Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Neglect and a Tangent

Hi Blogfriends,


I've been putting off writing for a while because every time I sat down to do it I felt like the blogosphere was giving me one of these faces:




Irrational?  Perhaps.  I mean, the interwebs is just a collection of ones and zeros (I know, I know.  "Just?!" How dare I).  It doesn't have a face....OR DOES IT.  Seriously, I just googled "the face of the interwebs" and this is the first thing that came up.  A radio show about truckers.  Classic.


{ok, time for a tangent}
I have got to tell you, I love Google instant (the google service that predicts the word or phrase you are going to type into a search based on past searches by other Google users), and here's why: type anything, something totally benign. Now watch what happens.  Start with something simple, like "How do I..."  The beautiful thing here is that as you type it suggests things for you to search.  "How do I..." begets "How do I look."  Yes.  It is true.  People, human people, somewhere out there in the vastness of the internet, go to the Google to find out if this dress makes them look fat or if this tie makes them look like a douchebag.  


And I've got to say, I love this.  LOVE IT.  I love the idea that someone somewhere has become so dependent on their computerized devices that they ask them questions as though it were the Oracle and it carried all the knowledge.  Now, certainly I love my computer and, certainly, I know that it does carry a lot of the knowledge.  But I definitely know that it does not carry all of the knowledge.  It is, after all, simply a collection of nuts and bolts and other shiny things.  (This, by the way, does not discount the fact that I'm pretty sure my computer (or at least the Google) is smarter than me and knows what I'm thinking enough to totally creep me out and tempt me to bring out my largest scales and see if it weighs the same as a duck.)  A magical collection, yes, but a simple collection none the less.  And I'm certainly not inclined to ask if I'm having a bad hair day...yet.  Maybe one day, when I am old and grey, me and my Apple robot computer will snuggle up and have a chat sesh about love and the meaning of life, but not just yet.  I like people and their unpredictability too much to start asking a machine to pass judgement on my parachute pants.
{end tangent}


What is the point I am trying to make?  I'm not neglecting you, oh internet, I promise, though I did feel guilty for not writing for so long which made me not want to write which made me feel guilty (and on and on and on...).  I'll try to be better in the future.  Lots of fantastic photo opportunities coming up over this holiday season.  Plus, I'm finally in a semi-good place at work, so I'm in much more of a sharing mood.  Keep an eye out for new, magical things (with any luck).


Happy Holidays!