Current iTunes Track - In A Glade - Milla - The Divine Comedy

Do you ever feel like just opting out? Telling the 21st century to take a hike and simplifying everything?

Internet, e-mail, telephones, cellphones, pagers, Palm Pilots, blackberries, etc.....

It gets really annoying. Driving home from work tonight (.8 miles) I saw 32 people on cellphones either in their cars or walking down the street.

Now personally, the very last thing I want to do after working all day is talk on the phone the minute I walk out the fucking door. Everywhere you go you can be on the phone - if you volunteer for the Peace Corps you can be in some African backwater and still yak away with everyone if you bring a satellite phone with you. You can use the phone on the plane, and they are working on getting you internet access on planes now so you can be super fucking productive every goddamn minute of your life.

I can't stand it.

Now granted, I wouldn't want to be without internet access. I love me up some internet, but phones I can do without at times. So I disconnected my cell phone. I never used the fucking thing anyway because I hate them so damn much. My headsets would always break, and I just am not coordinated to drive a stick while talking on the phone. Honestly, nothing is so fucking urgent that it can't wait until I check my messages.

Plus, driving time is iPod time. The iPod is the only thing that keeps me from killing the idiots who are constantly yakking on the fucking phone and not paying attention to the road.

Have you ever read an e-book? Did you like it? If you did there is something wrong with you.

The great thing about reading is it has no requirements other than the ability to read and maybe some light. A book is the perfect portable entertainment. It is compact, easy to carry, doesn't need batteries, and is probably the best entertainment value available on a cost per minute basis (of course your actual cost may vary based on how quickly you read.) Who would want to be tethered to their computer in order to read a novel? And while I have no proof of this I have a feeling that the relaxation factor that comes along with reading would be removed by doing it on a computer screen.

For portability you can take you e-books with you on a Palm Pilot. Ooh! Have you tried that? You can fit about two fucking sentences the screen, so you are constantly scrolling.

No thanks.

On a different subject one of my Cobalt Zebra (that's a fish in case you didn't know) was murdered today. I know who did it too. It was the other Cobalt Zebra. Fish are horrible, horrible creatures.

On yet another, less jovial subject, my sister's mother-in-law died today. Cancer. It was fast, she was diagnosed about a month and a half or so ago. Linda was a very nice woman, who, the first time I met her offered to give me an Apple ][c for my collection of vintage Apple Computers, and then actually did it. I liked her a great deal, and am very sad that she is gone, but glad that she did not go through a period of prolonged suffering. She will be missed.

On that note, my Huckleberry Friends, be good to yourselves, have a lovely day, and smash a cell-phone!