Electronic Life 5.0

So more and more I’m not jes gettin old, but that I’m glad I’m getting old ’cause…I mean, I know I use a computer and, even more an Xbox to download movies, instant streaming and Netflix, heck Lil Mouse and I haven’t had cable TV now fer over four years now, so it’s not like I am not engaging  this new electronic world…I jes don’t much like it…

I think it all starts out innocent and enough and helpful and all, but then soon, like the promise of cable as commercial free TV lasted about a year or so, then we were paying for TV and gettin commercials, and it was more of the same crap but worse.

I think that’s what we’re doin all over again.

And yea Xbox I’m talkin to you…Lets say I buy a movie and ya know there this floaty cloud like storage area where they encourage me to store my movie and I like that because who wants to fill up their hard drive with the movies when I have all that cloud space.

So yea I may buy a movie now and then and say here ya go Xbox hold this for me till I wanna watch it again. They keep it up in a cloud so I figure its gotta be pretty safe only…

I went to watch one of the movies I’d bought the other day, I think it was Ghost Dad with Bill Cosby and lo and behold all that I got was a message saying that my movie was unavailable right now, but as soon as it was available I could watch it again free of charge.

Okay, I mean, I bought the movie you were jes holding it for me. Did you borrow it out to someone else? If so did they leave an ID? And jes how did they get into my cloud? Haven’t they heard the old song “Hey You Get out of My Cloud”.  And what’ya mean I can watch it again “free of charge”, is that you doin me a favor?

It’d be just like if I went to the bank and then the teller said…”Oooo Jeez we’re sorry Mr Unit, We don’t have yer money right now but when we get it back you can have some of your own money free of charge”

Oh really can I? I feel so deeply indebted to you for letting me access something that belonged to me in the first place!

Maybe keeping my valuable media and computer files in a a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere is not the best long term storage solution. I mean is there even a way to somehow lock the damn thing when I’m not using it?

See okay all joking aside the thing is, like the promise of cable TV with it’s better service, programming, access and commercial free-ism it won’t belong before this information is harder to get and costs more.

We used to get our TV for free now we pay for it.

We used to get our radio for free, slowly but surely they’re gonna get us to pay for that.

We still get information relatively freely…

Complaining ’bout the cloud might seem like I’m jes blowin smoke,  but used dvd and  book stores are already feeling the pinch. As the conversion from hard copies to digital cloud storage continues will my copy of Ghost Dad be there forever, or will as some critics suggest, they edit the movie to remove the blatant reference to the afterlife or to suit some other nefarious future purpose as yet unseeable by man.And if every copy of Ghost Dad is updated in the cloud at the exact same time. Would any of us ever know.? I mean once Bill’s gone. Then, Would any of us ever know?

 

 

 

Electric Life 2.0

Well hello been so busy haven’t gotten to write in R W & R for awhile(put up a couple dysu posts & started posting my completed novel in sections in same). But today was one of those super busy days flying 80 mph (literally at times) and a subject came up in my head that I thought was worthy post material…

Now a days we have all these gizmos, high tech gadgets that our supposed to make our lives easier, save time, facilitate life’s transitional moments. Many, most in fact, often do work this way, some are extremely helpful, some are also at times stunningly inefficient and a source of extreme ‘second wasting’ annoyance.

We all are busy these days what with, work, family, hobbies, friends, xtra activities. Spare time, (that is time to waste) is at a minimum. In my job this can become particularly obvious.

Being a delivery driver I use my cell phone a lot. I love the lil thing, can’t imagine how we got along without it. When I pull up to make my drop off I call the customer, here’s where my love of this technology can quickly become a Bobby Brown kind’a love, a Mel Gibson kind’a love…I dial the number and

You have reached 605 555-5150 if you would like to leave a message wait for the beep, to send an instant page press one…bla bla bla, this message goes on for about forty five seconds. All I wanna say is ‘yer sandwich is here’. That’s less than a second, yet every time I gotta sit and listen to the same b.s..

And who are these people who still need instructions when it comes to how to leave a voice mail?…Maybe in the 80’s but um..excuse me Verizon this is 2012. Aren’t these supposed to be smart phones?

It’s like if very time I went to the grocery store the checker greeted me and said…’okay here’s what we’re going to do, you start putting the items from your cart onto the check stand, I will take each item and individually scan it using…’

Okay first I'm gonna say welcome to our grocery store...'Welcome to our grocery store'. Next...

You’d be like ‘B I know what a damn register does’…

But no I gotta hear it every time..okay not every time, some times I get to hear music first..

Listen I work for a company where I am supposed to be moving ‘freaky fast’, my customers expect it of me, is it wrong of me to expect it from my phone?

Okay so if you like this post, use your right hand to grasp the mouse and using the wheel, slowly scroll down toward the bottom of the page, not all the way to the bottom, just below the post but above the….