Expanding on my original blog, there are a lot of things the kids are missing, and changes that have made life in some ways, much more dangerous for the common person. Lets start with phones, and first the land line. Don't see many with cords any longer, they all come on a base unit. No power, no phone. Back in the day, phones worked regardless of power outage. Cell phones are an amazing gift, (ty Star Trek) until they are put in the hands of people that have them attached to their brain stem. Here's a comment from the WTF happened blog that applies here. ...It is going to be oh so much worse than you think...Try this, ask ANY generation Xer who they call the most then ask them what their number is.....see how long it takes for the hinder-brain to come out of the pocket.... So true is it not.
Books seem to be a dirty word, along with the concept of reading anything that isn't today current or trendy.
And what is the point of being able to look anything up, if you don't know the basics to begin with. I remember in school, there was a girl that said she didn't need to know how to change a tire. Since she was pretty some guy would stop and do it for her. That is exactly what she said.(Yeah I know.) Now they all want to just call someone, for everything. The concept of self reliance has given way to do this for me, I have no time because I have to update facebook or something that I just farted. Or even better, they all think they are going to be rich and famous and everyone should start serving them now. At least that is the attitude I see a lot.
One global accident, and their world crumbles around them and they are completely helpless. One EMP, solar flare, whatever, and without their phone and gps they are done. Most can't even read a road map. The basics are gone, and one mistake and they are all in a lot of trouble. Most have no concept of what made this country and why they have their life.
Here's what really sets me off. (Besides the new lovey dovey vamp idiocy I mean). They have what we wanted, (but don't deserve it) and they have no idea what they even have. No clue as to the great gift they have that we all waited so long for.The future is opening, but what happens when all the basic skills are gone. Great knowledge of tech, but no one to advance it, and maybe no one with a desire to except by silliness of an app.
I miss Barnabas, and I want my flying car damn it.
26 comments:
And one other thing. Just when did everyone start needing a new phone every 6 months. I use mine till it explodes or dies, then I worry about a new phone. We really are a throw away society now.
exactly Kall! I keep the same number so I can remember it! lol. What is the stat? 90% of all disgarded phones are still fully operational and I just HAD to change because my carrier would no longer carry analog signals...and I HATE the digital quality! Everyone is in a tunnel and a host of other quirks.... My whole computer and audio studio is salvaged or re-purposed equipment...when did it become quaint to reuse anyway or just use it until it doesn't work anymore and then take out the parts that still work and use them for something else?
This does bring to mind another thing I wanted to say about reaction to Higg's boson announcement. The speed of communication today brings its own set of problems. Reporters can not possibly know all about and understand fully the stories they report on what they do know is how to generate interest and that is by playing to lowest common denominator. So we have "the God particle" and all the knee jerk reaction that creates. Maybe allowing scientists to do their work without intense public scrutiny is not such a bad thing?
Oh and
as helpless GenXer I am grateful....grateful I have an old geek on speed dial for when I get flat tire. Hee hee hee
Maybe if they'd stop looking for underwear shots, gossip, and whatever else the loony so called stars are, they would know something.
They don't want to know. They want ratings, and fame. I'm willing to bet that half the anchors we have today have no clue as to who Walter Cronkite was.
And no, science needs public scrutiny, because a lot of what we have now can also be contributed to people not blowing themselves and their garages up, but figuring something out before they got that far. I see we're back to part 1 here again.
Arm chair backyard basement mad scientist wanna be's have always contributed to science. Or at least we used to. Now to even get some of the stuff I need is nearly impossible. Thanks in part to lunatics that do blow stuff up, but also because we have been placed under a very watchful 1984 big brother concept of science. Scientific advancements should not have to go through the white house. They belong to us.
That kind of stuff is probably part of the reason we are in the mess we are in now. I think that hard line started a long time ago before we knew about it even. They no longer really want our assistance. I sometimes think this was all a design, but that's when I go off on one of my conspiracy modes.
Oh, and by the way, speed dial only works if I answer.
lmao, Phanriver I am on bended knee...
As to global communication, dead on, here is why - Walter Crokite was an early great communicator, one luxury for him WAS the time to research and ask question, but them it was the ability to digest all this "noise" and make it interesting to the common folk. But that was when you had only a half hour of news so you damn well BETTER listen and when the network broke in it wasn't to tell us that this person was divorcing this person for some later to be named infidelity, no, it was for news that would change your world view. Yep they are playing to the lowest common denominator it's just the bell curve keeps shifting to the left....
Maybe there's a simpler way to describe what is happening right now. Schrodinger's cat.
Seems like a pretty good description of our world right now. Now lets just hope the box opens soon.
I KNOW, I used to buy potassium mumble mumble and mumble aluminum and sulfur just to make various engines that I thought I could...I had industrial thickness cardboard tubes and cement but could never get the nozzles to burn right but wow, the tubes were 2" across and about 8 inches when we cut them down....then like fools we would compact it with a slide and hammer....lucky I still got all my fingers, and the thing is they aren't even USING the same chems! Of course the reasoning is the same reason we have that farce at the airports. You know I once said you know they have NEVER caught anyone with real terrorism in mind and the response was...yep you guessed it...just look at how good it's working! Like we had terrorists streaming over the boarder with suitcases packed with all forms of explosives! please, someone same me....
Hey Kall, you going to record parts one and two for the show Saturday? come on!!!! Use Kallamis and its only local radio...but the podcast well....that goes a bit further....lol
Um, okay. You tell me how, and I'll try and figure it out. Now it's off to writing, then a hot chocolate, something zombie, and bed.
I relax with zombies. Yeah, I'm okay.
You've really got a good discussion started Paul - many interesting comments. [and sorry I accidentally posted as "Bob" last time - it was a backup login that I created in case Google locked me out again].
I hate to be the non-curmudgeonly one, it's quite unnatural for me, but while agree with all the points in general, I don't see things as being worse on this issue.
Yes people don't read enough, but it has been that way since television infested our society back in the 1950s. And people absolutely do tend to read what is now "current or trendy" but is that really significantly different from the old "book of the month club" and word of mouth is still the same.
True only a few people understand the technology behind the internet and cell phones, but did the average person in 1965, when I was born, thoroughly understand how television and calculators worked?
I do agree that science reporting has went downhill, and will continue to decline, on the "news" channels.
Of course if devices (cell phones, etc.) weren't getting radically better, they would be kept longer. My kindle fire is a much better computer than the first computer I liked (the C-64) I have a C-64 emulator on it. Technology really is getting better, but salvaging/re-purposing is retro-cool!
Well, once again I've gone crazy typing so I have to send this post in several sections - so here goes!!
*****Part one*****
THANK YOU!!!! I agree that there are technological marvels that make all of our lives much more easier than they were when we were younger. But the same technology is almost like an addiction to some people. When I walk outside for a smoke break at work, everyone is sitting around staring at their smart phone, iPad, e-reader, what have you. You can hear a pin drop. I agree that some of these people should have the damned things surgically implanted. I was driving home from work the other day (about 20 miles) and there was a lady behind
me that was talking on her phone the entire drive. What is so important that you can risk lives by driving at 75mph with your head cocked over to hold the phone for the duration of the drive?
I'm not a technophobe by any means, but I do not go out and waste my money replacing perfectly good equipment just so I can be 'state of the art'; whatever that means today!! I bought a smart phone six months ago only because the battery leaked in my old 4 year old one and ruined it. And I use it to make PHONE CALLS. Imagine
that! My TV is a first generation HD flat screen CRT. My stereo receiver is a 25 year old Kenwood. My speakers are a set of old Realistic Mach 2's. I did buy a DJ quality turntable a few years back so I could spin those 12" black things that kids have no clue about. I am writing this on a 7 year old Gateway desktop still running Windows XP. I only have a 3Mb DSL connection. I still have a hard wired land line phone and an ANALOG cordless set. Why don't I upgrade? Why should I? Everything works!! I rarely get on Facebook. I don't tweet. I don't care what you had for dinner, what you watched on TV last night or how many times your dog took a dump
(especially if you attach a video of it)!!!
I don't like the cloud and how people say that physical media will soon be a thing of the past. There are certain things I do not want floating around in some server in Berzerkistan or some other third world country that changes names every time a new despot comes into power. I still buy DVD's because I want something
physical to show for my purchase. I don't pay money for the privilege of watching a movie once via a download. If I wanted to do this, I'd go to the theater. Also, if I purchase a download, I don't want someone telling me where I can play the file. I bought it and I want to play it any damned where I want to!
*****Part two*****
Kids (and a lot of adults) today, to quote my Grandmother, "ain't got the sense that God gave a Billy Goat". Drop a dozen in a corn maze, take away their GPS, and see if any of them make it out alive. How many would even think of just walking through the corn? OK - true story, I swear. I work in a building where the physical 3rd floor is all electrical and HVAC equipment. It is only accessible via one elevator out of the four in the building core. The three elevators are numbered 1-12 where the fourth is numbered 1-2, M, 3-12. I got on the 'special' elevator with a girl that was probably in her mid 20's (and yes, she had her phone and her Bluetooth and was dressed in knock-off Prada and a fake Gucci bag). As we were riding up she looked at the panel on the wall and commented, "How can there be a floor between 2 and 3"? I tried to explain it to her and she just gave
me a blank stare and asked, "Well, why does it only exist on this elevator"? I could hardly wait to get to my floor so I could get the hell out of there. My first thought was that she will probably be a VP of the company one day.
Okay, like always, I've rambled on enough. On last thing, though. Your comment about the EMP is more than true. If any kind of global catastrophe were to occur it would be us 'dinosaurs' that survived. Like you said they can't change a tire, read a map or anything else that we take for granted. Less and less kids are driving today because they would rather communicate via Facebook or Twitter than actually get out and interact with other people. Hmmm, maybe that would be good for birth control. Thin 'em out early!! They would stand outside of a store fully stocked with food and whine because the automatic door won't open to let them in. It would be like transporting our generation back to the late 19th /early 20th century except I think we would still have a better chance of survival. Nuff, said!! Outta here!! Pray for all of us!!
Kall, well we will have to get you into a half decent mic if you find you like doing it, but if you have a skype mic? I use Audacity for recording but anything that will out put to an mp3, then there are a variety of programs that allow you to transfer large files, but I think Chrome now implements it, if the file is bigger that your mailer can send, it will pop up and ask you for all the pertinent info. But if you are plain uncomfortable with it...no prob.... I have been fascinated with mics and recording since I was in gradeschool so much so that I sound engineer for bands now and my favorite thing is...Hey, I can put an amp in that!! you figure my degree is in communications electronics...go figure. lol
But that goes for any of you guys, you want to review a movie, book tv show (no spoilers, be adult) Send me the audio file, I am not a mic hog, more the merrier!
Okay, may not have this for you Saturday. My poor old fried out e-machine apparently doesn't wish to co-operate for some reason. Working on it.
David.
I agree, however I didn't make my point entirely clear, sorry.
My thing is that they only read that. They read twilight, and now the hunger games, but if you bring up Logan's Run, or anything elzse old, forget it. No movie, no movement of trend, and they aren't interested. I read, period. To be honest, I read a lot more of the older stuff than the new. Probably because most of it is me trying to get back a lost collection.
And I mentioned Jules Vern one day at the c-store down here, and the idiots asked me who that was. I listed a few titles and the response was from one of them. Yeah I saw that. When I mentioned the book, and when it was written, they didn't believe me.
I kid you not. They said they didn't have science fiction back then. At which time I pulled a Sheldon.
I through my arms up in derision and walked the feck out.
I grew up with a geek mom, and a welsh witch great granny. Reading was never discussed in my house, it was simply done. I never went to bed without a book in hand I don't think from 5 till I went to basic training. I even took books with me when we went off roading.
I read war of the worlds before I went to first grade. So maybe I'll never get the not wanting a book going in every spot in the house. I have to slow down my reading or I read too fast.
When I stumbled across Roger Zelazney and The Chronicles of Amber I finished the first 5 books in one night. And walked to the kitchen the next morning with book six in hand. Mom used to say I didn't need food so long as I had a book to devour.
And never worry about being the non-curmudgeonly one man. This is a site for all of us. Ever see anyone on Enterprise totally agree? It's like I tell my GF. Don't you ever become like me, you stay nice.
Now off to house work. Being a house husband,and repairman, sometimes just blows.
Kall
Hey guy, that's only if you want it to be in your own words! I think the piece is long enough and well thought out enough to warrant a place in Saturday's rotation. If you are more comfortable with me reading, let me know aand I will do. If you want something special (music bed effect etc) let me know otherwise, it would be a standard read.
ok on to other things...Vern? come on! That's embellishment right? I mean how can you work in the trade without being familiar with that name? inconceivable! and the SF crack has to have been just that! Wells 18 hundreds?
Just getting a clue what "moving pictures" was other than a curiosity. Unfortunately reading was not encouraged much in the family. Comics were not frowned on, just that in the late 50s with a growing family such things were luxury. So until I could get into the library by myself, I was a sporatic reader. TV on Saturdays though...in the late 60s, golden age. But I did not read fast, not that I couldn't but because I wanted them to last. I mean in some instances a book cost more than a pair of pants, So if I made the choice to buy a book instead of replacing my worn out jeans with Delany's Dahlagren, that book had to last. Don't get me wrong I still to this day put the sun to bed and wake it in the morning, but still very rarely is it with a different book. Best series though had to be the first three Empire books. That stuff is gold!
Paul
Kall
Hey guy, that's only if you want it to be in your own words! I think the piece is long enough and well thought out enough to warrant a place in Saturday's rotation. If you are more comfortable with me reading, let me know aand I will do. If you want something special (music bed effect etc) let me know otherwise, it would be a standard read.
ok on to other things...Vern? come on! That's embellishment right? I mean how can you work in the trade without being familiar with that name? inconceivable! and the SF crack has to have been just that! Wells 18 hundreds?
Just getting a clue what "moving pictures" was other than a curiosity. Unfortunately reading was not encouraged much in the family. Comics were not frowned on, just that in the late 50s with a growing family such things were luxury. So until I could get into the library by myself, I was a sporatic reader. TV on Saturdays though...in the late 60s, golden age. But I did not read fast, not that I couldn't but because I wanted them to last. I mean in some instances a book cost more than a pair of pants, So if I made the choice to buy a book instead of replacing my worn out jeans with Delany's Dahlagren, that book had to last. Don't get me wrong I still to this day put the sun to bed and wake it in the morning, but still very rarely is it with a different book. Best series though had to be the first three Empire books. That stuff is gold!
Paul
Go for it man, help yourself.
And no, i wasn't kidding. But also, there haven't been comic books in this town, (sold that is) since theone store owner got sick back in 82.
Small town ohio in this area is, well you understand. They grab so hard for the outside world away from here, I'm surprised they haven't all strapped rockets to themselves already.
But then I have no idea who they were really, and that was only a few of them. I'm sure there are geeks in this town somewhere, I just don't have time to meet anyone. Basically at the moment home town has become full of wanna be anything but from here kids. But again, that was only a few, I hope.
But yeah, use it man, np. Feel free to use any of the stuff i put out here.
And to give you an idea about small town cliche. There's a potato chip factory at one end, and a cheese factory at the other. Fireman's festival once a year, that has gotten just plain bad. Yep, I returned to where I grew up. Maybe I should ask myself a question.
WTF was I thinking.
Kall fyi always check with me first for equip. I always keep stuff on hand just to repurpose it. Not a hoarder no no no nope nine unless a hoarder can put his hand on several kinds of usb cord without leaving the apartment...lmao
LOL, yeah okay. And as for equipment, first you'd have to tell me what I need.
I grew up running cops on a 1980 IT 250 G. Mom had a jeep, and we both had Yamaha 3 wheelers. We horded every piece of equipment that could be used one day for something. Here's an example. We used part of a Yamaha 175 3 wheeler shift system to modify the clutch linkage on our 69 GTO.
Salvage away and keep everything. Hording is good, as long as it serves a specific need. Like comps, vehicles, etc.
Remeber, geek and mechanic horders means they survive a zombie apocalypse. And if they team up, new society in the making.
Yeah, watching zombie movies again, love them. Think I'll do a review on one of the B type. I love "B" movies.
It is an excellent discussion and we are very lucky to have the discussion going. However I can not take any more credit than asking Kallamis to join us in conversation since his comments were so good I said why not become an editor and post your thoughts! He took the idea and ran. Remember you have the same level of access if you wanted to post. If you have forgotten I can resend the invite, but that is a different subject. Yep Kall is a great find, glad to have him aboard.
so very well said Homer! The thing about the elevator is a riot because it IS true. We have an older tenement building in town that was renovated and additional apartments were added in a second attached building. Now the new building has five floors but the old building has only four. They are both the same height, but due to different building methods in the past hundred years the floor joists are further apart in the old building. Now the elevator is in the central core of the two buildings which strangely enough both contain floors 1-5 but building 1 does not contain floor 3 and the newer building does so the elevator floors can all be level. It is a riot just to sit and watch people just walk from 2 to 3 without taking the elevator or to have them get on the elevator to get to the floor that is on the same level. I was told about this from a person who lives there and we would sit and watch. Course the elevator would not move and the door would open and there we were still sitting there. We were actually accused of some sort of trick where we were running up the stairs and trying to fool them. It would have been a neat trick because I am in a power chair and my friend is legally blind.... It shows that people will latch onto the most insane explanation as long as it covers the bases and they don't have to think about it anymore! lol I dont care, it's still funny!
ooooooooooh and I love reviews! We had a very clever reviewer for a few years but between equipment and time constraints he has had to stop so it would be cool having a movie reviewer on again!
kallamis,
That is a very good point. Still I wonder if the average Star Wars fan of the late 1970s would have read Verne, Wells, or the classic SF pulps of the 1940s.
I think that those of us who were born to read have been rare exceptions since the worst invention of all time (TV) took over most people's lives in the 1950s.
Dave, I want to take slight issue on "worst invention" because quite truthfully I cut my teeth on science fiction with tv fiction. Not that I didn't read mind you, I read R&f of the 3rd reich when I was 12, Exodus when I was 14, but it wasn't until exposure in High School that I discovered Speculative Fiction with On the Beach, Brave New World, 1984, Failsafe and the others that made up the full year of the English Comp. (I read them in two weeks and started haunting the school then the public library) So for me the TV was a gateway to reading, but what really made reading hard to budget was the king of the time wasters, the thing I am sitting at right now... Of course anyone born before me would look to the TV as the culprit but my generation was the first to grow up with a tv in house all the time. Of course you will have to put a star after that statement when it came to my family...out TVs were always wildly unreliable, but at the same time we had not reached a saturation point where you could just junk it and buy a new one, nope you wiggled all the tubes, replaced the blue tubes, hell even my mother knew how to run a tube checker! But I digress, anyway for me the device that effected my reading the most in a negative fashion was the computer, otherwise we are all on the same page.
I almost have to agree. When I grew up I was never told to go to bed. I had an old tv in my bedroom. But the thing was, I always ended up reading. I actually got very good at watching television and reading a book at the same time.
That doesn't work with a computer. Your hands are busy typing or mousing or scrolling. Plus, there is something else about a computer.
I'll just use me, and make it simple.
I looked up something for a friend one day, I don't even remember what. It was something about a health thing i think. Anyway, I found that in about 5 minutes and let him know. 4 hours later I realized I had got nothing done, though I did have 3 new ship interior designs started from ships I found online, numerous saved pages on the operations and mechanics of the TARDIS, history of Time lords, and 5 different conceptions of warp drive engines.
The damn thing side tracks you into everything else. The immediate and instant access to info.
Of course lets be honest. Side tracking me toward the Doctor and the TARDIS is about as easy as giving a fly sugar.
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