Aaaaaand.... DEADLINES!

So I haven't had a lot of time to update my blog in the last few days. I just figured I would get on and apologize for that (in case I actually have any faithful views out there). I have a pretty unreasonable deadline to meet today, and it doesn't look like it will happen. For my internship, we've only had small things to do with a generous amount of time allotted (read: as much time as we want/need). Now we have a whole project due to be presented today, and we were only informed of it Friday! And of course this was after plans had been made for the coming week by both me and my colleague. Oh well, back to work for now. Wish me luck!

I love technology

I mean, really now... who doesn't? It makes the world go round. Such as THIS little bit of heaven:
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Google Voice! If you click on that box and put in your phone number, it will call your phone and mine and connect the two. Ensuring the privacy of my phone number (and yours if you choose) but still making me 100% reachable at all times. Go ahead click it. I probably won't answer, but you can leave me a message!

So this is what it comes down to. Technology is just here to keep us as connected to the world as possible. It started way back in the day with just shouting really loudly and hoping the other person heard you. Then someone got the idea to write things down. Mail, telegraph, telephone, fax, e-mail, instant messaging, video chat, text messaging... It has all careened into a cobweb of continual contact. I believe that the intention was to make life easier, but is that what happened? This seems to be the goal for technology in most cases: make x easier or more practical. Here is how scientists define it:

technology (těk-nŏl'ə-jē)

1. The use of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems, especially in industry and commerce.


2. The specific methods, materials, and devices used to solve practical problems.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary

Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.

This really begs the question, "Are these really problems that we're solving?" An awful lot of time, energy and money went into developing a way for you to click a link on a web page and have it call my phone. Is this time well spent? I can't really answer that since I think it's freakin' awesome! But maybe this is a necessary development. Maybe it will save lives and cure world hunger. After all, it is magic...
Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I like to move it, move it!

Today has been long already! Up at 9:30am to help Walter leave, and I still have to work from 6pm to Midnight. It was rather exciting to see a good friend and brother prepare to take part in something wonderful and amazing. I genuinely hope that he has the time of his life down in Argentina. I'll try to watch Evita once or twice for him ;-)

The move went off (almost) without a hitch. Packing the U-Haul^® didn't take very long at all, and we got everything to the storage unit. The drivers in this town still scare me, though. Of course Walter forgot some things, but c'est la vie. We got everything into the storage unit eventually!

It was really great spending time with Sarah and Walter; talking about politics, religion, and other sensitive subjects. They are both leaving me, and I will miss them a lot!

This has been a rather great day today, and since I'm likely to be very bored at work, there may be TWO installments in my blog today. Don't get your hopes up though ;-)

My first time...

So I've decided to start the whole blogging thing. There's not much of a shock there. I needed something a bit more personal. Facebook tends to be my general melting pot of random people I barely know. Twitter was meant to be something more private and only for my closer friends, but somehow my random facebook peeps have found me out and think I'm so amazing that they must follow me on Twitter... This is fine and all, but I don't really understand why they're so interested in my life. They barely know me, and I don't really talk to them at all. Oh well... So here I am!

I still have to figure out what sort of direction I want to take with this piece of web literature. Should it be a cynical commentary on life and the world? Should it be a giant bitch-fest whining about how shitty life is? Should it be a step-by-step outline of my life and everything I do? These are all reasonable directions to take, and I'll likely end up using a combination of all these tactics.

Now I'm off to figure out the finer points of this web log. First up: Changing the style/layout. Wish me luck!