Chapter 41
Blossom . . .
Strawberry. . . Miracle
I feel overwhelmed by the technology. In the past month I’ve gotten a new cell phone, an iPod, a new digital camera, a six channel mixing board and a laptop computer. In addition I’m trying to learn how to podcast. I find myself reading the cell phone manual and not understanding it so I just play with it until I find some new feature, or simply find myself lost, turning the thing off and starting over again. My son showed me how to use the alarm clock feature. (Not even Philip K. Dick could have imagined a cell phone that doubles as a calculator and alarm clock). And, by God, I’ve used it! I’m sure the next feature in a cell phone will be a vibrator so you can give yourself or your partner a massage. And then there’s the digital camera. I read the instruction manual, written probably by some Indian or Asian person with a crash course in basic English. (“Quickly! Learn the language so you can write instruction manuals for Americans over 40 who are stupid enough to try to read and follow it! Forget adjectives and adverbs! Just get a basic understanding of nouns and verbs and plaster it with lots of badly drawn pictures.” ) I have figured out the iPod, only to realize that to do a podcast you don’t really need an iPod. Hmm. So much for superficial research. I was caught up with the whole idea and thought you needed an iPod to podcast. Nope. I still don’t use my palm pilot to its fullest potential. Hell, I use it as a phone book. Where are we going with the advancing technology? More people are communicating. On the road, people pass me as they’re talking on their phones. As students pass by my office on campus, one out of three are talking on their cell phones. People seem to have a lot to say. I can’t imagine that it’s real important. I saw the epitome of cell phone use during a conference recently. We were in a really nice bar with a five piece black pop-jazz band. The trumpet player was blasting out excellent riffs when he turned to the mixer, picked up his cell phone and put it to his ear. For the rest of the song he’d play a riff, then talk on the phone. . .then play . . .then talk. He never missed a beat. If you have one better than that, let me know. Extreme phones! Millions of people blog. Some blogs are witty. Some are cute. Most are garbage, but it does give people an outlet for their feelings and opinions. Millions are going to podcast. It’s in its infancy right now but it’s growing with explosive speed. Tonight, while waiting to attend an evening event, I listened to two young guys doing a gay podcast. They interviewed a gay porn star. It was interesting but there was nothing educational or even insightful. Everybody’s talking. Pockets of people listen and talk back. Nobody’s thinking. Nobody’s studying. Nobody’s listening to their inner selves. In the long run, it may hurt us as a country, or it just may be the greatest experiment in international democracy the world has ever seen. Having said that, I need to keep working on Dreamweaver, Fireworks, cell phone, camera, iPod. . . . I want to communicate with as many people as I can, through the book, through here, and through my podcast when I get it up. So spread the word. Next week, the story of the engineer and the snake.
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