11.14.06

White noise

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:27 pm by admin

Question for hearing folks: ever test to see if you can hear a range of sounds more like a youngster or a geezer? Apparently your ability to hear higher tones erodes with age. My upper end is more in the g-range, though theoretically I’m not yet there chronologically. Could it be that the air filter, the fan, the various computers, monitors, phones, and appliances are making me incapable of appreciating the “mosquito” ringtone prematurely? How depressing. Another problem I didn’t know I had. (For non-hearing folks: pick a corresponding bummer. They are multitudinous and varied.)

Next, do a survey to check your “body age” versus your chronological age (see rant on health and wellness). I was lured in by a coupon…and I am 1 year younger than my chronological age. Is this like those tests you take in school where you read at an X level but do math at a Y level and get tracked for life accordingly? What do I do to make myself “younger”? Or, does this mean I don’t get to retire until a year later than my bio-elders. Perhaps I should take up smoking and bacondoublecheeseburgers to see if I can get there faster. And, sleep with my laptop actually *in* the bed, with a cellphone under a 10 year old pillow o’ mites.

11.12.06

Silverfish

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:30 pm by admin

Looking back on what I’ve written here (which is really not much; see below) I wonder where it will all end. If we pull the plug, Alexandria goes dark. I have so many paper books already, but the silverfish are coming. My Sony eReader (probably will pull some more spam for mentioning a brand there) will arrive soon. I’m going to experiment with reading airplane novels on that device (assuming I can find some; I’m not into abridged business-oriented self-help tomes) instead of buying so many of them. Shelves and shelves of them. I can’t get rid of them. Theoretically I could recycle them–after all, magazines can go for $5 a pop these days, so what about a $7 paperback? And yet. I could donate them. But who really wants yesterday’s thrillers? I could have a yard sale. Too much self-exposure (and I think blogging is bad). I could try to resell them on Amazon. But what a pain–all that packaging and posting. The airports that allow you to sell them back to the bookstores are pretty cool, but I never remember which ones have that service after the trip is done. And who wants to carry around extra books you have already read? But, now that I can’t put shampoo in my bag I suppose there is more room for expired fiction.

Of course, they’ll make me turn off my eReader when we are taking off. Just like they do the iPod, another bid at space saving and multitasking all rolled into one. Long ago I remember trying to ride my bike whilst reading a book. Bad idea.

Now audiobooks, they are another interesting concept. Recently ran into librivox.org. Very cool stuff. People reading books into the public domain. So many voices and accents. So many varieties of background hiss. Kind of community theater for the internet. Wayne’s World for the middlebrow set. You have to be willing to slow down and listen, which is quite difficult when you are used to the read-a-novel-in-a-day mentality. Car commuting with pulpy audiobooks is lovely tho. I tend not to want to leave the car when the trip is done. Is it gauche to wear an ipod in the rest room? Cell phones no question; but ipods aren’t interfering and in fact create a zone of privacy difficult otherwise. Nonetheless, there’s something pitiful about legal wrangling, lovemaking, and sword fights amidst bio-noise.

Alas, I also tend to buy the sequel and read it analogue-mode, spoiling the French feast ethos. Fiction should be swallowed whole, not savored. I’m so very American. Unless you are teaching the Odyssey and don’t know how to pronounce the names. Then the heavenly host sing praises–and you hope the voice actors know what they are talking about. Which brings up back to librivox and editorial quality control, I suppose.

Of Blogs

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:09 pm by admin

I’m profoundly amibivalent about blogs. On the one hand, our whole lives are out there for everyone to see, record, capture, share, remix, steal. So, why not be empowered and create your own version of yourself rather than letting the credit bureau, the TSA, and amazon do it for you? And yet, what of private writing? Does it still happen? If all expression is outward-facing do we ever really see our navels? Of course, before long we won’t have them any more, genetic engineering being what it is. A bunch of designer mules.