Ah, technology

I don't know about this every day posting thing... Is it too much for people to read?!

There was me thinking posting everyday would mean I would have shorter entries but it just goes to show that I can write about anything. Also, that I am simply incapable of writing a short thing...

People often say to me after I do certain things "how unusual...". I catch myself saying it too. I am a little tired of it. I know I am predictable. I hate that too. Things I am predictable for that I am sick of:
- Inability to say things in a few words
- Always having a story for everything (and people have heard most of them so I am often repeating myself)
- Running late

After getting a bit caught up in the iphone hype. I have quickly overcome my excitement. I mean it is a $600US gadget that then requires a $60US monthly plan to use. I like my $40 prepaid mobile where $100US lasts me 8-12 months, I already have an ipod (old and outdated now, it was pre-colour menus and video, but it works fine and I love it's simplicity) and I have high speed internet at work and home -do I really need it in between as well?! My boss has tried to convince me how great BlackBerry's are. She can't live without hers. She takes it with her on holidays so she can keep reading her emails. I think it is rather sad. On holidays you should be avoiding work! That's the point of going away, to give yourself a break. There are times I like being out of contact. Everyone went crazy over iphones. It is a little amusing to see what the crazy people do. Reading SMH the other day I saw this article which includes a video of someone smashing an iphone. YouTube has a few videos of people carefully dismantling their iphones with the skills of a surgeon to see how they work, but the method used in the video in the above link is special.

Talking with G the other day, we ended the conversation with him agreeing to email me with news that we were waiting on. I get up in the morning excited to read the results only to find an empty inbox. It made me think. I realise that I am also slack with emailing people. I use gtalk or messenger daily but that's it. It is a sad day when email is too hard to do.. and we don't communicate if the other person isn't online. We really are a society of instant gratification/response. Digital cameras, instant messaging. So much for the old telephone, and even worse, hand written letters. Very rare. It is amazing to think back to the time when that's how people communicated and the letters could take weeks to get to their destination. They still do in America because US Postal Service is so bad (even internally let alone a letter from here to Australia). In the end, G didn't send me the email because he wanted to wait until he could tell me in person. I was hurt that he didn't write the email but now that I think about it, I was being unreasonably impatient (sorry G), wanting some of that instantaneousness we have become accustom to. It really was nothing to wait 24hrs until I could talk to him again, but I not a patient person and like to know things as soon as possible. My life is full of uncertainty and waiting and I hate it. Yes I am a control freak. Now, I want everything now!

I am doing a lot of literature searches at the moment for work, trawling journal articles. I often reflect how incredibly easy it is with the internet and electronic journal articles - now you can get a copy of papers before they are even published without leaving your desk. No more hours in the library flipping through dusty volumes. I try to think back to how it use to be done without internet.. Literature searching would have been harder and far more time consuming. Ah the days where you looked up books in the library using the card catalogue.

While writing this entry I was watching the Sydney component of the Live Earth concert. Ah magic of the internet. There were even photos up on the SMH website within an hour of the concert starting. It looked like a lovely day in Sydney. The sunset was amazing. Hope you guys at the concert had a blast (did you sway like a boat to Eskimo Joe? Feel the love).

Random pic time:
Here's a pic of the Sam Houston statue north of Houston. It is the world’s tallest statue of an American Hero. I am standing at the base to give it perspective. N and I stopped by the statue on the way to Dallas last year.