I just logged on and every blog I'm following is gone-gone, and Blogger is asking me if I would like to start following some blogs. I have no idea why. They were all there, yesterday; today, it's like I'd never done it.
I've had this happen with the program we use at work. It's a world-wide shipping set-up that lets you do everything from issue a pickup order to file for and AES Export to Delivery orders of multiple kinds. But every now and then it just vanishes things. Makes the work you did go bye-bye and won't tell you where it went. That also happened on our server so much during the California Book Fair, I got to where I'd save a copy of anything I did to my desktop as well as the server. And that saved our butt on a few occasions.
On top of this, I'm hearing a bit of non-stop swearing at QuickBooks since it was updated. And Microsoft Office is just as quirky.
I think a lot of it has to do with how complex the damned programs are becoming. How much we're demanding from them. The more crap you've got to work with, the more crap you've got to go wrong. My little Honda Civic is a hundred times more complex than my old Volvo 122S, to the point where it's hard to even change a light that's gone out. And don't get me started on the tire jack. But some of the rental cars I've driven lately look like trouble seeking a chance to screw your world.
But it's not just technology that's pulling this crap. A co-worker has a 7 year old daughter, and that girl is scheduled down to when she can read, when she can watch TV, when she goes to soccer and dance and religion class (they're Catholic) on TOP of school and play dates. Same for some friends of mine with their daughter -- gymnastics, belly dancing and god knows what else. When do kids get to just hang out and be kids, these days? Hell, I always thought part of growing up was being bored for spaces of time...and not realizing that what you're really doing is giving your brain a respite from the strife of life.
My life shouldn't have much strife, when it comes down to it. I work about 40 hours a week...sometimes 50. I travel some...but I enjoy that, to an extent. And I write and read. I used to watch movies a lot -- 3-4 a week -- but for that I haven't much time, anymore. I'm looking at how many books I have to write and can't justify wasting 2-3 hours on a movie that I'm far more likely to not like than to enjoy. I still crash for a few days at a time, but looking back over my time since leaving Heritage, I've done a shitload of work. Published 7 books and a novella. Written another one. Written most of yet two more. And I also wrote 5 screenplays -- 2 for me and 3 for other people...not to mention the rewrites I did. And that's on top of two major moves -- from LA to SA to Buffalo. No wonder I zone, at times.
But I'm an adult on the downhill side of his life. Kids...they ought to be given a chance to just kick back and have nothing to do and be bored, at times, just so they don't jump into the rat race so keyed up they fall apart by the age of 30. I had that. And more often than not I filled it by reading books or sketching. But sometimes I just did not know what to do with myself...and I now see that as a blessing. Because the way we're going, we're going to be as prone to screw ups as technology now is.
Such is life in the big city.
I've had this happen with the program we use at work. It's a world-wide shipping set-up that lets you do everything from issue a pickup order to file for and AES Export to Delivery orders of multiple kinds. But every now and then it just vanishes things. Makes the work you did go bye-bye and won't tell you where it went. That also happened on our server so much during the California Book Fair, I got to where I'd save a copy of anything I did to my desktop as well as the server. And that saved our butt on a few occasions.
On top of this, I'm hearing a bit of non-stop swearing at QuickBooks since it was updated. And Microsoft Office is just as quirky.
I think a lot of it has to do with how complex the damned programs are becoming. How much we're demanding from them. The more crap you've got to work with, the more crap you've got to go wrong. My little Honda Civic is a hundred times more complex than my old Volvo 122S, to the point where it's hard to even change a light that's gone out. And don't get me started on the tire jack. But some of the rental cars I've driven lately look like trouble seeking a chance to screw your world.
But it's not just technology that's pulling this crap. A co-worker has a 7 year old daughter, and that girl is scheduled down to when she can read, when she can watch TV, when she goes to soccer and dance and religion class (they're Catholic) on TOP of school and play dates. Same for some friends of mine with their daughter -- gymnastics, belly dancing and god knows what else. When do kids get to just hang out and be kids, these days? Hell, I always thought part of growing up was being bored for spaces of time...and not realizing that what you're really doing is giving your brain a respite from the strife of life.
My life shouldn't have much strife, when it comes down to it. I work about 40 hours a week...sometimes 50. I travel some...but I enjoy that, to an extent. And I write and read. I used to watch movies a lot -- 3-4 a week -- but for that I haven't much time, anymore. I'm looking at how many books I have to write and can't justify wasting 2-3 hours on a movie that I'm far more likely to not like than to enjoy. I still crash for a few days at a time, but looking back over my time since leaving Heritage, I've done a shitload of work. Published 7 books and a novella. Written another one. Written most of yet two more. And I also wrote 5 screenplays -- 2 for me and 3 for other people...not to mention the rewrites I did. And that's on top of two major moves -- from LA to SA to Buffalo. No wonder I zone, at times.
But I'm an adult on the downhill side of his life. Kids...they ought to be given a chance to just kick back and have nothing to do and be bored, at times, just so they don't jump into the rat race so keyed up they fall apart by the age of 30. I had that. And more often than not I filled it by reading books or sketching. But sometimes I just did not know what to do with myself...and I now see that as a blessing. Because the way we're going, we're going to be as prone to screw ups as technology now is.
Such is life in the big city.
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