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Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Life as a Series of Chairs and Wireless Connections
I've recently observed that my life could be broken down to a series of chairs and wireless connections, roaming with a backpack, tech and a book. I'm a digital nomad with my home on my back: a glowing screen with my world inside. I like it this way - being connected as I roam - as I can be free yet not isolated. My world travels with me, varying in company, bandwidth and comfyness.
Right now I'm sitting in the near-closed Garage in Harvard Square, listening to some homeless men discuss the world as they know it. I type and listen, idly skimming websites as I go.
Time has passed now, and I sit on the train - off to another chair and wireless, releasing ideas and musings to the ether. The men were an intriguing crowd - certainly not what I had suspected, but not entirely unlike my preconceived stereotypes.
As I sat there on my island of music and 'net, more men started congregating around the table next to me. They all seemed to know each other and were mutually decompressing after a seemingly good day. They had been ignoring me until a tall, thick man walked in the nearby door. Rich (whose name I later found out osmoticlly) decided to "break the ice" by confronting me as though he were a gay man being all too forceful and untactful at asking me for a one night stand. I was very confused at first - as he seemed to play the part well - and did not seem to get my "leave me alone" vibes. After a tense moment or two, he let up and stated that he was only joking. Cute, really cute, but it was all too obvious that there was some deep set homophobia in him. He later admitted such, although he was statedly tolerant of homosexuals. His primary argument was that he didn't want "them" trying to "convert" him. I hope my generation will be better when we're his age.
Time went on, I listened as I read. There was talk about people: a collective brainstorm to remember a near forgotten body of the past; talk of jobs: memories from before, from the good times; talk of hope and compassion: wishing absent acquaintances better times with their abusive boyfriends and dead-end lives. I hung around until the Garage closed and said goodbye. My dose of surreality had been filled for the day.
Back "home", now in the comfiest of chairs and connected with the most bandwidth, I now write and think. Those men gave me a brief glimpse into their world, but what do I give in return? What can someone who feels as though they have all that they want, give someone who does not? In my mind I let these questions simmer and stew; perhaps something rich will result from them when I discover their answers.
Comments
Re:
Every time I think about tolerenance, the first thing that comes to mind are easy-going hippies and the civil rights movements. But the second thing that comes to mind is Star Trek (TNG specificly). I long for the day when society is as tolerant as the characters there are. I mean, dude, if they can accept an android as a human equal then what else is there?
re compie question: Hrum. It could be a number of things, but I suspect either a blackout or brownout caused it to be unhappy. If your computer is out of warranty, your best bet is looking around for a geek local to you. This sort of problem could be a wide variety of things, many reparable. Remember: many geeks will gladly be paid in a nice dinner with good company - it doesn't have to be spendy.
Re: Life as a Series of Chairs and Wireless Connections
Very wicked stuff. I am coming to realize that my life is the same, just with wired connections as I am too cheap and too stupid to get a wireless gig up and running. I can telnet into my music machine from anywhere I want and switch what track winamp is playing via a custom plugin. This is then routed to shoutCAST which sends it out to the net in _near_ realtime. So my life becomes a series of connected events that have associated songs, which I always play and tune into from anywhere.
Re:
Ha! That's pretty cool. I've always been meaning to set something like that up so I can have access to all my music, not just whatever my headphones happen to be plugged into. Of course, on some of my wireless connections, bandwidth is the limiting factor. 30kbps seems like mana from heaven when you're traveling at 70mph on a highway somewhere :-)
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Re: Life as a Series of Chairs and Wireless Connections
"I hope my generation will be better" damnit i hope so too, and i think we'll Have to be more tolerant than the generation before us, but it's still not enough until it's not even an issue anymore, and sometimes that seems impossibly far away :/
compie question: i found my compie mysteriously off about a week ago, and now it won't turn on at all. took out the power cord, replugged that and the power strip.. Nothing. am i hopelessly screwed? if so, and i do end up buying a new compie, what's the best way to go about getting all my music and pictures off? i have a 40 gb as a slave and i guess probably wouldn't want to add it to any new compie as they all come with crazy space now (that, and i also am not in physical contact with any compie peeps anymore, hence this plea)