fullerton – there was an oldschool version of Alice in Wonderland on TV, and I thought the actress playing Alice looked familiar, so I googled her. I do not know who she is at all.

Lego game of thrones – Someone recreated the Game of Thrones opening sequence in Legos. It’s okay. It would have been better if they had used the actual theme song, rather than using a weird “brand X” version of it.

Mahogany – On Facebook, The Hunger Games posts daily typography images that fans have done. Good examples are here and here. (That second one is worth a look around – she has some really stellar work, not just The Hunger Games but also Harry Potter stuff, and others.) A bad example is one that used the quote “That is mahogany” but spelled mahogany wrong. I was just double checking that I was spelling it right. Because I’m an insufferable know-it-all like that. (I did not comment on the post or anything.)

Just look at her.

 

Whore of Babylon – Dexter again. Just wanted to get some background info on the whore of Babylon.

 

 

How long does it take to get from London to Hogwarts? – Well this is self-explanatory. And the answer is, all afternoon. The train leaves at 11am and arrives sometime around 6 or 7 in the evening.

Low blood pressure – Just wanted to know what was considered low blood pressure. Just keeping healthy.

Handicapped parking san Francisco – Just curious if it’s true that if you have a handicapped placard, you don’t have to pay for parking in the city.

5k miles – The Arthritis Walk was 5k and I wanted to double check what I got myself into. (3.1 miles…so not much.)

Professor kettleburn – He taught Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts before Hagrid took over.

Professor sprout – We needed to double check her first name. (Drew was right, it’s Pomona.)

Carrie underwood blown away – I wanted to show Drew the cover for Carrie Underwood’s new album. Mostly because Jonathan said it looks like the winner of a Judith Light drag queen contest, and I knew that Drew would think that was funny.

Sorry, Carrie Underwood, you know I love you. (But I like you so much more when you’re all country and down-home kinda girl. This is just a lot of glitter, and a lot of leg.)

Categories
"Other people" Being a girl Friends Memoir Self improvement Technology

Facebook, right ahead!

First, I’d like to mention that Titanic is out in theatres again and I’m pretty psyched. I kind of really want to go see it. Titanic is an awesome movie, and I only hope that they didn’t ruin it by putting it in 3D.

Seriously. I just googled “Titanic screen shots” to find something appropriate, and every single picture made me think, “Oh, I love that part of the movie!” If you haven’t seen it lately (like, since it came out in the mid-90s) you should definitely check it out now.

In other news, I’ve been thinking a lot about what will happen on Sunday. Sunday is Easter. Easter means a lot of things to me, and I like it a lot. But this year specifically, Easter means my return to Facebook. And I’m no longer sure how I feel about that.

This morning on Sarah and Vinnie, Vinnie said:

“People say ‘That’s not real life.’ But Facebook IS real life. That’s where real life is happening. Every day I see people run to Facebook to post something important about their life. Or not important.”

Very apropos, since I’ve been thinking about how to handle this return to “real life.” I might have to do this in a list format.

On the one hand: I am starting to not miss it. I definitely don’t miss getting irritated by updates from people I don’t like. And I don’t miss having to keep up with everything that everyone posts.

On the other hand: It is a great way to keep in touch with people I don’t regularly speak with. Like far-flung cousins or old family friends. Also, sometimes we use it for work purposes.

On the other hand: I am enjoying the ignorance of not knowing certain things.

On the other hand: I don’t want to be “that guy” who has to tell everyone, “Oh, I don’t have a Facebook.” What’s next? “I don’t have a TV” or “I don’t have a cell phone”? (No, never either of those things.)

On the other hand: What if I have some piece of critical information to share? Drew and I are currently moving into a new apartment. It’s kind of exciting. But how is anyone going to know that without Facebook?

On the other hand: Who needs to know about that? Besides people who will come visit, who will probably ask me for the address beforehand?

On the other hand: Okay, so what if I had some other kind of news to share? And rather than sending mass emails or trying to text everyone, I just want to drop one Facebook post and be done with it?

On the other hand: Would I not be doing that just to get attention? And I certainly don’t want to go back to pandering for likes or comments. Also, isn’t that kind of why I have  a blog?

So, I guess I haven’t really decided anything. Except that I need to figure out when I can go see Titanic.

Categories
Self improvement Technology

Facebook DOES miss me!

After saying yesterday that my separation from Facebook was pretty painless so far, they sent me this email proving that they don’t feel the same way.

It’s nice to feel wanted.

Categories
Fashion Self improvement Technology

Facebook, do you miss me?

Last weekend was about the halfway point during Lent. I meant to do a little introspective on how it’s been going without Facebook. But I got distacted with real life and it’s happening late.

I find that I don’t seriously miss Facebook. Occasionally I want to wander over there to kill some time, but I’ve found other websites to take care of that aspect of it. I am afraid I’m missing friends’ birthdays. But oops. I did totally miss one friend’s birthday party invite, but it was at a bar on a Wednesday night in San Francisco, and chances are I would have taken a raincheck anyway.

I kind of like not having Facebook in my, um, face all the time. I don’t have to read the endless posts about The Hunger Games movie coming out. It’s not like I’m not interested in The Hunger Games, but when I have opinions on something like this, it’s so hard for me to watch other people’s opinions go by without saying anything…lol. I don’t miss seeing the same memes posted over and over again. Or seeing the horrible grammar and spelling on the wall for my high school reunion (yikes).

I have also accidentally sort of fallen off of Twitter. I just love not having the pressure of staying caught up on what everyone is saying all the time. Do I sound old?

The only thing is – I guess I thought I’d be more missed. Looking at it now, I get that people are more likely to comment on something I post, rather than just posting a comment onto my timeline. But I don’t know. I thought that someone would want to talk to me. But it seems that no one really does. [Why do I know this? Because I have to get on Facebook for work sometimes (don’t worry, I don’t go through the news feed, I go straight to facebook.com/theatreworkssv), and so I see the pitiful number of notifications.]

Or if they do want to talk to me, they are emailing or texting or talking to me in person. And isn’t that what this is all about?

So…I guess so far this experiment is successful! Still no word on whether I’ll be back on Facebook on Easter Sunday. We’ll see!

Categories
Awesome Children Drew Friends Nonfiction Sentiment Technology

A New Dominion

I’m a little competitive. In life, and in board games, and other types of games. Sometimes I get carried away.

I stopped playing Risk because of one terrible experience in the college dorms, when I formed an alliance with my friend Josh, and then in a few turns I broke it and invaded him. He gave me some kind of disappointed, “I can’t believe you did that,” look, and then he and the other two people we were playing went to dinner at the dining hall. But I was too upset about my treachery to eat, and I stayed in the dorms feeling bad about myself.

Later, I realized that was stupid, and it’s just a game. I had a late dinner. But I never forgot how swept up I got in that game of Risk.

Drew’s friends recently introduced him to the card game Dominion. One of his friends has this insane expansion pack, with like a million different types of cards. I’m not even going to try to explain the rules.

Drew taught it to me and Erin over the weekend, so we could play while we watched the 49ers game. (Could our lack of attention be what caused…? No, surely not.) The three of us played three rounds and each of us won once, which is nice and PC.

Last night, Drew and I played again and he won, but it was close. I think I like this game! I like the dimensions I’ve been introduced to so far, and I like the way there is some interaction between players but it’s not overly based on that. (Like Ticket to Ride, the other addictive board game brought to you by Drew’s friends.)

I guess what I want to say is…in this world of Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends and Scramble with Friends (Boggle! omg! so fun) and Tiny Wings and Qrank and Fruit Ninja and Temple Run and Harbor Master and Flight Control…it’s really nice to sit down in a single room with RL friends and play an actual board game.

Even if Drew mostly wins.

Categories
Books Fiction Nonfiction Religion Technology

Google > Bing

Today I learned from the radio that soma is a modern drug, also known as Carisoprodol. It’s a muscle relaxant and pain reliever.

But I remember Soma as the drug in Brave New World that everyone had to take, that kept them apathetic and “happy.” What a reference!

Apparently, Brave New World borrowed the name from a mythical (assumedly hallucinogenic) drink consumed by the ancient Indo-Aryans.

Indo-Aryans are now most highly concentrated in the following areas: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives. There are one billion native speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages.

You should try to learn one new thing every day. Now we’ve learned four!

Or maybe you already knew one or two or three of these things. If so, you’re still good. If you knew all four, then you’ll have to find your own new thing for today.

Categories
Awesome Endings Memoir Sentiment Technology Writing

My Relationship Status: “It’s Complicated” With “Technology”

I might hate CDs. I feel like they multiply, and they are everywhere in our apartment. But when do I play CDs? Occasionally, in the car. But why play a CD when I have all my music on my ipod? The CD in my car player right now is disc 1 of the PBS “Broadway – The American Musical” 5-disc series. It’s been there for months. I never listen to it. Not sure why I even picked disc 1 and stuck it in there. I should switch to a different one. (For a full listing of all the songs on each disc, click here.)

The down side of going through all your childhood stuff is that, if you’re a child of the same time period that I am, you have collected a lot of CDs. A lot of factory CDs, but also, a lot of CDs with unfamiliar handwriting – The Rocky Horror Show, or Poe’s Haunted, or even non-music CDs, like Mario’s Into The Woods Pics. It’s actually a relief when I flip a disc over and discover that it’s scratched beyond repair, and I can just toss it. Otherwise, I have to sit and think about whether I need a CD version of Poe’s Haunted, when I have the entire thing in digital form.

When I Google “recycled CDs,” I find this website telling me ways I can use old CDs for fun crafts. Here is an excerpt from that site:

Others have used old CDs to make disco balls, sun catchers, wreaths, mosaics, mobiles, party invitations and even bird treats — just coat the disc with peanut butter or bacon grease, dip it in bird seed, attach it to a tree with yarn and watch the birds flock to your yard.

Um, yuck. For some reason, the idea of using a CD for a bird feeder – covered in bacon grease, no less! – just grosses me out. What’s wrong with the good old-fashioned bird feeder, using a pine cone coated in peanut butter and seed?

Anyway. For now I’ve just been kind of stockpiling the CDs that I can’t bring myself to throw away, and chucking the ones that I can justify.

Future generations: You are so lucky (or, potentially, so unlucky in some way that I can’t even fathom) to have everything be digital. It’s so much easier, and you don’t constantly feel like you’re being wasteful. Although it makes me nervous to have everything just be floating around in cyberspace, I can usually tamp down the urge to print out everything and store it in a box for 12 years.

In a crossword puzzle yesterday, a clue was “a button on a cassette player” and the answer was “rewind.” Do you even know what that means, people who were born after 1995?? (A coworker suggested we call them “Generation Text.”)

PS. This is even crazier – I found this:


If I hadn’t already found the bound paper version of this Nanowrimo, that I had printed at Kinko’s back in 2003 (before it was Kinko’s/FedEx), the discovery of this floppy disk would have thrilled me, while also panicking me, as I have no idea where I could even put this thing.

As it is, I tossed it in the trash as well.

So long, past.

Categories
Friends Technology Work

To friend request, or not to friend request?

Everyone’s heard that horror story, about a friend of a friend, who was up for her dream job, but then her prospective employer checked out her Facebook page, and found some unsightly pictures there, and bye-bye dream job.

I’ve never had that happen to me. I’ve been diligent about keeping my Facebook clean, also partly due to the prevalence of family members there. Any rants or negative comments I make are directed only at faceless strangers (“that guy who cut me off today”) or things that everyone rants against (“injustice”). (Okay, not sure I’ve ever ranted about injustice, technically, but it’s just an example.)

When we moved back to California, I originally made the decision to not add work contacts on Facebook. I wanted the option to say something honest about my day, and not have to worry that I was FB friends with someone who had been in the room. Plus there’s the added issue of WordPress, which I frequently link to on my Facebook. (And WordPress links to Twitter…) Too many ways for someone to find me, and find me saying something I shouldn’t.

When I started my current job, it quickly became obvious that I was going to have to become FB friends with work people. Like, a lot of work people. It was partly strictly for work – part of my job is being one of the admins of the work FB page – and it was also partly for ease of access to people. Also, you want to be able to comment on your coworker’s funny status updates, especially when you get that in-joke.

I thought about starting a work-FB page, and just keeping that and my personal page segregated. But that seemed like a lot of unnecessary work. And then I’m going to have two pages. That sounds terrible. And for a little while at least, one page will be sadly sparse. So I decided against that, and directed everyone to my one page.

The lesson here is just not to say ANYTHING online that I wouldn’t say to EVERY single person in my life.

So now I just keep everything nice and clean and positive, and if I have to say anything bitchy or even questionable, I send a text.

Categories
Books Technology

Super Sad True Love Story

I’m reading Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. It’s called absurdist, a satirical romance, and “too funny for his own good.” So far, though, I’m just finding it freaky.

It’s futuristic, but just barely, and I think that’s the unsettling part. His descriptions of the world include:

  • technology: everyone wears a device that can instantly scan and be scanned by others, revealing your income, personality rating, hotness level, etc; and books are called “printed, bound media artifacts” (or “doorstops” in slang);
  • clothing: one of the hot new clothing items is a brand of jeans called “Onionskin” – they’re totally transparent; and
  • relationships: “Hey baby, let’s FAC” means “Let’s Form A Community” – basically, let’s have a conversation.

I like the story, and I am finding it entertaining and amusing, but at the same time it’s just too possible. It’s not hovercars and reading minds and people going into space…it’s the decline of the dollar, the increasingly “Big Brother” nature of the government, and the further dependency on gadgets and technology.

It’s a really appropriate book to be reading on this, Day 1 of my new life as a smartphone user. It’s been difficult to put the thing down today – although I definitely had work to get done – and since I got home Drew’s been playing on it. We may quickly become a 2-smartphone family. And isn’t it time? I mean, it’s 2011. Shouldn’t we get with the program?

Not to sound totally bi-polar, but it’s exactly that type of thinking – get with the program – that freaks me out even more. The world is changing so fast, and the rate at which it changes is picking up. (Pair that with the uneasy feeling I have about all these natural disasters that have been happening…and I am one paranoid girl.) 

When I was in middle school, all I wanted in the world was my very own landline. I finally got it, and was the happiest girl alive.

In fact, at one point in my early teens, my parents were redoing the floors in all the house except the bedrooms – so they had to move everything into those rooms. I somehow ended up with the TV and the VCR in my room. I remember spending one delightful evening sitting in my own bedroom, door closed, on my dial up internet (my personal landline), talking on the phone (the family’s landline), and watching movies.

Is there anything sweeter?

And yet…here I sit, wireless laptop on my knees, cell phone near by, all the channels I could possibly desire on the cable and movies galore available for streaming from Netflix, via my lightning fast internet. I can have this any time I want! But how could I have foreseen this? Or maybe I just didn’t care enough at the time to project what type of technology would be available to me in the future.

(How tangent-ful has this gotten? I’ve been going on long enough for Drew to get to the second world in Angry Birds.)

Sometimes I just want to stretch out on the couch in the silence, and read a good old-fashioned paperback. Not Super Sad True Love Story. Maybe some nice 1980s Stephen King.