I BELIEVE.

READ THIS!

Although the world wide web has been around for just 20 years, it is hard to imagine life without it. It has given us instant access to vast amounts of information, and we’re able to stay in touch with friends and colleagues more or less continuously.

But our dependence on the internet has a dark side. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.

PICNIC

Yesterday was Terri's company picnic, at the home of one of the owners/founders. It was a well attended summer 'do.' At one point I counted about 24 people and 2 dogs in the pool of jumping in or out. (And the pool isn't huge!) But it was 102 degrees.

The host had suspended from saw horses what appeared to be a 24 foot strip of half pvc pipe, ready for a 24 foot ice cream sundae. Sure enough, at the appointed time (when he perceived a lull,) the host appeared with gallons of ice cream and loaded the trough. Helpers then spread chocolate sauce, caramel, crumbled Oreos, sprinkles, M&Ms, peanut butter cups, whipped cream, and more.

The kids were assembled behind a line. Spoons were distributed. The ice cream was melting. Adult ice cream-o-philes like me were impatient. The kids were given the "go!" and they did, scooping up spoonfuls. One dog was licking the end of the trough. He was also getting all sorts of sticky all over him. After a few minutes adults moved in for a few scoops.

Then the host yelled "food fight!" and remaining goo was suddenly scooped and hurled by many of the kids. I retreated. One young girl smeared chocolate sauce and whipped cream and whatever all over herself.

I imagine that today ants from several counties are headed to the Woodstock of Sticky Sweet.

THE SHORT LEASH

At work I face twin computer screens (from twin computers). My younger associate has FOUR screens, one of which is tuned to CNN. Of course I go everywhere with my Blackberry. Yesterday I went outside to the pool and partly due to the heat, left the Blackberry inside the house. As I approached the door, I felt 'wrong' somehow, and realized it was due to the loss of connectivity.

To what? I guess to the swirl of social and infomedia which have become omnipresent and important. That sense of connectedness, no matter how illusory, has become an important part of life today. Are we really 'connected' to the 'friends' on Facebook? Maybe some. Maybe not.

Our radio cluster's sales manager of internet is 26. The associate mentioned above is, I think, 28. THEY GREW UP ON COMPUTERS. They can type without looking at the keyboard.

I remember being a small kid when one Christmas Santa brought me a "typewriter" in which there was a wheel you had to turn to each letter. Almost a manual Selectric, except it was a wheel, not a ball, and you had to do everything physically. I didn't like it. Imagine how far we've come from that perspective! What would an 8 year old of today do with that toy? His or her world is keyboards and mice.

STUFF HAPPENS

I couldn't get into Blogger on Internet Explorer. Still can't, even after trying all the fixes they suggest. This is through Firefox. I believe I took all the corrective steps back in Explorer, but noooooooooooo.

I've been work during the day then I seem to run out of time and so haven't been feeding the blog. If anyone is left, thank you for visiting!

I write for the exercise and to stay sane. Semi-sane.

There IS a thread here - stuff happens - when home from work yesterday I saw one of our landscaping zones gushing water. It wasn't on and wasn't scheduled to be on, but there it was. Since I couldn't shut it down, and never knew where the landscape kill valve lived, I had to shut off water to the house after beating on the controller.

Our email pleas were answered and Jim The Man came over and cannibalized one of our dead zones and rebuilt the solenoid actuated valve. I now know how to turn off the landscaping water supply. Also we found the cause - our grasscutter people ran over the controller with the big rider mower and killed it, releasing the water.

Then they split.

I am amazed how either things have changed or I was lucky for so many years of peaceful home ownership elsewhere. In the 5 1/2 years we've lived here, we've had pool pumps die, gush, or leak, irrigation issues, and even saw a light bulb fire up (literally) when activated by a timer. That almost took the lampshade out and that would maybe have burned the house down! We've had in-wall plumbing leaks, in-floor leaks twice on the same toilet. Floors replaced, walls replaced.

I don't think our builder was negligent, either.

Neighbors one house away were hit by lightning. Neighbors whose house is maybe a mile or more away (and we can see from here) have been hit by lightning TWICE.

And the computer... goes semi-sluggishly along. I am reading the ads with great interest.