Backups

I write it down lest my memory fails me, then I type it lest the paper is lost or burnt, then I save it on a hard drive lest my device is ruined, then I print it out lest my hard drive is stolen, then I memorize it lest the paper is lost or burnt... what a vicious circle! Technology is great but not infallible, at least no less than the manual or the old ways;  otherwise, why do you need all those backups?

Slim

I bought an I Pad and I should admit that it is awesome. I almost want to take back what I said about the feel of books, the smell of books, etc. Of course, my father was at awe. He didn't comment this time. Nothing surprises him anymore after the net to phone invention and the escalator! You need to see those inventions in the eyes of technology illiterates to admire them. He was turning the E-book pages and probably thinking if that device can also read his mind. Why am I talking about the I Pad? yes, the I Pad made me think that technology advances in a funny way. Devices start big and then they start getting smaller and smaller. Take the mobile phone, at one point, the smaller the phone was, the trendier. One of the Motorola phones was too small that you would think this is just the battery. Then they start getting bigger again until they reach an optimal size somewhere in between. But apart from the size, everything is getting slimmer. Soon we will carry our brain in a suitcase, a slim one, and hope we don't forget it at home.

P.S. Again the drawing is not mine.

Modernos e Antigos

A friend of mine was trying to convince me to stop buying books and get myself a kindle, the Amazon book reader. I joked at first that I am still trying to figure out the difference between an Ipad and an Ipod. She had all sorts of convincing arguments but ones that did not appeal to me. She said you can take it with you when you travel, and you get to have 3000 books with you, weightless. Why on earth would anyone need 3000 books when they travel unless they booked eternity for destination! (For some reason, I find the name funny too, it's stupid but I don't know why as she was talking I was thinking: Kindle like Kindelegarden!) But then she said that kindle is more eco-friendly, the argument I hate most. I hate to be accused of being a nuisance to the environment. I do ignore Greenpeace volunteers who stop me on the road to lecture me about the environment but that does not make me environmentally unfriendly. I even participated during the weekend in a cleaning activity of a 0.00000001% surface area of 0.000001% of a hill that makes 0.00001% of a mountain which is 0.001% of a village that in turn is less than 0.0001% of the total area of Lebanon. I did that although I cleaned 0.000001% of the garbage in there. Back to the kindle. She also said that books bring cockroaches, that one made me laugh, it reminded me of Ziad Rahbani in film ameriki tawil. But that argument was strong, because I had promised her that I would only buy used books, of course I had lied, and then I found out that used books bring even more than cockroaches, they bring book worms (literally). Bookworms! Even Kindle freaks would still be called bookworms!

Warning: Information technology decreases sexual activity

With the fast and vast flow of information reaching us -or us trying to catch up with it- the world doesn't seem to be moving any faster and our brain, eyes, and ears have not yet adapted to this fast evolution as of yet. Maybe few years down the road, kids will be born with four eyes and four ears and probably 3 brains, one for news information processing, another for work related matters, and the third for everyday tasks (how do we eat? how to start a car, where did I leave the key, who my wife is, etc.) Some women will be born with six hands, two for doing the dishes, two for handling business, and another two for carrying the baby and massaging their back pains. For now, google reader is all we got. The funny thing though is that with the wide spectrum of topics and variety of stuff out there, stuff that you think you are interested to know, you end up needing yet another filtering system to filter your google reader. Aha, filtering, the key word in all of this mess. From there on, all zeros in to how big or small the filtering holes are and you will be surprised how much less you know the more information you get. Because the more information you get, the less you are inclined to read. If you are persistent enough, maybe a genius -or a loser, some might argue- then you might end up covering the top headlines, some titles here and there, or just focusing on one thing, one single topic, one single issue, to master. Otherwise, if you are lucky, you are just jack of all trades, master of none. Imagine, how ages ago, people in remote areas, that's when they had plenty of time to do nothing, used to converse:
Man 1: So, what's up?
Man 2: Nothing much, I heard they are still fighting up north, but that was last year, haven't heard anything since... Did you hear what happened to our neighbor who stole the eggs?.. AH! yes, you were there, anyway.
Man 1: So... it was nice seeing you, I will see you again in a while.
Man 2: Yeah, I might have sex with my wife in the meantime.
Man 1: good idea.

A matter of perspective

I am thinking: The Internet technology effects are still beyond anyone to grasp. I find it hard to imagine what the next generation will be able to achieve. I see kids no older than 2 years old- I still call those babies- typing on keyboards, browsing the net, operating DVD players, and timing the Air Conditioner. The other day, my father, who still cannot grasp how Skype is even possible, was at awe when he saw a PC connected to the TV to play youtube videos on a wider screen. "I won't be surprised anymore, he said, if you make a call now using the washing machine!" that was his comment. Once he even asked if the phone I use is a camera that can make calls or a phone that can take pictures. When I told him that it is even more than that, that it is a small PC, he shook his head and said "the first time I saw an escalator, I hesitated before taking it and I was scared it will eat part of my foot." He remembers that people in his village still recount that anecdote about that man who talked to his brother in Brazil over a device called "telephone" and how people laughed at him and thought that he was crazy. The possible and the impossible are only a matter of perspective after all.

Of time and tech.

A colleague of mine today wished the 60s would come back. Back then, he said, you would send a mail and wait for three weeks till you receive a reply. Meanwhile, you would lie in the sun and enjoy the breeze. Instant messaging is a curse. I personally love technology and still waiting for the time machine to enjoy the 60's whenever I wish to.

I'm Back... in time

I am back! I almost forgot about this blog. So here is the latest: utterly nothing, just immersed in ugly daily life which makes it exactly perfect. That wasn't so clear I guess, but that's how it is. You just bury yourself in doing tasks that seem to you of extreme importance but which, you realize, will become with time meaningless, especially if you become alzheimeric, but even if you don't. Yet the fact that you can only be in the present forces you to do what you got to do. That's only until a time machine is in place. Waiting... then I will be able to blog in the past and never miss a day.

The 90s.

I asked some twenty year olds about their first internet experience. Their answers were hilarious: 

Guy nb. 1: When the internet first arrived to our home, the first words I typed were sex and porn. I would just add .com to these words. It only worked after I added “for me”.  

Guy nb. 2: Before the internet, we used to share pornographic photos from magazines and circulate them among friends. We sold some too. When internet arrived, we started downloading and saving them on floppy disks, an easier way and you don't run the risk of getting caught at school. Each picture would take hours to download in full. I would wait impatiently in front of my desktop while the picture is revealed slowly by bits and pieces. The boobs appear, I celebrate then I take a nap waiting for the rest. Once as I waited, mom stormed the room. I had to close it instantly. A hour of waiting gone into thin air.

Guy nb. 3: In the 90s my family moved to a new apartment. One day, we, my two brothers and sister, found a box of VHS tapes under our parents' bed which was left in the apartment by the older tenants, or so it seemed. One of them titles "Red Hair". We started stealing and watching them one by one. My brothers and I would watch while my sister guards the door. I would hold two remote control devices one to stop the porn video if someone comes in all of a sudden and the other one to start some kids TV show. We were never busted but my parents still got the tapes.

Guy nb. 4: I used to sell pornographic pictures on floppy disks to friends. One day, I promised a friend to drop by his house and deliver the "material". He had told me to give it to his mom and to tell her that this is the program required for our school homework. As I reached his house, a veiled woman opens the door. I gave her the floppy disk reciting what I had to say. She looked extremely happy and thanked me a thousand times for taking the effort to come to their house to make sure her son gets the program that will make him a better student. I went home that day praying for God's forgiveness. 

Fast forward to 2010. Location: Hotel in Madrid. Character: one of the guys above. I was on a business trip to Madrid to attend a workshop. At my hotel room at night, as I was zapping through channels, I came across a paid pornographic clip. I knew that if I entered the room code, I would be charged for it and I wasn't honestly interested in watching any of that stuff at the time. But I was curious to see which one it was. I entered the code for three seconds only before I stopped it. At check they charge me for "room entertainment". I had to submit the bill to my client’s company that was covering the trip.

Those old days

My innocent childish stupefaction with TV is nothing compared with what older people perceived and thought of the Radio or the transistor when it first arrived to town. My father remembers how some older people felt sorry how those voices people are squeezed in such a tiny space. An older woman brought them food. Another woman turned the radio off in the middle of a song so that her husband could hear it or the rest of it when he is back.

Childhood Wonders

One of the earliest things I remember from my very early childhood is that I used to think that all those people and characters I watched on TV lived inside that TV box. I also used to feel bad for them whenever there was a power cut thinking that they must be afraid of the dark. I wonder: What do kids these days think with flat TV screens and LEDs? Their favorite characters must all be either too skinny and flattened or just TV characters. That's boring. I saw a one year old baby once peek right behind a laptop screen to see and touch those characters. He didn't find them (of course). I wonder what he thought.

Any limits to where this is going?

What is the replacement of the phrase "flow of a pen" in the euphoric technology era? something like "flow of board keys"? if in few years books in paper disappear to be replaced by electronic books only, instead of flipping pages, people scroll down and stare at a screen there will be no need for an index or a glossary in the presence of the find option. Technology makes life less poetic but will never beat the longing for beauty. Cameras did not replace painting portraits for example. Someone argued with me once that they can even make electronic books smell like paper if need be. I hate that. Imagine a time where kids are not taught how to write but only how to type.

A hidden message

I love technology. At least I know that when I am back in Beirut, I won't have to talk for a month about Yemen, Harad, and the camp! I also know who loves it even more for the same reason.