Read “Candy from Strangers” (on salon.com)
Does this strike anyone else as scary? It just doesn’t sound very healthy. Or maybe I’m just bitter–no one’s ever sent me anything because of these thoughts.
Category Archives: Technology
Relying on Air Conditioning
I’ve come to the conclusion that air conditioning breeds weakness. Our apartment has a box air conditioner in the living room. It doesn’t exactly cool the entire apartment, but with a ceiling fan in the bedroom and a box fan in the hallway, we manage pretty well. In previous summers I haven’t been so lucky. Last year I lived on the first level of an apartment with an air conditioner that could only make the living room cold and moist. The bedroom stayed pretty warm. The previous year I was in Chicago with no AC at all. And every year at school we didn’t have AC.
I’ve noticed whenever I don’t have AC I somehow manage to get by. You drink cold liquids. You invest in a few well-placed fans. You have water fights. You go to the beach. You spend an hour picking out a video so you can enjoy the AC. It’s hot, but you deal with it.
Now that I have AC, even a window air conditioner, I’m a wuss. I suppose it doesn’t help that I spend all day long in air conditioned office. But I’m still a wuss. I get home and crank the AC, turn on all the fans, and collapse for a while. I have no desire to go outside. You couldn’t pay me to go outside. As soon as I get in my truck I have to blast the AC. I used to drive with the windows down.
Sometimes I wonder how people who live closer to the equator make it. But I guess people have been living close to the equator for a long time before air conditioning came along, and they seemed to just fine. I guess we need to toughen up.
Of course you may find it a bit ironic that I live in Minnesota and I’m complaining about the heat. Of course a football player recently died from heat stroke in Minnesota, so don’t start.
It’s a day of links!
When God Hides His Face: an amazing article that recently appeared in Time magazine comparing a Nashville couple and the trials they’ve recently gone through to the story of Job. Sounds a bit far fetched, but Time did an amazing job. It’s reprinted on beliefnet.com.
Dulce de Leche Caramel M&M’s: Mars is now marketing M&M’s for Latinos. Why is this important? Well, it’s not really, it’s just fun for all those M&M aficionados.
Retro Desktops: Check out these old school desktop images. Just when you were getting bored with the most cutting-edge desktop, now you can just go retro.
Dear Invalid User
I used to think that computers were great for everyone. Everybody should run out and get a computer and put the wonder machines to work. Grandmas and Great Uncles should learn how to e-mail and check up on the weather where their grandchildren live. Ah the computer age.
That’s what I used to think. Then I started answering e-mail at my job. I’ve come to the conclusion that people are idiots and shouldn’t be allowed to own a computer unless they’re thoroughly trained, preferably in a rather demeaning way so they understand the power of the computer geek.
My biggest beef is with AOL users. It seems the prerequisite for joining AOL is that you have absolutely no brains in your head. It doesn’t help matters that AOL makes things difficult. In normal e-mail programs links are highlighted and you can simply click on them to launch your Internet browser and check out the website a friend sent you. Not in AOL. The links don’t work. The only way to make them work is to use HTML e-mail, which is an even bigger nightmare. You would think AOL people would be aware of this problem and so learn how to copy and paste links.
Copy and what? That’s right, most of the idiots don’t know how to copy and paste. It’s rather frustrating. Part of my job is to explain to them how to copy and paste. One person wrote me back thanking me and praising me for teaching them how to copy and paste. They said they’d been copying and pasting all day. Wow. One person even thanked me for taking the time to write out the instructions for how to copy and paste. They were amazed I took so much time to do it. One of these days they’ll realize I just copied and pasted the instructions.
It seems there’s a lot of not-so swift people on computers. I had one person write in and say tell me our computer called them an invalid user. I was tempted to start my reply with “Dear Invalid User…” Today someone replied to my e-mail with “Dear Kevin of Webmaster…” This month we’ve been giving away The Prayer of Jabez. Someone e-mailed me about the free offer and the subject line said “The Prayer of Jezebel.”
I suppose I shouldn’t be so hard on people. Computers aren’t exactly intuitive for everyone. This evening one of the elderly people in our building stopped my wife and I and asked us to help her find the address bar. One of these days some snot-nosed kid will be laughing at me when I can’t figure something out, so I guess I should be nice. But sometimes you need to vent your frustration. I’m tempted to write a book.
The Birth of the Emoticon
Have you ever wondered who started those annoying little emoticons? :-) I suppose it’s a comfort the guy didn’t get rich from it.
Giving Blogger a Whirl
Do you know what a blog is? Believe it or not, you’re reading one right now. Blog is short for weblog, which is one of the hottest things on the internet right now. That’s right, ReAL Thoughts is on the cutting edge. Actually, ReAL Thoughts has been way ahead of the times, because this thing has been going since December 5, 1998.
Of course I’ll have to admit that I didn’t have a clue what a blog was until a few weeks ago. But whether I knew it or not, I was still incredibly hip. Now the blog seems to be gaining tremendous popularity and everybody and their brother is doing it. What exactly is a blog, you ask? Well, I
Trouble Being Creative
Some things just aren’t conducive to the writing of these thoughts. Like the end of the semester and moving into a new apartment. Neither one of those is conducive to these thoughts in and of themselves, but put them together, and you have a formula for just plain bad daily thoughts. Could it be that I’m stretching myself to such a limit to finish this semester that I can’t think creatively at 1 a.m. when I go to bed? Or perhaps I’m finding other means of creative expression. I built a castle out of blocks today. Does that count? I’d show you a picture, but it was taken out by a stray throw pillow. Oh well. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Speaking of pictures in these thoughts, what was up with that black-color thing on Thursday? Trust me, it was a lot better in my head. Okay, I’ll just shut up and go to bed.
Blogger Meets Employer
For several days I’ve been thinking about how this thing works, this daily thoughts thing. I always write about what’s on my mind, usually without any reservations. I’ve addressed a number of sensitive issues, and since this ReAL Thoughts thing started I’ve broken up with a girl friend of three years, started another relationship, proposed to that girl, and am dealing with the current separation of my parents. I usually don’t shy away from those issues, but if need be will usually disguise the specifics in generalities so I can talk about what’s bothering me without mentioning names. Usually this works fine.
Napster Shut Down
So a federal judge has ordered the online music-swapping Napster to shut down by midnight tonight. Since the announcement was made Wednesday evening there’s been a flurry of activity and a flurry of voices saying a whole lot of I’m not sure what. If you don’t know, Napster is a computer program that allows users to share mp3 music files for free. The record industry hasn’t been too happy with this, since nearly 85% of the music swapping involves copyrighted songs, and they slapped Napster with a lawsuit. The judge ordered Napster to shut down during the trail, and things don’t look too good for the company that started the music swapping melee.
Slacker
Two weeks. I’ve never gone that long without pondering before. For the first few days it was a nice break, but since then I think it’s been driving me crazy. When writing is what you do, it starts to get to you when you don’t do it all the time. You can tell I haven’t been writing lately.
As a word of explanation, I had to move out of my regular college housing and into my summer housing two weeks ago. Hence I had to pack up my computer and go through the fun of moving. Then they took two weeks to get our internet connections turned on, and that’s how I became a slacker.