Good Tech

Discuss work, or the weather, and you're fine. You're normal.
Discuss computers, technology, and gadgets, and you're a geek.

Normally, I wouldn't be so bothered by this, except current trends continue to move technology more and more into the mainstream. Things like processors, graphics cards, and intelligent software are pretty much staples of every day life in North America. But discussing these day-to-day pieces of technology elicits little more than blank stares most of the time. It's all geek to most people.

This bothers me for two reasons:
1) Almost every person has or will at one point, rely on computers to accomplish something. The amount of understanding people require to use a computer is surprisingly spartan, but instead of pushing for education, trends are moving to greater levels of obfuscation - actually hiding the machinery behind the scenes, and presenting technology as something people can use without any understanding of how it functions. You don't need me to tell you that using something with no inkling of how it actually does its job is bad.

2) I actually like technology, and I dislike having a conversation about what I do, where I have to use grade 6 language to spell it out. Everyone who uses a computer should know what a processor, RAM, and an operating system does for them. I've yet to meet someone who drives a car and doesn't know how gas, oil, and temperature are factors in their cars correct operation. I'm completely blown away by how two pieces of technology can go in so completely different directions in the public mind. Almost everything about cars is common knowledge. Everything about computers remains techno-mumbo-jumbo. Smoke and mirrors behind swirling veils of conspiracy.

I'd like, one day, to be able to tap my watch to answer a telephone call. I'd like to be able to access the internet anywhere on the planet earth. But these are all just geek-think for this guy. Trying to explain how it would all work to other people usually just results in a blank stare, a "yeah, whatever," or a "I love my Apple."

Computers are, bar none, the single most powerful piece of intellectual and communication technology available to human kind right now. We might as well start treating them as such.

Dawn

Wake up and face the sun.
It's another day.
Another chance.

A blank slate

Normally, I'm a huge fan of change.
But lately, not so much.

Guess I'm just like any other person then. Change is great, as long as I'm the one making it.

Where will I fit in now? This complex skein doesn't seem to have room for me.

Though then again, neither did the old one.

Irony

His face was lit in the doorway like a sculpture - something that spoke of emotion and history, but remotely. As if accessing any of that required a hammer and chisel, and plenty of time.

He stared down, eyes unmoving.

"Andrea," he said. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

She looked up at him with a face that was a mix of curiosity and irritation. He'd waited so long. Maybe now he'd open up.
The reaction was formulaic. Men always waited until the last moment before their conscience won.
He'd be hers tonight. Maybe forever.

"I want you to go." He said, voice soft. Calculated. As if the decision was as old as that stony face, but only now was it being told.

The house of cards came down.

"But... you don't... I thought..."

His face softened somewhat.

"You thought I was going to try and stop you."

"Yes."

"I won't."

"Why not?"

"Why would I?"

The illusion failed completely.
The loop had closed, and Andrea had found she'd fallen outside of it.

There were words, then. Empty words. The conversation had essentially ended with that question. Why would he? Why would anyone?

The human machine failed, then. There was no answer. At least not one provided in words.

Years later, she would stumble across the crux of it. All of her doubts came down to one simple statement of fact.

Because.

Because I choose to.

The Zone

Gentlemen. I'm going back in.

Of all the games I've ever played, the STALKER series is still probably one of the most intriguing, if not one of the best. The first two games suffered from horrific crashes and bugs. But it seems like Call of Pripyat has all that under control. I've been in The Zone for the last three days, and so far, so good.

I think one of the reasons this franchise has survived is because of it's intriguing take on something both familiar and alien to us: the Zone of Exclusion around the Chernobyl reactor, but with a sci-fi twist that makes it so much more awesome.

The game could have no story-line whatsoever, but I'd still keep coming back just to be free to wander the zone and see what fucked-up marvels crop up next.

Toaster Boy

"My place, my definition, is entirely composed of my usefulness. I am akin to a toaster or dishwasher. I am appreciated solely for the service I render. Nothing more."

I fulfill a role. I do a task. If I can't perform, or if the job's finished, so is the relationship - usually.
This isn't my choice. But this is the world we live in.

Defect & Design

Threads err like steel cable,
a will made whole.

Into this form cast,
I am made sole.

The masters hand slips,
strings cut - fibers fail.

Whether by defect,
or by design.

This life is ending,
premature goal.

I am I are broken,
I am unwell.

Growth unheeded soil,
a fertile ore.

I am I are broken,
begin to swell.

Fear nothing toward,
the masters' quell.

I am I are broken,
by design fell.

My turn

I guess it is.