Life Unplugged, pt. 1
So that awesome new computer I bought has now crashed. The tech support guy- who is incredible- basically told me over the phone that it sounds like a hardware issue and he's calling manufacturing now to get me a new one. This is great, as I'll have a brand new computer in a week. Unfortunately, I have a lot to do between now and then that involves the computer.
I've been doing a lot of thinking this summer about technology and how reliant I am on it, so I'm going to try an experiment. Until my new computer comes, I will only use the internet at the library when absolutely necessary. I still have an alpha smart I will use for writing and I can handwrite things if necessary. The only time I"ll ask my roommate(s) to borrow their machine is if I absolutely must check my e-mail- and then there will be no navigating away from e-mail to facebook, okcupid, instant messanger, etc. It is ridiculous that my computer dies and I literally go into mourning because I can't check boingboing every five minutes. So for this next week, I'm going to be updating from the library, in a series that I call Life Unplugged. I will attempt to keep a list of things that I do instead of getting online when I normally would, with the hopes that later on I can look back (and you all can obnoxiously remind me) and remember how much happier I am when I'm not constatnly starring at a ten inch screen. Also, I want to see if my headaches improve.
So far today I have:
-Written an apologetic note to my neighbors. I think I was accidentally a dick becasue I said I'd move my car last night, I remember moving my car last night, and this morning it was very much obviously not moved. It's sad because I swear I remember moving it. This is the second time I've done something like this in two days. I think I'm loosing my mind.
-Gone to the cafe at Thornes, bought a bagel to go with my coffee from Cornucopia, accidentally stepped on the foot of the person standing behind me, talked about how my dad wasn't at Woodstock with the person in front of me, looked like an oaf in general.
-Began reading a book about game theory, which seems fascinating and will hopefully make me a better person.
-Read the Bible (don't read too much into this. I decided that I need to read the whole thing if I'm going to keep making references to specific phrases that support my general worldview. I'm actually surprised at how engrossing it is. I'm right in the middle of Exodus, and God's description of the Ark of the Covenent is so technical I feel like even I could build it. Things I've come away with from the first book and a half of the Good Book: God is mostly an asshole,* Tamar and I probably would have gotten along nicely, and Esau has got to be the coolest name ever. The things they don't teach you in Sunday School...)
-Did some laundry
-Lost, and re-found, my cell phone.
-Went to the library, almost got into a fight with a teenager about how the computer reservation system works, and here I am now.
I have a job interview on Friday, for a Real Job, and I bought professional clothes, and part of the point of this library visit was to read more about the organization so I can sound smart, but since I spent half an hour writing this and checking my e-mail, I guess I'm going to run out of time. I'm so bad at this no computer thing...
Oh! I went to a great concert last night called Lookstock. It was a bunch of local folk and rock groups pretending to be various performers from Woodstock and it was at Look Park. It was ridiculously fun. I can't even describe it here because there's no way to do it justice. All I can say is that all rock bands of the past should have had a female lead vocalist. Also, babies are cute.
*To elaborate even more on this parathentical statement: What kind of a jerk tells Abraham to lead the people into Egypt, promising him that they will suffer greatly but then become really cool, and then basically abandon them and only begin listening when Pharoah decides to kill all the firstborn Hebrew sons? Then, instead of fixing the situation himself, God chooses a man of mixed cultural heritage to try and convince the Hebrews to make all of these sacrifices and pray to him, and then sends all these terrible plagues to the Egyptians full well knowing that Pharoah will "harden his heart" and not let the people go every time. He specifically only chose plagues that Pharoah's magicians had been known to do themselves-. Then he leads them out into the desert, where they wander around eating manna for forty years, and suddenly Moses disappears to get the exact dimensions of this damn Ark, which takes forty days to describe, and when he comes back the people are worshipping a golden calf- and God has the audacity to get mad about this. I haven't even gotten to Job yet, and already the protagonist has gotten really unsympathetic. All I want to say is, are you all all knowing deity, or are you a fifteen year old boy playing the Sims, you asshole. I'm not sure how down with God I ever was, but I am certainly not down with begining of the old testament God.
And I really don't mean offense to anyone, because I know that this story is really spiritually uplifting to lots of people, and I mean, I couldn't put it down, it was so engrossing. I really do believe anyone studying American history has to read Exodus, and reading that story in tandem with this new book about Quakerism and it's very fucked up relationship to slavery, "Fit for Freedom, not for Friendship," I can't see how any slave owners in this country could have justified anything they did since Exodus spends so much time describing the cruelty of the Egyptian slave owners. And there are times when God does things that are really cool, like the whole creation thing, and when he does help the Hebrews escape from Egypt, but I can't help thinking, at least this far along, that he could have done a lot more. And it makes me wonder if it had something to do with the authors' own particular biases, and their position in society. George Fox said not to read the Bible too much, because reading the spiritual experiences of others is not akin to having one of your own, and I'm trying to keep this in mind rather than getting angry.
Also if the Egyptians were killing every male child of the Hebrews, how does Moses have a brother, Aaron? I am actually very interested in that, as Aaron plays a major role throughout the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Deutoronomy, etc, because he's a priest and everything. Was he also raised by Pharoah's people?
I've been doing a lot of thinking this summer about technology and how reliant I am on it, so I'm going to try an experiment. Until my new computer comes, I will only use the internet at the library when absolutely necessary. I still have an alpha smart I will use for writing and I can handwrite things if necessary. The only time I"ll ask my roommate(s) to borrow their machine is if I absolutely must check my e-mail- and then there will be no navigating away from e-mail to facebook, okcupid, instant messanger, etc. It is ridiculous that my computer dies and I literally go into mourning because I can't check boingboing every five minutes. So for this next week, I'm going to be updating from the library, in a series that I call Life Unplugged. I will attempt to keep a list of things that I do instead of getting online when I normally would, with the hopes that later on I can look back (and you all can obnoxiously remind me) and remember how much happier I am when I'm not constatnly starring at a ten inch screen. Also, I want to see if my headaches improve.
So far today I have:
-Written an apologetic note to my neighbors. I think I was accidentally a dick becasue I said I'd move my car last night, I remember moving my car last night, and this morning it was very much obviously not moved. It's sad because I swear I remember moving it. This is the second time I've done something like this in two days. I think I'm loosing my mind.
-Gone to the cafe at Thornes, bought a bagel to go with my coffee from Cornucopia, accidentally stepped on the foot of the person standing behind me, talked about how my dad wasn't at Woodstock with the person in front of me, looked like an oaf in general.
-Began reading a book about game theory, which seems fascinating and will hopefully make me a better person.
-Read the Bible (don't read too much into this. I decided that I need to read the whole thing if I'm going to keep making references to specific phrases that support my general worldview. I'm actually surprised at how engrossing it is. I'm right in the middle of Exodus, and God's description of the Ark of the Covenent is so technical I feel like even I could build it. Things I've come away with from the first book and a half of the Good Book: God is mostly an asshole,* Tamar and I probably would have gotten along nicely, and Esau has got to be the coolest name ever. The things they don't teach you in Sunday School...)
-Did some laundry
-Lost, and re-found, my cell phone.
-Went to the library, almost got into a fight with a teenager about how the computer reservation system works, and here I am now.
I have a job interview on Friday, for a Real Job, and I bought professional clothes, and part of the point of this library visit was to read more about the organization so I can sound smart, but since I spent half an hour writing this and checking my e-mail, I guess I'm going to run out of time. I'm so bad at this no computer thing...
Oh! I went to a great concert last night called Lookstock. It was a bunch of local folk and rock groups pretending to be various performers from Woodstock and it was at Look Park. It was ridiculously fun. I can't even describe it here because there's no way to do it justice. All I can say is that all rock bands of the past should have had a female lead vocalist. Also, babies are cute.
*To elaborate even more on this parathentical statement: What kind of a jerk tells Abraham to lead the people into Egypt, promising him that they will suffer greatly but then become really cool, and then basically abandon them and only begin listening when Pharoah decides to kill all the firstborn Hebrew sons? Then, instead of fixing the situation himself, God chooses a man of mixed cultural heritage to try and convince the Hebrews to make all of these sacrifices and pray to him, and then sends all these terrible plagues to the Egyptians full well knowing that Pharoah will "harden his heart" and not let the people go every time. He specifically only chose plagues that Pharoah's magicians had been known to do themselves-. Then he leads them out into the desert, where they wander around eating manna for forty years, and suddenly Moses disappears to get the exact dimensions of this damn Ark, which takes forty days to describe, and when he comes back the people are worshipping a golden calf- and God has the audacity to get mad about this. I haven't even gotten to Job yet, and already the protagonist has gotten really unsympathetic. All I want to say is, are you all all knowing deity, or are you a fifteen year old boy playing the Sims, you asshole. I'm not sure how down with God I ever was, but I am certainly not down with begining of the old testament God.
And I really don't mean offense to anyone, because I know that this story is really spiritually uplifting to lots of people, and I mean, I couldn't put it down, it was so engrossing. I really do believe anyone studying American history has to read Exodus, and reading that story in tandem with this new book about Quakerism and it's very fucked up relationship to slavery, "Fit for Freedom, not for Friendship," I can't see how any slave owners in this country could have justified anything they did since Exodus spends so much time describing the cruelty of the Egyptian slave owners. And there are times when God does things that are really cool, like the whole creation thing, and when he does help the Hebrews escape from Egypt, but I can't help thinking, at least this far along, that he could have done a lot more. And it makes me wonder if it had something to do with the authors' own particular biases, and their position in society. George Fox said not to read the Bible too much, because reading the spiritual experiences of others is not akin to having one of your own, and I'm trying to keep this in mind rather than getting angry.
Also if the Egyptians were killing every male child of the Hebrews, how does Moses have a brother, Aaron? I am actually very interested in that, as Aaron plays a major role throughout the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Deutoronomy, etc, because he's a priest and everything. Was he also raised by Pharoah's people?