Grand Finale!

So I just spent the last hour reading back over my blog... and I really want to thank all of you that took the time to post.

What i noticed the most, aside from many insightful comments, was that I've been using this blog as my soap box for highly opinionated rants, I appologize; however, I am a creature of habit and a man of consistency, so without further adeau, my final rant of the semester:

(some scholarly ideas are going to be touched on here without much credit. Mr. Kierkegaard please dont sick the attack dogs on me... No... not the ones with the bees in their mouths.... and when they bark they shoot bees!! aaaaahhh!(I really hope somebody caught the Simpsons reference there))

Our modern technology is amazing. really, its bloody magical. imagine if you were some medieval peasant and you were somehow teleported into modern times... its inconceivable... you'd have a bloody jammer! but then a magical healer would come by and shock you back to life by touching metal to your chest. where am i going with this? im not all too sure... but that would be pretty cool, and i remember that my original intention had something to do with digital devices...

well have all these devices we carry all the time and our peasent friend would wonder what they are... we use them to improve our communication, improve our memory, aid our hearing and our vision. We have digital technology that improves and extends the human senses. its amazing.

but what the hell are we using it for??

cell phones:

Our conversations are so mundane... small talk this, lindsey lohan that. sure we can keep in touch with people more consitantly and currently. but ask yourself: who do you really know? I mean really... I know more about the true personality of my girlfriends cousin who I rarely talk to on the phine and that I've only on met on 4 occassions than I do about "friends" I've known since highschool and talk to on a regular basis. The enhancmenet of communication offered by cell phones has killed the "occasion" equally as much as facebook has killed the highschool reunion.

digital cameras:

Flickr is also full of the mundane... take a look. Sure there are some exceptions, but a vast majority are simply ordinary... without value.

bah!

Im going to cut to the chase here. its not the technology that I have a problem with, its our over use. we have become a society of of quantity over quality. for everything. and its resulted in everything becoming normal... and drained the meaning and pleasure from the small things in life.

Im such a pessimist.

But, image if every phone call was important, if every picture was beautiful and meaningful... if we used these technologies to discuss and catalog aspects important to all of society, instead of contending ourselves with our own little world of the trivial...

Luckly i see change coming. I'm really down with this citizen journalism, its pretty awsome, sifting through all the normalcy to find the exceptional... kinda like digging for gold! I heard that jeans were invented by gold diggers... its about time everybody got back on the same page in society , just like everybody wears jeans, and attatched value to the exceptional and started using this technology (digital technology, not jeans technology) for a purpose.

What is the purpose though, what is the epistome of the portable digital device?

I still don't know, I just know what it isn't.


ps:
Im going to go show up at my friends place with a case of beer and absolutely no warning... when was the last time that happened to you?

The jogger and waterfall in Lynn Canyon park.

So i go for a jog through Lynn Canyon on most days. Without fail, there is always somebody on the bridge or walking through the forest not even looking at their surroundings, but at the small screen on their video camera. I think I may have touched on this before, but I still don't get it.

Or maybe I do. The technology seems to be an instrument used by the individual to increase their memory, and their desire to share their experiences with others. But what will they really be remembering, and what are they really sharing? There must be about 109839021378219798.012 (calculated to the exact decimal place by totalrandomguess.com) videos of someboady walking over the suspension bridge that are all basically the same: shaky footsteps... nervous laughter, a cool waterfal, and me jogging by in the background. None of these films capture the true experience and the emotions generated by being in one of the most beautiful places in the universe.

Instead of flying halfway around the world, save your money, save your time, and just look on youtube; because with that camera glued infront of your face, your missing the real experience.

All your really contributing to is helping "the man" profile and track down all canyon joggers so that once the canyon jogger holocaust comesdown, I'll be the first to go... thanks alot!

No couch? Stupid!

I get it. I understand video game consoles... video games are awsome! I love sitting on my couch and shooting aliens for an entire afternoon (take today for example....)

What I don't get are these stupid portable gaming devices. These devices are the sign of the true addict and social deviant! Avoid these people at all costs folks; not much of a task considering they are usually busy avoiding you.

Can somebody please explain the appeal? How can you engage in a portable gaming consol without a portable couch?