Around the World in a Millisecond

WOAH.... 15 minutes was the time between commercial mesages way back then....now, it is often eight minutes!!!   so, FAME? It is only the ability to interupt commercials!!!

POLITICS?   seems that everything is now measured in dollar$$$$....and THAT equates to buying commercials on MEDIA...   So, is there a second level we have not been invited to? And it is about the media sellers....HMMMM?

In this viral age, it is becoming increasingly easier to achieve fame for nothing more than   just showing up at events or starting a blog about stalking celebreties.
 
Anybody can be famuous for 15 minutes, but sustaining the notoriety takes work.   Lady Gaga, like most of the other femaie pop stars that make the cover of mainstream magazines, is just giving us something to talk about.  Unfortuantely, it will take us years to figure out whether or not she has any talent.   

The virtual world is polluted with  crude videos of forgettable events and ordinary people clamoring for 15 minutes of fame.  However, it is a great tool for fundraising and free advertising. 

I don't twitter, have never been to facebook, myspace, or gone on youtube. It's just too much. I'm probably missing some things and that's okay.....
 
What happened to being low key???? My grandmother always said your name should appear in the paper twice-- when you are born & when you die......

Depending on what you do for a living, a vitural profile can help or hurt you.  Social networking can be a way of staying connected with people from your past or friends who live overseas.  It can be a disaster if your "friends" are mostly the people that you work with, your family and neighbors.  Its almost as if joining a social network is a way of inviting people to stalk you. 
 
 I've found that sharing blog posts or announcing charity events on a social network has really helped me to further a cause.  Facebook was a fast way to get the word out when I need to get donations of coats, shoes and toys at Christmas for my charity work.

JULIA, You make a great point. Social network sites are like Church Newsletters. And sometimes, it is the Church of the absurd...but it does serve a purpose,in as much as it gives people a voice,and in some cases,I am guessing,that may be sufficient to keep someone at home,committing themselves to their virtual followers,rather than on the street,causing something to get attention...I  have that picture,from my childhood,of those kids in that huge IRON LUNG,with a mirror,so they could see other than straight up...individuals,in a"bubble",so to speak,...is that kind of the same?

I guess as with most things, the internet can be used for bad or good. Over the weekend, a penfriend in Finland I used to write diligently with since I was about 13 finally located me. I had tried numerous times googling her but she is a very private person. Luckily I am not & she found me on LinkedIn, a professional network. With Facebook, my family members spread over the world have been able to come together too. According to a report we are separated from any other person by no more than 6 persons ("Six degrees of Separation") through a friend-of-friend network....its scary in a way but as Julia said, its a great way to get the word out too

Julia Masi,                                                                                                                                                     
  I misread your "virtual" for "vultural" whoch probably ought to be a word.                                On the one hand, the Numa Numa kid is probably still profiting from having done that, but for the rest of us, can anybody even summon his face, much less his name?                                                I am with you, Bebe. I have done some of these things, but I have decided to ignore Lady Gaga until she goes away.  It's not that I dislike popular music. I think Cole Porter and those Beatle guys are pretty good, even if they may not last. And I like that  Corduroy Pizza song.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw

The math behind networks is fascinating!  Nodes, ties, bridges, etc.... What's also fascinating is the math behind epidemics (viral isn't just an arbitrary word!).  And that opens the door to complexity theory and chaos....  I suspect some PhD's in some back room are working on a program which will optimize the possibility of making one's presence 'go viral'.  Imagine what wannabee celebrities would pay to 'launch themselves'!  "Ladies and gentlemen: For a paltry $225,000 we can make you famous and rich!"  Personally I think being famous and rich is a lot like standing on a bare hill holding a golf club vertically during a thunderstorm, but I've noticed most of my fellow human beings don't see it that way.......  Anyway, if ya'll want to learn a bit about social networks here (as always) is a link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network

Anopnymous power has always impressed me a lot more than being 'world famous'.  Though I totally disagreed with their 'life purpose' I have always admired North Vietnamese generals who became waiters in officer clubs in South Vietnam during the war.  'Yessir'.  'Nosir'.  And they hid themselves in the anonymity of the humble to pursue their job(s).  Ego subjugated to will.....  I'm not surprised they won that war.  Iron will always defeats chest-beaters. 

Incidentally, bacteria and viruses are a lot like North Vietnamese generals.  They silently and quietly work; one need only take one's eye off the ball for a short period before they find ways of overwhelming 'the opposition'.   Witness H1N1, AIDs, VRE, and MRSA.....

I joined Facebook shortly before I moved cross country. It's been a great way to feel less isolated in my new environment. It's also been fun to "find" old friends and family that I haven't been in touch with for a long time.

It was pointed out early in my Facebook experience that FB is really just a cosmic cocktail party. The conversations are usually ego-centric and superficial. Not always, but mostly. And that's okay for that environment. That's what it's for.

What I love about The Eye of Peterman is that we are willing to go beyond the surface level stuff. Opinions are fully expressed and defended. We actually disagree with each other on occasion. In a world of political correctivity and mock politeness, it is refreshing to see discussions go beyond "I believe THIS!" and everybody else saying, "Soooo, where's the french onion dip?"

(Oh, no, did I just open up the whole French question again?!)

K~, nope, you just were looking for the french dip, and I think he went outside for a smoke.......

I never thought the parade would pass me by - or that I wouldn't care very much that it had. I'm only 60, I still have my original iPod (which still works perfectly) and I bought a new computer a year and a half ago. Yeah, I know these things are so obsolete now, there are touch screens (which are cool) and this social networking that I don't really care about. Tweeting, Facing and whatever seems to be geared to faster people than I, people with a need to exchange ego. I like email for its unobtrusiveness. It's quiet. You can read and answer at your leisure. This Twitting and Booking style "I gotte know what you're doing every second" stuff, is to me, so intrusive as to harken back to those days when the telephone rang its harsh bell as if the building was on fire. "This is important stuff" the bell yelled. Most often it wasn't. It could have waited. The most important invention, after the computer was, possibly, the answering machine (and the less strident ringtones.) Finally I could decide if I wanted to talk based upon the info I heard recorded. If I wasn't up to it, at least the caller had made a connection and the ball was in my court - fair enough. And then caller ID was a little added luxury. Here's fair warning to the 1-800 callers; I don't pick up. In fact I'm hoping someone will invent a device that allows you to choose which callers will actually get through, and silently not answer those I choose to block. That's enough social networking for me, twitterface.

Right on, Bongoben! Some of my "technology" gizzmos are so old I have to open a little door on the side to put coal in. I think it's RUDE & disrespectful to fiddle with your mobile or answer the phone in the company of another person. What's voicemail for!!!!? New for me today is a particularly vulgar rhodedendron which has burst into magenta dayglo pink exuberance in my garden. It's a welcome friend every year & it never 'phones or e-mails me, never mind sending video clips. I am amused how twitchy visitors get if my 'phone rings & I don't pick up.Maybe being NOT AVAILABLE 24/7 will be the New Cool!

Right On!

does anyone else see the people always talking on the phone,while they walk,(&etc. that is impolite to even mention)as suddenly liberated? And is their conversation elemental to the future of mankind?

Michael -- so well said and I do agree with you.  Perhaps it should only be fifteen minutes of fame --- that would be a welcome goodbye to so many people that are littering the news.
 
I, however, would be lost without modern technology though I do agree that is abused and has created a whole new world of rudeness.  The telephone though is difficult to impossible for me to use.  People often hang up when they receive a relay call; you'd be surprised at how often that happens.....very frustrating.  So, email and texting, Facebook and yes, Peterman's Eye keep me in communication with ..... well, people; "hearing" other voices than my own. 

RY -- there was a cute cartoon in "Parade" magazine this week where a young couple were looking at an older couple in a restaurant and asking:  Do you think we'll be like that when we get older, not texting to each other but talking?  (Probably not an exact quote, but you get the idea.)

is it wrong to be talking to one person on the phone,while texting another,on the same phone,at the same time,  

Being in retail, I find it very rude when a person talking on a phone comes into the store and points at me and then at something they want to see.
Luckily most of the time I can tell them I have to wait till they are free to give their attention to the merchandise.

Having Read all the Posts so far ... I see that this is indeed going to be another Good Day !!! One of the best things about intellect, is that it is continuously expansive .......  for most people anyway .......

Korthal - I hate it when people try to talk on the phone and conduct business at a retail establishment at the same time. Multi-tasking just doesn't work, it just frustrates (and demeans) everybody involved. I'm so grateful when I see the salesperson tell the phone-addict to finish their call first...

I'm mightily offended when someone takes a call (or worse yet) texts while supposedly spending time with me. Teen/twenties are the worst at this... my kids anyway.

Technology is a tool. We are supposed to use it, not visa versa.

Years ago I started screening all my phone calls. It was, after all, my phone, and I had the right to answer it when I wanted to. Since abandoning my land line this has become much easier, as my mobile phone tells me who is calling before I pick up. This is a lovely little piece of technology, as far as I am concerned...

And voicemail eliminates the fear of missing something important.

Email is great when I want to take the time to compose my words especially well, and want the person I am corresponding with to do the same.

Lastly, a forum like this is an amazing place to meet and come to know people we would never have met before!

So, while I am no longer interested in the newest shiny object to hit the market, I have certainly embraced the "new communication" universe.

In the end, though, there is no replacement for face to face, hand to hand contact. Expression and touch are so powerful...

Isn't new tech supposed to make life easier? We now have phones that are harder to use to make a simple phone-call, computers that are harder to type on (I-pad), televisions that require an engineering degree to turn on, let alone hook up, cars that come with so many options that you can't even figure out how to turn it on, GPS that will get you lost with a pleasant voice, and battery operated corkscrews that look like they could take over the world if they turn evil.

There are reasons I carry a fountain pen, a notepad, and a pocket-watch . . . and that's about it.

I love this topic.  It's the first time in a while that I've found myself actually smiling at the ideas here -- not the fault of the Village, mind you, I am at fault entirely, but what matters is that this topic makes me smile.  Laugh, even.
 
Because two weeks ago, I succumbed to familial and social pressure to open a facebook account, and for two weeks I've been crabby and unsettled.  And I've developed ferocious headaches and vivid bad dreams.  About people I hadn't thought of in simply ages, the reason being I'd cut ties with them over the years for the simple reason that we'd either grown apart physically and emotionally and in all ways that counted -- and we no longer had anything but our long ago past in common.
 
Then, two weeks ago, via social networking that is FaceBook, there they were again.  And I got messages and links and likes and pokes and whatever the hell else happens on that site from these now-strangers, and to be polite I had to nudge, poke, message, reply, like, unlike and link back to them.  I won't go into Farmville and gifting.
 
So it took the whole g.d. day, at the end of which, my mind was filled with what seemed like tiny torn corners of notebook paper with fading ink and only one or two letters and a part of a drawing on it, nonsense -- rather than a cohesive whole, ideas as varied as the people who write them, but all referencing in some way some one thing, and even if I can't put a name to the one thing I take away from this Village at the end of the day, it is something of substance, something to mentally chew on, and worth my while.
 
There's communication here.  There is no communication on FaceBook, not the kind I like, unless "YOU GO GIRL!!!" and "WHOOOO-HOOOOO!!!!!!" or "LOVE. LOVE. LOVE!!!!!" -- unless this form of communication satisfies you, because that's the form of communication that's "over there."
 
I'm sure it serves a purpose for some, and that's good.  But to me, it's like some vortex that sucks you into it, and once in, I can see how some never return, it's so fast so "multi-tasking" so nothing.  I'm sorry and no offense meant to those of you who have taken FB into your life like a religion, but I'm officially turning over my membership, suspending the account.  When I want to talk with someone, I'll talk to them the old fashioned ways, not via FaceBook. 
 
No can do, no more.
 
And I've got pictures to put up, which I'd rather not share with friends of friends from my childhood and adolescent years...I'd rather they go up, here, where they might be seen by anyone, but at least I know that no one here will comment "WHOOOO-HOOOO!!!!!"
 
After two weeks in a Very Strange Land, I feel like I've come home again.
 
 
 

It sure seems that way sometimes, Michael, doesn't it.

However...

Some years ago I was in the market for a car. The lease on my over-priced vehicle was coming to an end and I was tired of paying for all those bells and whistles. I thought about going back to my first love... a '66 Mustang. Pony interior. 289. Yes, that's what I wanted.

I even found one for sale nearby, so I went to test drive it. Oh. my. No power steering, no power brakes. The thing drove like a tank. A very cool, sporty little tank, but...

I think of that whenever I think of going back... to a rotary phone with no voicemail. Or having to write down and mail a piece of paper whenever I want to share a quick laugh with my friends.

HD tvs are possibly overrated, but when I find myself watching an older SD tv, my eyes start to cross..

I love my phone... can't believe how many of those "useless" apps have saved my... um... rear on more than one occasion.

GPS is usually more reliable than we like to admit. I greatly enjoy pouring over paper maps, but when I'm driving around (or hiking, for that matter) and find myself hopelessly turned around, there's nothing like the You Are Here dot to set my course.

A fountain pen and a notepad are wonderful. I prefer a very sharp #2 pencil myself... but your message would have been a long time in coming without the computer and keyboard.

I'll hang my clothes out to dry when the weather permits, but I'm not giving up my dryer in the winter, or on rainy days, or to fluff up my towels.

I use the computer to order the organic seeds for my garden.

Even the Amish are willing to allow for some technology if it can be proved to be beneficial to the whole group...

Loveley to trwal through all those comments- very thought provoking. Sod technology & communication devices. Resolve to hug somebody tomorrow.

I'm not saying that all tech is bad, I'm just saying that some of us would like that intermediary step. I have a cell phone. I use it to make calls. I have a laptop, and I even use a remote for my TV. But I don't need to have a constant internet connection through my phone on the off chance that someone pokes me on facebook while I'm getting my hair cut.

So many bytes for thought. I feel more ignorant than yesterday (is that possible? Well except for the planes Ivan, I've got to go back and read what you wrote after I left....), I don't know who Lady Gaga is...
As I read through the discussion I remembered my grandparents discussing debates they'd heard as children on the good and evil of radio: How it affected war, because of the immediacy of it's coverage rather than much slower print media. How it sensationalized unimportant things and events and created an appetite for "inapropriate" forms of entertainment and editorializing. how it gathered the family together in attentive "inactivity" rather than useful labor. But also how it made them "see" the world they'd never travel to, educated them on subjects they'd never known to question, widened their horizons. It all came down to twisting a knob. It still does. I need it, but hopefully will not be ruled by it. It's up to me. Isn't that true of most things we allow into our lives? Notice I said allow, not have forced upon us.

Andy Warhol just makes me want tomato soup.

Anyone remember the Talking Heads song "People Like Us"?

People like us
Who will answer the telephone
People like us
gonna make it because
we don't want freedom
we don't want justice
we just want someone to love

With grilled smoked gouda cheese sandwiches!

It all comes down too twisting a knob...JaxZ, I love that, there's so much in that short statement. 
 
And what Michael wrote: that he "even has a remote for his t.v., I do too, Michael, but I refuse to have a Universal remote, my son in law hooked all our electronic stuff into that one remote, and after they left, I was clueless as to how to use it, I watched the Weather Station until my husband came home from a business trip, and put all the electronics back the way they were, each to one remote, the way they ought to be, I swear it.
 
I have a daughter who is more like you, Kristina.  She loves her phone, if she lost it, she'd need psychotherapy.  I don't mean you would, Kristina, but I know her, and I know I'd have to haul her off to an analyst if she lost her smart-y phone.  She'd be stuck in her tracks, unable to move or think -- or call the schools and the sitter to say she'll pick up her kids once she finds her phone to remember where the school and sitter are located, she relies heavily on GPS to get around town, for god's sake.  It's not good.  Of course she's on FaceBook, and while she swears she doesn't, I just know she tweets.  I can't believe we sent this smart kid to college, so she could grow into an adult with a tendency to tweet.
 
My car has nothing in it that I don't find to be necessary.  The other stuff, the electronics that came with it that were so gee-whiz great, I've tried them (GPS, for one) and I don't like it.  Getting lost is a good thing, for me.  I'm happiest finding my way back home, I don't want a computer to tell me how to do it more quickly. I use the CD player.  I never listen to the radio.  I have an Ipod but I don't use it in my car, too much stuff on it.  And my camera, I love my camera, and it goes with me everywhere.  But my phone, I keep it in my car and I don't answer it if it rings when I'm driving or talking to someone as in really speaking, using my vocal chords, face to face. 
 
So my phone is not smart, and it could be argued that, neither am I since I don't avail myself of all the electronics I could have at my disposal, but I just don't always want to be in contact with everyone in my life, or sometimes, with anyone in my life.
 
There's a time and place when I just need to "twist the knob to off" to paraphrase JaxZ.  And it's lovely, the peace, the quiet, the independence, and the feeling of being disconnected with nothing to keep me company but my own thoughts.

OOooo, how emabarrassing. Sorry karma, trigger finger. that was directed to Penn's tomato soup.

When I think of Warhol, I think of Marilyn Monroe.
 
 
I wonder if that's unhealthy, if you know what I mean?
 
I wish I thought of tomato soup, but I don't.
 
I wonder if I should worry.
 
Hi Penny!

 Andy Warhol just makes me want Marilyn.

Ewwww Stoney, I don't she'd be really appealing right now.....

There will always be ways of communicating that are taken up with great enthusiasm for a period of time only to be replaced by the latest and greatest and fastest method.
Social networks are an integral part of the fabric of the human community. In our never-ending desire to quickly spread news and ideas, people have progressed from homing pigeons to satellites, from messengers on horseback to Instant Messenger, from the telegraph to Twitter, and from heliographs to Flash technology.
Viral videos through video sharing websites on the Internet are here today, but will be gone tomorrow...gone the way of transistor radios, videocassette tapes, floppy disks, et cetera. The future will most assuredly bring with it new trends that will eclipse the old and make today's common place technologies a mere memory. Augmented Reality using virtual retinal displays, and any number of other emerging developments, are just around the next bend on our road to the future.

STONEY:   Someone is selling Norma Jean's  X-Rays on eBay, right now .......

 It was not the hard parts...

Stoney just makes me feel like Ed McMahon.
 
Oh JaxZ, yes..with some grainy mustard.
 
Hi P4! So GOOD to see you!

Also Stoney:  there a photo of Marilyn post mortem on some post mortem site where they post post mortem pics like that.
 
She didn't look as bad as I'd thought she would.

To all here today.

It would seem we all have trepidation when it comes to things new.

I work for the Postal Service and have seen first hand the effect new communication devices have had on the business I'm in. And yet, this posting is courtesy of a fancy smartphone.

To those new here, welcome. It is a wonderful escape and enlightening place to boot. Thanks J.P. for the forum in which to discuss all the varied topics and ideas. The world would truly be a better place if we all were as open minded in the real world as we seem to be in the virtual one.

I'm heating up some homemade, organic, locally-grown tomato soup in the microwave to help me recover from a virus while I google who this Gaga is.....did I mention I was on a gameshow and have had my 15 minutes?

Kentucky C: I don't know if it is really trepidation as much as consumer exhaustion. Every year, the new best things come out, the world rushes out to buy it, and the cycle starts all over. I've had my cell phone for nearly 2 years. It works well, I do my best not to drop it, throw it, or otherwise break it, and I see no reason to change it until I can do so for free. But how many people rushed out to buy a computer that makes things like typing more difficult than a regular computer? How many people upgrade their cell phone every 6 months? It is simply exhausting to try to keep up!

When I got down to BongoBern's and hazel leese's comments, I knew I would have to add a comment. "I never thought the parade would pass me by - or that I wouldn't care very much that it had." Ditto, Bongo. " I think it's RUDE & disrespectful to fiddle with your mobile or answer the phone in the company of another person. What's voicemail for? I am amused how twitchy visitors get if my 'phone rings & I don't pick up." Ditto, Hazel. I actually enforce techno-etiquette in my home. I ask people nicely to not answer their phone. If they do answer it, then or later (they seem to think the passing of half an hour might have made me forget my strange request), I tell them it is my policy to confiscate all electronic communication devices brought into my home. Then when they hear my landline ring and see me totally ignore it, they look positively awestruck. I just tell them "I must be the least important person you know, because the world actually goes on spinning even if I'm out of touch for a while."

RY - "is it wrong to be talking to one person on the phone,while texting another,on the same phone,at the same time," LOL and long  ....... talk about ambidextrous

Michael I contemplate being somewhat like the old woman in Farenheit 451; sitting on my pile of books while "they" pour gasoline on them and then reaching out my hand to strike my kitchen match on the porch railing.....
But only if they try to force a Kindle on me.
I do like my iphone. My husband is weekly literally on the other side of the planet (and we talk daily for free using it with Skype), and emergencies occur. But, it IS on vibrate or off if I'm with someone, driving, in a restaurant, church, movie, etc. Common courtesy applies whether to electronics or any circumstance. I did have my prior cell phone for 8 years. This one's easier, it's got pictures instead of directions. It's my servant, I'm not it's slave.
I'm not going to try to keep up. It doesn't work on any of the fronts I've tried: Cliques, Fashion, Intelligentsia, Art trends, whatever. I'll pick what I like and be content. And ask for help when I need it!

I have always feared that e-mail accomplishes, at most, only an ourobouros effect. What time it saves is precisely the amount of time it takes from us (in aggregate anyway).

 
Dammit, Swaim, you're getting like Bill Buckley.

I just e-filed my tax return while sipping a cabernet... here's to technology. Cheers!

Karma: I've kept individual files of sent & response emails with a few special loved ones over the past 20 years or so with. After I "shuffle off this mortal coil" (quote police?) they will be put into a small book (No "tweet" emails, letters, sometimes pages long, my fingers can't hold a pen well) for each person. Our written, ongoing conversation over all those years. Tears, laughter, tragedy, anger, growth, mundane and epic, everything chronicled into our story. Not meant to take the place of talking, ever. But as I've spent most of my life several thousand miles away from those I love, a written photograph for when the mind blurs details.
I have the ones from my mother (who found it much easier to type on a big keyboard than try to hold a pen or see her handwriting) in with her letters to me over a lifetime. I really do think that with some things, it's about application and intent, not about the "thing" itself. It's a utensil, an implement.
I DO miss the written letter. I write my thank you's and "bread and butter" notes though they're all but illegible. But I never would have met (or annoyed) all of YOU without this! *MAUDLIN ALERT* Oooo, maybe I should go take my drugs, er medicine now....{{wandering away}}}}

There is a really good point there; imagine,if you will, that the same human characteristics exist now,as waaaay back then....and somewhere,on the side of a pyramid,is the equivalent of a tweet....or the old joke about, if I get there before you, I will make an "X" on the ground- - - If you get there first, erase it..

I used to be able to tell hundreds of jokes-literally,and did-now, I just hit forward, and am hard pressed to remember those,(though the ones I used to tell, I do still mostly remember,and they are mind filed by subject)...   .   So that brings up the fact that notes,a thing that did exist,to help us know how Issac Newton thought out his first Apple....   Funny, all the White House Emails disappeared when they should have been evidence....

I am such a technical klutz...it's well known and accepted by all who know me.  The acquaitance can be as short as a day and there will be many documented instances of my cluelessness in the face of any kind of technology.  Honestly, I sometimes scare myself with my ineptness.  But there it is...and no amount of demonstrations, lessons, etc with the machine/s in question seem to help.  My brain just sort of seizes up when handed a remote.
Michael....I DO so enjoy the satisfaction of writing with a fountain pen, but truly am distressed that due to lack of opportunity to use them much when I truly need them they are bone dry!! (Check out Levenger's for great pens and accessories.)
 People get frustrated with me because I rarely answer my cell phone....I'm just of the firm belief that it's for outbound calls only--
 
My husband is not a correspondent in the traditional sense of the word, nor does he telephone friends regularly.  BUT, due to e-mail, he has really developed a closeness for some friends and family that he wouldn't have done before.  He even became quite close to an uncle of mine via e-mail exchanges.  This would have been highly unlikely through traditional channels.  He's even gotten closer to our son-in-law this way--a man, like himself, who wouldn't necessarily call to chat, but can be very comfortable conversing through e-mail.  So, I will give technology it's due there, but that's about all.
 
For years I've stashed letters in books--usually as bookmarks as I'm reading, but not necessarily.  And it's so much fun to pull a book from the shelf to re-read and find the stashed letter, which then conjures up so many other memories.

PARK--- I don't at all think it is strange that you think of Marilyn Monroe--- I think she was radiant, tragic, & wonderful and beyond beautiful. I feel happy when I see a picture of her. Or melancholy, but I love looking at her.
 
It's just too bad that sooooooooo many people walking around have absolutely no manners when it comes to a cell phone in public. You just want to scream, "You are tacky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
It also seems to be that the more poverty stricken you are; the nicer & more blinged out your phone is. So many people comment on the fact that I don't have the most up to date phone. I reply that it works just fine & does what I need it to do-- let me talk to people. I also add that since I am not a doctor or a Hollywood lawyer I really don't need a fancier phone.
 
 

Just sitting here wondering why the i-Pad is thought to be a tough type. Once a comfortable angle is established and the choices are endless, you just touch alphabetic characters.

Interesting bunch of comments today, in waters too shallow to swim but just deep enough to float a shallow draft craft or roll up your pants and walk across. You know: row vs wade.

Some of us clinging to the past, some more or less comfy in the now, some anxious for or at least not fearing the future and all of us are, to some degree, like everybody else.

Tootise Pops for all, take one and pass them back.

Now, there are a few files to load onto this little beauty before it goes back into the box and on its way as a gift.

STONEY-- Row vs. wade--- brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!

You are truly brilliant, O Wise One.. I like the Tootsie Pop too. It'so nice to have bilingual friends.

PETERMAN FASHION WATCH:

In addition to sightings previously in this space (Peterman brown moleskins on Brian Cranston of "Breaking Bad," James Cameron in a Peterman blue silk shirt), tonight Keith Olbermann seems to have been wearing a blazer that is a lot like the blue-paned retro-Hollywoodish Peterman blazer.

Bebe:

I will henceforth and forever come to know that phenomenon of which you speak----the deeper into poverty you are, the blingier your cell phone---as the Bebe Effect. Really astute observation. In this area, most cell phones look like postage-card-sized pimps.

I hate the boundary-inappropriateness of cell phones so much that I made it a clinic rule, told to patients by triage nurses to turn the gdf things off. If a patient cell phone rings, I call a halt to everything. AND IF THEY ACTUALLY ANSWER IT, I walk out of the room. They can wait their turn for another cycle.

It's the meta-Bebe effect: the more downwardly mobile one is, the likelier one is to answer a cell phone it at a totally asinine moment.

I am unsure if it is true of all rural areas, but something that distinguishes mine is that every native of the area adds about 20 deciBels to what would be appropriate voice loudness. I have witnessed the aleatory and contemplative glory of bookstore silence rent apart by "GIRLFRIEND.....WHATCHEW ADOIN BEEYOTCH?" at 80 dB.

 Parful thing the TP... thanks.

Excellent and awfully funny, swami. 
 
Must have caused a couple minor heart attacks, or at least some episodes of hyperventilation among the regulars.
 
"Postage-card-sized pimps" -- well put!
 
 

KSS--- I agree w/ PARK (she's so brilliantly easy to agree w/, I hope she never starts a cult)-- you nailed that one. Good for you for sticking to some kind of civilized behavior. Even people who should know better-- don't!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is stupifying......