Finding Wonder in Modern Technology

I'm a little late blogging today. I took the opportunity to grab a couple of extra hours of sleep this morning to catch up from the weekend. I'm feeling a little more awake now and even managed to bring my phone to work today instead of forgetting it or mistaking it for an airline snack.

I was watching TV last night, my normal hour of Jack Bauer on a Monday night and I saw this advertisement for a car. I'm horrible about cars, to be honest. I know what I drive. I sort of know what my friends and family drive but when it comes to identifying, I tend to use terms like "it's blue," or, "it looks like a bar of soap" or "It's boxy". I don't know names of cars very much. So, I can't actually tell you what type of car it was I saw advertised.

I've probably seen this advertisement a few times before and other similar versions of it but last night, I actually watched it properly. This car is scary. Basically, you call out things to it and it does them. You tell it to play a certain CD and the car puts it on. You command it with your voice to do things like turn on the lights, turn up the heat, all kinds of fancy stuff like that.

Nowadays, it's really not that surprising. I mean, we now have technology on our phones or PDA's that allow us to pull up a map and see where we're standing and even to sync up with someone else to see their exact location on the same map.

Seeing this commercial got me thinking. We're living in the future, the shiny sci-fi future that people in the 1950's and earlier could only imagine. When I was watching that car commercial, I suddenly wondered how someone from the early 1950 would feel if they were flash-forwarded to 2009. Back then, they had those cute little cars with the wings on the sides and the most advanced thing you could do with them was step on the accelerator and try to go faster. It was a world in which teenagers used to pin one another with an ACTUAL pin, not some sexual metaphor that it would be today.

Sometimes, I think it would be nice to live in the 1950's. I'm sure there were problems then but I like the fact that it was slower world, one seemingly less jaded. Of course, if I were in the '50's, I'd be a lost cause. I wouldn't be a Bridget Jones-esque singleton searching for her Mr. Right, I'd be a spinster, written off as unmarriable and still living with my parents. Well, maybe. Then again, maybe I wouldn't have been so picky and I would have been married to my high school sweetheart. Maybe I actually would have had a high school sweetheart since I am sort of rewriting history.

Then I do stop and think about the components that make up our lives today. I'm an internet junkie. Living in the 1950's would seriously put a damper on that and if I tried to get someone to invent it, I'd probably be locked up for being crazy. Can you imagine trying to explain to somone in 1950 that in 50 years time we'll be driving around in cars that can do everything but steer themselves (and I'm sure THAT's not far behind)? Can you imagine telling them that everyone has cell phones, even children, that you can order pizza on a computer, that you can order pizza through your Tivo? Actually, can you imagine explaining Tivo? Because then you'd have to explain satellite TV and how you can pick up channels from around the world. I, for one, would rather like to sit Mr. 1950's down in front of, say, TFC (the Filipeno Channel) and the show WoWoWee. Now, talk about a surreal experience. It's a variety show and sometimes they play games. My favourite is "Coca Cola" where they compete for cash and prizes by calling out squares on a screen and seeing what's underneath. Contestants get so excited and they shout "Coca-Cola!" so enthusiastically, they make you want to grab a Coke and shout with them.

I digress. As usual. Anyway, what I'm saying is that in the space of 59 years, our world has evolved. I'm not talking monkey-to-human type evolution but, rather, evolution of life as we once would have known it. It makes me think of "Back to the Future" and the comic books that George McFly would read. They weren't so far off, not really. I'm not dignifying the sequel to that movie, it just wasn't worth it. Yet even since the 1980's, we've gone from super clunky home computers that needed cassette tapes and tape recorders to load games and programs and would crash if you so much as bumped the tape recorder during a load to sleek computers that boot up almost instantly and load everything automatically.

The world is changing constantly. In a few years, I'm sure the technology will exist to put a car on autopilot. After that, they'll figure out how to make cars fly or something like that. Now given my experience with flying over the past weekend, I could get behind that one. It doesn't really matter what the next development will be just that it makes even brand new gadgets obsolete. Technology is changing too quickly; it's an expensive hobby with which to keep up. My iPod mini can attest to that, once my believed music player, now relegated to a glorified external hard drive. What scares me most is the Kindle and other electronic book systems. As an avid reader, I can't get behind that one. I like the smell of a book too much, the feel of the pages, the thrill I get when I pull it off the library shelves. I like to hug a really good book when I'm done and I don't think it would be the same with the Kindle. I get that it means thousands of books at my fingertips but I don't want that. I want to be able to take my time and browse to find my next read in a bookstore or library and feel that excitement when I turn the pages and know that until I turn that last page, it's like I have a friend waiting patiently for me to find time to spend with it. I hope the Kindle isn't going to replace books, that's all I can say.

My point is that so many of the things we use we take for granted. Technology is just there. We forget to view it as a wonder. Taking a mental trip back in time and then attempting to look at what we have today is a great way to appreciate how far we've come, for better or for worse.

Happy Tuesday.

Rainy Days, Mondays and Friends

It's pouring with rain this morning, it's gloomy and just plain miserable. Yet, naturally, I love it. The only problem with days like this is that they should be enjoyed at home, not in the office. These are my best writing days, ones where I can sit in front of my computer and let the words fly. Still, I'm in the office, drinking my vile coffee and I can hear the rain. Well, it might be the bathroom sink since I sit very near to the men's bathroom and I know the faucet is leaking. However, I'm going to believe it's rain because that just seems like a nicer way to go.

I'm not a big fan of sitting near the men's bathroom, by the way. It's not very soundproof. I'd say I put my iPod on to tune it out but, well, iPod is no longer responding to commands and sounds. Little does iPod know that I have a nice generous friend who is donating his iPod to me because he has replaced it with one of those newfangled G1 phone things. Technology geeks are very good to have as friends. Also, in spite of some of his awful taste in television (he's proud to be watching Knight Rider which, by the way, I finally watched and all I have to say is ugh...they cancelled Pushing Dasies and Dirty Sexy Money- Why is Knight Rider still on the air?). Thus, iPod mini will give way to NanoPod. Yes, I have pre-named my incoming iPod.

But basically, what it comes down to, is I have a very good friend. I actually have a couple of them. Unfortunately none of them live near me which makes hanging out with them rather hard. This time of year is a mixed bag as far as friends go. I love being closer to my family now but I've also spent the last seven years in California, flying home for the holidays just a couple of days before Christmas. There are traditions I have in California that I'm going to miss this year.

My favourite California Christmas Tradition is Disneyland. I know some people think it's a bad place and that it's for kids but, really, it's not. It's a place where you can go and be a kid and no one looks at you twice. I think one of the reasons I loved it is that it involved playing hooky from work. My friend and I would trade off yearly: One of us would take a vacation day, the other one would either take a sick day or 'schedule a doctor's appointment' that day. We'd head out early, usually stopping for breakfast at Denny's and then getting to the park with enough time to enjoy the day.

Sometimes we'd go to Disney's California Adventure first. I like this park for three reasons: 1) It has Soarin' Over California, a ride in which you fly over California landscape, the air softly scented to match the scenery, 2) The burgers and beer at the place next to California Adventure and 3) The ice cream on the pier. That ice cream is seriously good stuff.

But we'd always end up at Disneyland in the end. We'd enjoy the Christmas parade in the evening. We'd try to go on Space Mountain a couple of times, knowing exactly where the camera was so that we could pose for it, (we'd try to imitate the warning signs that showed stick figures leaning out of the cars in a strangely aerobic fashion) and indulging my love of pirates by going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride a couple of times. We'd enjoy the Haunted Mansion that had been redecorated with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme, the Small World ride that should always be enjoyed at night. We'd stop for sustenance at the McDonalds shack which was the best idea ever: Just serve french fries. They always tasted better there.

But, best of all, was the snow. Disneyland makes it snow nightly during the holiday season. We'd grab a mug of hot chocolate, position ourselves under one of the designated snow spots and then, after the fireworks, we'd be showered in snowflakes. Ok, so they weren't really snowflakes but it didn't matter. When you looked up to the streelights and saw the whirling clouds of gently falling flakes, it looked just like snow. We'd let it land on us, watching it 'melt' and we'd stop and take in the lights and beauty of the holiday season.

This year, I'll have real snow. Which as you know, I love. Something about a carpet of snow makes the holidays more real, more magical. Sitting on the Santa Monica pier in 70 degree weather in December was always a fun thing to brag about to my family and friends but it never made Christmas feel right. I'll miss the annual Disneyland tradition but it's not like Disneyland is going anywhere. The scenery will change, the seasons will change but the one constant in my life is that I have good friends.

Happy Monday.

Friday, Food and Random Thoughts....

So, it's Friday and it's raining. I love that. I got to lie in bed this morning and listen to the rain. Granted, when I first woke up and hear it, it actually didn't sound like rain against my window; it sounded like someone was in my flat. As you can imagine, I was a little alarmed. I thought about reaching for my hammer. I keep a hammer by my bed as a weapon. It's probably not effective as a gun or even a baseball bat but it makes me feel better to have it so close by. The only slight problem with that is that I can't actually hit a nail when it's 6 inches from my face without missing so there might be a slight flaw in my self-defense mechanism.

However, that digression aside, it's Friday. I like Fridays. My favourite time is Friday evenings; they're my favourite day of the weekend because the entire weekend is in front of me and it's two whole days before I have to go back to work. I'm usually a bit of a lump on Friday nights. I watch a movie or TV, read and enjoy the fact that there's no work the next day. Sometimes I do go out but, mostly, I try not to do things on Friday nights except for a happy hour or something.

When I was younger, Friday nights were our family "Eating Out" night. The six of us would cram in my dad's car and go eat out. I used to love wondering where we'd eat. We had just moved from the UK and eating out was a novelty that we didn't have in England- it was WAY more expensive to have McDonalds or pizza there and, actually, was harder to come by. Nowadays, there is as much fast food there as here but back then, you actually had to hunt to find a McDonalds, if you can imagine. And I'm not even that old. So, when we moved to the U.S. and we got to eat out, it was a very awesome thing. I hadn't yet developed my affinity for more exotic foods like Mexican, Chinese, sushi or Italian (and when you had the palette that I did as a teen, Italian was exotic. Let's just say I was a picky eater). Most of the time, we ended up at Pizza Hut. My dad liked it. We'd order a big pizza, usually with pepperoni, maybe breadsticks and salad bar.

Then again, now that I'm thinking about it, when I do eat out with my parents, we still go to Pizza Hut the majority of the time and we order pepperoni pizza. Hmmm....my dad is definitely a creature of habit...

It's funny how things change when you get older. Back in high school, I loved eating out. Now, I consider it a treat to get to eat my mum's cooking. She's a fantastic cook. Her roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes is the best. Ever. My dad cooks too but he watches the Food Network a bit too much and has a tendency to think he's Maria Batali or Emeril. This is quite nice when he makes something from scratch but often, he likes to open a bag of pre-made something and fry it up. Then he watches you eat , eagerly waiting for feedback. It's hard to give good feedback on a bag of frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast skillet mix that is a bit revolting to begin with. Not to say that he can't cook because he can. He bakes the best bread. I'm hoping his affinity for breadmaking comes back around because that was my favourite of his cooking phases. But, when he does cook from scratch, it is usually delicious. So, in all my teasing, I have to say, I love eating at my parents'. Between my mum and dad, I always get fed nicely before I head home.

So, back to my original topic: my love of Friday evenings goes back many years. Which is why I'm happy it's a Friday evening tonight. It hasn't been a fantastic week. It hasn't been bad per se but it's been long and a little stressful. I'm still the New Monkeypants in town since I've only been in my new place/job for a few weeks. It can get a little lonely but I am lucky enough to have a good family and friends who are there for me. So, I'm hoping that it keeps raining for when I head home tonight. Then I can sit on my new sofa (which I love), turn on my fake-fireplace-heater thing (which I love) and watch a movie or two or read. I'm reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the moment. It's the second time. Harry Potter is my security blanket; the movies and books are the best escape when life becomes too much of a reality. I'm enjoying the book. It's everything that Breaking Dawn isn't. J.K. Rowling lives in a world in which bad things happen, a world in which there is consequences for our actions. Her werewolves kill and maim and when a normal, good human becomes a werewolf, he hates the brutality within; he doesn't fall in love with a baby and live happily ever. I'd rather have the reality, thank you. Fairy tales are nice but even the Grimm brothers didn't always believe in a happy ending.

Uh, so...about that digression thing I do...If you can't tell, I didn't really have a topic for this blog. So it's random musing. Which is why the title is "Random Musings from Captain Monkeypants". And it's Friday. And my iPod has just reminded me that I have something way more embarrassing than Kelly Clarkson on it. I have the Jonas Brothers. And yes, they are the teen band du Jour, gracing the cover of Teen Beat as we speak. In my defense, it's a cover of "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, It's a Pirate's Life for Me" which I downloaded for a pirate-themed party and liked before I realized it was the Jonas Brothers. I forgot I had it. My iPod clearly didn't.

So, on this rainy Friday, I shall settle in to begin working, my cup of vile office coffee in my hand because I didn't get chance to make tea, my iPod selecting whatever it wants and be happy that in a few short hours, I can go home and relax. Because the other nice thing about Fridays it that they're the end of the week which means Monday will be a whole new week full of promise and hope.

I hope I see it that way on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

Revenge of the iPod

So, it's morning again but it's a Thursday. I like Thursdays. They're almost as good as Fridays. Mostly because a Thursday evening means I get to watch "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Office". The problem with Thursdays, though, is that I usually stay up way too late because I tell myself, "It's ok, you've only got one more day before you can sleep in." Which, inevitably, results in me being exhausted on Friday night and just wanting to hibernate for the evening. Yet I do it almost every week. It's a vicious cycle.

I was going to make this a more writer-y blog today. Then I put my iPod on and I realized that I didn't want to be deep. Instead, I think my iPod deserves its own blog.

My iPod is an iPod mini. In the world of new technology, my iPod is a senior citizen. I bought it off my sister back about four, maybe five, years ago. She wanted to upgrade to a full sized iPod and I just wanted to listen to music so it worked out nicely. Well, for a couple of months anyway. My first iPod mini would freeze as it booted up. I couldn't play music. I still had a warranty so I sent it to Apple who sent me a new iPod mini in its place.

Until recently, my iPod was one of the possessions I had that I couldn't do without. i wore it at work to cut out the background chatter and focus. I wore it when I went places to write. I wore it when I walked. You get the picture. It was like a pet...except it made less mess and only required its battery to be charged when it was running low on energy.

Lately, however, my iPod has been showing signs of dementia. I think its age is showing. I think in iPod years that my iPod is about 100 years old. Probably older. (One year of human life = 25 iPod years. Yes, that's a very scientific number that I just made up, thank you very much).

It's stopped letting me take control of its playlist. Instead, it controls me. We used to be in sync; if I was having a bad day and I'd put iPod on "shuffle', it always managed to find the angriest songs on my iPod, heavy on the Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson and REM ("Bad Day" is an excellent song for when you're having....a bad day). When i was feeling hyper and energetic, my iPod would shuffle into the punk stuff on my iPod, the Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers and, of course, Green Day. When I was melancholy, it was heavy on the Beethoven, Linkin Park again, Coldplay...whatever suited my mood. You get the point. My iPod got me, it understood me.

And, well, these days...I have no say. For a start, my touch wheel doesn't work. I can get it to work but I have to "mash" it. Mashing it means I put the iPod on 'hold' (you iPod owners know what I mean by that) and then just mash the scroll wheel for a moment or two. I push it a lot. Most of the time, I get control of the scroll wheel after this. Well, at least for a few minutes, anyway. So, I usually manage to get enough control to hit 'shuffle' so at least I have some music playing; it just means I'm at the mercy of my iPod.

I knew it was over yesterday though. I mashed the wheel because my iPod had decided to play all of the embarrassing songs in its files. And by "embarrassing" songs, I mean the stuff that you don't tell people you actually have on there, the stuff you hide until someone grabs your iPod and starts being nosy. Yes, I have some Kelly Clarkson on my iPod, ok? Yes, I know she was an American Idol but...she's catchy. And, uh, yes, I did have a moment of dementia of my own and I downloaded some of last years American Idol songs on iTunes. So Jason Castro...is on my iPod.It was a moment of weakness. But I stopped before I downloaded Chikeze, I promise! But that's most of my 'embarrassing stuff' except, maybe, Bon Jovi's "New Jersey" album which I downloaded because I was in the mood. But that's not embarrassing...it's retro...right?

Anyway, I'm digressing. Again. Or I'm confessing. One or the other. I got excited when iPod decided to play "Calling You," by Blue October. I like that song. My iPod usually doesn't shuffle to it and though I've put it on a playlist so I can hear it when I want, I no longer have enough control of my scroll wheel to try using a playlist. My 'mashing' only lasts long enough for me to select one option. If I try mashing again to continue to my playlist, iPod stops responding. So...when it shuffles to a song I really want to hear, I get excited. When "Calling You" stopped playing, it shuffled to "Starlight" by Muse. I like Muse a lot but I'm a bit burned out on them so I hit the 'back' key to replay "Calling You."

Except iPod didn't go back when I hit the 'back' key. It went forward. I thought that, maybe, I'd hit 'forward' by accident. I hit it again. It went backwards. Again. So, I hit the 'forward' key and, naturally, it started going backwards. So, I sighed and realized iPod was just being tempermental, decided to go along with it and attempted to get back to Blue October. Except then BOTH keys decided to start going backwards, WAY past Blue October and all the way back to the Kelly Clarkson stack of songs it had played earlier. I couldn't get my iPod to skip the songs. Clearly, it really wanted to hear Kelly Clarkson. I was its active audience.

I'm trying not to believe it's punishing me for the fact that I tend to be a little obsessive. If I like a song, I repeat it, over and over. Recently, it's been Coldplay's "Viva la Vida". iPod rarely shuffles to that song anymore. I also do have the entire Green Day catalogue on it, including a Japanese import. It doesn't like Green Day much and when it does shuffle, it's always to the Green Day songs I like least. I know I've abused it a little, forcing it to play the same playlist of five songs for five hours straight. I've apologised but, alas, it no longer seems to hear me.

I tried again this morning, realizing the the scroll wheel was not working at all. With the aid of a paperclip, I have managed to get some functionality back. So far, I can move forward and backwards. I still can't adjust the volume but I rarely get to do that anymore and since I managed to get it at a nice soft yet audible level, I will NOT complain. I am afraid to complain; sometimes, I actually have to plug it into its power cord just to get it to boot up, even when it's still got a full battery. I'd hate to think what it would do if I complained about something so minor as my not having control over the volume.

iPod seems to be in an Oldies mood today. So far, it's shuffled to the Beatles at least five times as well as my "Across the Universe" soundtrack, also Beatles songs but with the actors from the movie singing. I'm not complaining about that- I love that soundtrack. It's also playing a lot from "Juno". I guess it's feeling very free and quirky today.

The thing is, I'm not feeling so quirky today. Maybe I will later. It's too early to tell.

Then again, my iPod just started playing Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You." Maybe it's time to get a new iPod.