September 19, 2009
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Decomposing my random thoughts
My current experience with my PC has left me in amazed at how how dependent we are on technology. I feel like I'm missing a limb. For a blogger like me, there's also an emotional dependency I had not anticipated. The sudden feeling of being cut off. Yes, there are internet cafes around and I suppose that helps stem the pain. Finding a website for a store so you can immediately get the address, a map, hours of service and a phone number.
I'm like a chicken running around w/o it's head. Although my bf will add that I still make nonsensical clucking sounds.
This morning, I tried to write something in a coffee shop on a pen and piece of paper. I don't write long hand anymore, my penmanship is awful. Even pharmacists have given up trying to decipher my handwriting. I p r i n t - one letter at a time. It is slow and my hand cannot keep up with my thoughts. But it awakens something in me. This is how I used to write my school papers. (ed. note - Matt is not referring to quills and ink). You think, compose and then write. Now I just think - write and recompose everything afterwards.
This is strange. I blog more now that I don't have a PC. Blogging out of fear?
Comments (23)
i think people tend to blog more when things in their life are disrupted or changed significantly from what they are used to. i know i tend to blog more when i'm depressed or sad, and often even when i'm not stressed and running around (also like a chicken with no head, complete with clucking noises hahaha) i'll not blog just because there's nothing driving me to blog.
one of the engineers in my lab made note of a very chilling observation... he said that if some great catastrophe happened right now that destroyed technology, we would be back in the stone age and have to reinvent every single thing to get back to where we are now, since nobody currently has enough know-how to begin to start again from the basics and reconstruct a computer or a car or anything like that. we've gotten so dependent upon having previous models available to simply modify into new products that people don't really know all the engineering and math that goes into one single device. i mean, think about it... we use computers to build computers!
wow, i was surprised to read that you got something out of it. maybe it's a blessing in disguise.
i kind of hope your computer stays broken for a while so that i can see how this changes your blogging style! not that your blogging wasn't really good before, i just want to see what happens
@kunhuo42 - that was an interesting comment by you. i can't even remember i time when i didn't blog much, as i've been blogging so much lately. i blog in order to bring my thoughts into words... i blog to think things through for a moment.
and, yeah, the thought of all technology being destroyed is interesting. hmmmm... i'm just thinking about how scary the world will be! no alarm system to protect me. no car. no mobile. i wouldn't be able to roam far.
PC withdrawal .... addiction .. .dependency? Actually ... try having your PC working but without Internet access ... I find that painful. As per technology destroyed ... just try having no electricity!
You should take "short hand". It's what Secretaries used to use like 30 years ago... =)
I know what it is to not be able to get something. We are creatures of habit, and not having the internet connection drives me crazy.
I don't want to type it all again but I agree with Aaron's comment. All of it including the observation of one of the engineers in the lab!! I have taken up the challenge and try to do a letter long hand as it was/is called. There was an art of writing letters that got lost somewhere with or without the computer.
@kunhuo42 - Yeah, I heard of that! Our dependency on technology can be our Achilles' heel! I heard a EMR Bomb can do us in... or if the magnetic pole weakened or a sudden magnetic pole shift, we will be done for too... Oh well..
One day last week, my smart phone crashed, together with my data everything was gone...just like that! I should have backed up all the data. Now, I have to start all over again, asking everyone their phone numbers, etc.
Time for an ipod touch!!
Decomposing?
That's an interesting choice.
Yeah i know what you mean, i type faster than i write.
Maybe this process of having to sit down and write by hand again will be a good exercise for you as a writer, kind of like a yoga practitioner's trip to the ashram or a Thoreau's time in Walden Pond?
@kunhuo42 - yeah, I think when we're under stress, writing is one of the ways to manage it. That's interesting and very scary what your colleagues said.
@stepaside_loser - I certainly have been writing a bit more. Writing straight into Xanga is a bit different - there's no pausing for hours or days at a time to refine an entry. It's pretty well what's on my mind at the moment.
@TheLatinObserver - yeah, I remember that blackout a few years back - it was awful.
@inchyguy - lol... I don't think they teach that anymore.
@ZSA_MD - that would drive me crazy too. A few months ago, my neighborhood was down but my bf's was fine. It just infuriated me.
@Fatcat723 - maybe I should relearn how to write letters instead of emails.
@CareyGLY - send one over...
@Wangium - I just plucked that one out of the air.
@vsan79 - it's good to to see you back updating your blog.
@christao408 - that's an interesting thought. I'm not sure if I would consider myself a writer. An aspiring writer - yes.
I prefer to write things out long hand, on paper with a pen.
For me it's creative seeing not the perfect typed font
but the run of my hand, the flow of my penmenship,
all adds to the experience for me. Odd,,, no?
*~matthew~*
@bleuzeus - no, that's not odd at all. I think that just adds to the experience. There's a physical feel to it (paper, pencil / pen) that a keyboard simply can't replicate at all. Since I don't have good penmanship, I have to use my keyboard instead.
i still amaze people over my handwriting =p hohoho dont believe... see when would i have the chance sending you one postcard or greeting card ya matt
I agree that many of us rely on technology too much. I always have my phone with me or else I feel naked, haha.
fear and withdrawal haha
My penmanship is pretty awful as well. I don't get much of a chance to use or practice it seeing as how I do most things on the computer!
@lcfu - lol... why didn't you tell me that earlier!
@mmmagination - gee... I can just imagine how you must feel when you forget your phone.
@yang1815 - addiction is a powerful force...
@TheCheshireGrins - I can't even write a simple card anymore. I usually have to practice writing it out first before writing on the card.
@ElusiveWords - yes, yes it is.
@ElusiveWords - addiction's probably the grandma of invention! haha
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