The wonderful world of technology

To be honest, sometimes I hate technology.

I was just having a conversation about this with my coworker. How we're always working to improve, to do better, make things easier. OK. I get it. I love indoor plumbing as much as the next person. I am attached to my computer at the hip. I love IM, and even though I don't text (I know, shocking, right? Especially since I am in the age and era to do so), I totally have my cell on me at all times.

That's like, plus-5,000 points for technology. Woo-hoo!

But then I start to notice--like, how many kids stay inside to play video games instead of allowing their imagination to take over? Nothing against video games or rpgs (my bro is addicted to an rpg, and I'm in love with Rock Band. Best game ever made!)--just, what about bicycles and baseball, legos and tree houses? My favorite games from when I was little were imagined. My brother and I used to play "shipwrecked." I swear, I was obsessed with shipwrecks! Probably because I'm land-locked. Anyway, we had this old inflatable mattress that we blew up when company came. Afterward, bro and I would load it up with blankets and whatever else was handy. It became a raft in the ocean. Bro would be the captain, I would be the doctor, and we would look for land, weather storms, call for help. It was the *best.* Sometimes our cousins played along, and we would all sail those seas together. In fact, it was practically the only game that bro would play with us, if they were there.

I made mud cakes and watched bro dig holes in the ground, which we'd fill up with water and then take turns jumping into for, basically, mud baths. We played spy games, "parachuted" our cabbage patch dolls down the stairs using plastic bags. We traveled through time when we played, no matter what we played with. Bro knew everything, and I followed his lead.

It was awesome. Maybe that's partly why I am into the things I am.

I know I get reminiscent, sort of dreamy. I believe in saving traditions. I long for the sweet-tasting, sun-swept summers of my youth.

And I work at a museum.

Now, we are learning to record oral histories. We've been doing this for years, but the technology keeps changing. First it was only written, then with photo copies, then cassette tapes. We moved to video, then DVDs and CDs. And now, I'm learning to interview people across the country with Skype.

It is super-cool, and I'm so very excited about it--I'm over the moon!

I love that technology can be used to trap a piece of the past, to give to the future. I love that.

Yes, technology can be great. And it can be overrated. It's simpler by far to do things without. Some people say it's character-building. Hey, I'm the first to admit that I hope to never use an outhouse. Ever. Ever. I love that we work constantly to better ourselves. I love the great inventions that we use everyday, that we will use everyday in the future.

But sometimes, I feel torn.

Hello, out there!

I know, I know. It's been eons since I last wrote. I've got an excuse! I really do! Since my hard drive crashed (backupyourcomputers), I haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things--though let me mention that I now have Windows 7, which is *sooo* much better than Windows Vista!

I have been busy here and there with other items, trying to set up some of the writing I lost (thank Heavens for the blogfests. Most of my newest writing got partial bits posted, because of it!) But I've been busy with other stuff, too--my job, my other job teaching fitness a few fitness classes locally, running back and forth to weddings...I went to two weddings in the last two weeks, and am going to another one this Saturday. (Yay, dances!) I am hoping to make at least one of the three I'm invited to in August. I have more upcoming.

But I did just want to share this news article, which just struck me as funny. Up in my neck of the woods, there are quite a few giant animal statues. Yes. And now, one has been named. Hooray!

Now, if only we could get ourselves our very own carhenge...

I don't suppose any of you have been there? ;) I have. I know, you're jealous.

So, anywho. Hello, and for now, goodbye.

Edit: Pictures of the buffalo. If you read the facts, note that #3 is no longer correct. :)

New background!

Oooh, oooh, ooh. More colors and designs for me to choose from!

I'm talking, of course, about my blog's background.

It's difficult to find just the right background, isn't it? Or maybe it's just me. I have a hard time picking a favorite color, much less a pattern. But oooh...isn't this exciting?

Well, maybe that's also just me.

I have a new background, in any case. It's pink! I like pink. But not too overwhelmingly pink, I hope, so as not to scare off anyone.

At least it doesn't have any birds on it. I have a thing about birds. Especially robins. They stare down their beaks at me. I once saw a robin play with its food, a poor, innocent worm. It's so cruel! No, I have not and will not ever watch the Birds.

So. I'm still out here, surviving on my computer. I have a new hard drive, a new operating system (Windows 7), and a few ideas for new stories. Even if I am lacking the oomph to write, right now. The newness of everything is exciting, if a bit daunting. But that's a good thing, right?

Hard Drives, and why they are important.

I assume everyone knows how important hard drives are. Especially if you are on here. After all, hard drives store everything--the entire life of your computer, and all of the files you add on. That's why it's so important to back things up. Heard that before? I have. And I've meant to.

You know, I can be awfully lazy about things like that. Who isn't, really? I think, to be perfectly honest, that the last time I backed up my computer was about 2 years ago. Maybe even a bit more. Since then, I've added stories, video, music and photos, all of which are terribly, terribly important to me.

I'm going to find out how long ago I backed up my computer today. Why? Because last Thursday, my hard drive failed.

I was watching TV on my computer, in part because I don't have cable and my television set barely gets two channels at the moment. Suddenly, I heard a clicking noise, repeating. "Click-click-click-click-click." And then my computer rebooted, because it was unable to read anything. And it rebooted again, and again, and again.

I freaked out a bit right there, but overall, I've been fairly calm. Not much else I can do, really. Thank Heavens that I emailed a few things to both myself and to my writing bud Amalia T. (It occurs to me that I missed out on her dream sequence blogfest. I just saw it was on Friday, yesterday. Good gravy. I've been out for a while, and it's not been easy. Sorry, Amalia!) And thank Heavens that I took part in as many blogfests as I did. I have some tidbits here and there, a few things saved other places. I'm not as lost as I could be.

But--I still lost a lot. And trust me, I've looked into file retrieval. It's not looking pretty.

So, I'm still here, dear readers and followers. Barely. But please, learn from me--back up your hard drive. Or at least the files that are most important to you. Because if you lose everything, you will feel lost, too.

Feeling Lost, but learning from it (Watch out for spoilers, about midway down)

This isn't a unique feeling or post, I'm sure, and the title is a bit cheesy, I think, but seriously. Seriously!

OK. So, I started watching the TV Show "Lost" about three weeks ago. I wanted to figure out what was going on before the finale, so I could watch the finale. I just wanted to know about the hype. Yes, I got sucked into some stuff, though I had no clue what was going on with some other stuff. Thanks to Wikipedia, Hulu and my cousin, I felt pretty ready for the finale.

I almost cried the entire time! Some of my predictions came true, some had no legs to stand on, anyway. But, oh, my gosh.

Then I started to think about the parallels between the pilot and the finale. If you haven't seen it yet, but want to, maybe you shouldn't read past this point. If you don't care one way or the other, keep on reading.

Jack Shepherd, one of the main cast, starts out the entire show when he wakes up, after the plane has crashed on the island (you all knew that anyway, right?). It starts, as I recall, with the zoomed in close-up of his eyes opening. Vincent the dog finds him in the field, and then Jack's racing for the beach, starting to try to save everyone's life. The plane is in flames, and people are screaming. Locke is discovering he can walk. (He was in a wheelchair.) I think still in the pilot, there is the ubiquitous reference to black and white, good and evil.

What about the finale, then? Jack again is racing to save everyone, only this time, with his last breath. There's a subdued yet rushed feeling to his last walk through the bamboo. He has given his life to save the world this time, without thinking--much like his gut reaction in the pilot. Whatever he may have done in the meantime, he is what he is--he could not escape it. He was caught in that trap from the first episode. At the end, he sank down, fell down, and watched as the last few people escaped the island--Sawyer (once, his competition), Kate (his love), Claire (his half-sister), the pilot, Miles, and Richard. He sort of smiles. Vincent the dog finds him where he has fallen, in the bamboo patch. He's wounded again, as he was in the pilot, but this time, there's nothing he can do about it. There's a zoom-in, and he dies--with the last scene showing us his eye closing.

It's hauntingly beautiful, in a way. That his life has echoed itself, that he has done what he has to do, he has accepted it. It tears you apart--at least, it tore me apart. The parallel, and all of the meat in-between--his character development, the way he said goodbye to his loved one(s), and the sacrifice--all the death, to be completed by one last death. It's like literary fiction!

Yeah, sure, there are alternate time lines and alternate universes and alternate existences--in fact, in the finale you learn that the people from the flight made a place together, a (loosely-termed) purgatory of sorts, where they can meet each other again, remember, and then move on to the next plane together. (Not airplane, guys!) Yes, there's a lot of goofy other stuff going on--polar bears and such, and time travel, some group of people under an initiative that no one seems to know anything about. Think past all that. It's not so important as the basic story, which I believe lies in the first and last season (although this could be just me, as those are the only full seasons I watched). It's the struggle of life, death; it's the turmoil of emotions and relations, of friends, family, strangers, love, hate, the wild vs. civilization, good and evil. Opposites, that are so magnetized to each other that they cannot be one without the other, in many theories, in many instances.

These parallels are, in my humble opinion, beautiful ways to frame stories. The overarching themes that carry through, the true-to-character actions, the parallels, the meat in-between.

And though I didn't understand everything that went down in the finale--I think, after I've, ahem, gone through my grieving process--that it brings this show a bit of closure, and provides some lessons we can all learn from. And that, even if I don't understand, even if I am torn apart, I can respect, admire and even enjoy the framing of the story, and the story itself.

RIP, Lost.