Ignorant Historian

1.  Are there any animals you refuse to touch?

I’ll touch anything, assuming a trainer is holding it, blah, blah, blah.  But will I hold any animals? Not really (the occasional small dog or cat, sure).

2.  Would you like to know the precise date of your future death?

Yes, I would.  But as soon as you told me, I wouldn’t.  The building anticipation in the years, months, and weeks before that date would be awful.

3.  What is made for kids but you love it anyway?

Lip Smacker lip gloss.  Hopelessly addicted to them.  Go through a “party pack” every couple of months.

4.  Ever been addicted to a video/computer game? Which one(s)?

Only once.  Sims 2, senior year of college.  After playing it more and more over a couple of months at the end of my first semester, I realized I had to give it up.  Thankfully, it was a friend’s game on her computer, so I didn’t have easy access to it.  I think I really liked it because I got to control a world.  It was basically the techie version of what I did as a child: make up names, ages, traits, etc of my many imaginary children.

5.  __ is life. The rest is just details. Fill in the blank.

Jesus.

This holiday weekend has been a mostly unfrusterating carnival of technological mishaps for me.  Or maybe now that it’s over, I’m forgetting the frusteration I felt Saturday afternoon.

First, my headphones that I use to watch House on my laptop (I actually prefer that because it has better sound/picture than my TV) and listen to pump-it-up music on my phone stopped working.  Okay, it was still half working: the left half.  What can I say, left is better!

Then, the biggest issue happened Saturday.  While I was cleaning my room and my laptop was supposed to be minding it’s own business, it decided to get freaky on me.  It’s only 9 months old (a mere baby…okay, child), but for whatever reason no matter how many different fixes I tried, it would not get past a certain point in the start up.  Every type of system restore I attempted wouldn’t work because there was something wrong with the disc (really? hadn’t noticed) and needed to run the Scan Disc thing.  Of course, that would require it to fully start up…

I consider myself decently handy when it comes to computer things, but this was beyond my skill set…at least my old skill set.  I ended up having to reinstall Windows on my lappy and all the rest of the programs.  I’m very thankful that I didn’t really have plans this weekend, so I had time to get it back in working order!

The last technological mishap comes from Facebook.  For whatever reason, all the updates are stuck at Saturday afternoon.  Of course, that means that it’s full of “I’m so excited for the game!” and “Boomer Sooner!”  Like rubbing salt in the wound…

Seriously though, this weekend has been relaxing, with double the alone time and doing pittly things time.  I’m very thankful for these types of weekends, especially when they fall between two very busy weeks!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!

Can’t stop playing with my phone!

I’ve been waiting for today for a long time.  Today’s the day when I got to switch my phone service BACK to Verizon (for those who are keeping count, this is now my 3rd switch in 4 years).

Though I’m not much of a phone talker, it’s a bit frusterating to have to stand in one place in my apartment to have a conversation, and even then it can cut out on you.  Every time I switch providers, it’s to get better service in my apartment, and then something happens within a few months, and it’s no longer the best provider for my apartment (a cell tower is taken down, a fire happens and we have to move…).

But this switch (and quite the upgrade to a better phone), has me thinking of how much phones have improved in a relatively short amount of time.  I received my first cell phone for my 19th birthday (I actually went a whole semester of college without a cell phone…that would have been weird even a couple of years later!).  That first phone was one of these (because really, what other phone was there to have?):I thought it was so cool, with my 100 minutes/month, in Kansas/Oklahoma/Missouri/Illinois only (yeah, I don’t get why those 4 states were in a  regional plan together, either).

A couple of years later, I upgraded to a flip phone, because of course that was cool.  Then to a color flip phone, and then to a flip phone with camera.

And now, I have the enV Touch, with touch screen, flash camera, and QWERTY keyboard.  (sorry, no picture, but it’s a little difficult to take a picture of a phone when the camera’s IN the phone!) These were three things that would have seemed so crazy back in 2001 when I got that first phone.  Makes me wonder what phones will look like in another 8 years!

What futuristic features would you like to see phones have?

Perhaps you’ve noticed it already (if you’re not reading this in a feed reader), but I totally jumped on the bandwagon and added Twitter.  I’m not much of a follower…if I’m a part of a trend, it’s often because I was doing it already or because the trend just happened to coincide with what I wanted to do.

It’s not like I really need another electronic distraction.  I spend my day in front of computers, I certainly don’t want to spend my nights in front of them, too.  But Twitter’s something that intrigued me.  I couldn’t figure out what the benefit was…I had blogging and Facebook, isn’t that enough?

Still, there’s been some days that I’ve wanted to blog something small that happened to me throughout the day.  These little things aren’t important after the fact (which probably means they’re not important at all), and because I usually post my blogs first thing in the day, they don’t get blogged.

So, I’m doing the tweet thing simply to allow you all the chance to see the little day-to-day things.  If you could not care less, I don’t blame ya.

If you’re a tweeter, I’d love your advice…what’s something that I as a novice should know?  Any rookie mistakes to be avoided?  And if you wish, my Twitter feed ID is ronnicaih.

I like to watch television, I really do.  I know most of you do, too.  But over the last year or so, I’ve realized that I had to cut out watching shows that I just must see.  I don’t have a DVR, so if I watch TV, it must be live.  I found that I was limiting social opportunities because I couldn’t plan things on certain nights/times because I would miss my shows.  The hardest ones to miss, I found, were reality shows (Survivor, the Amazing Race, and American Idol), because I didn’t want to miss what happened each week.

I still occasionally catch 30 Rock, Numb3rs, or a CSI, but these don’t require me to watch every episode.  I make them a treat for when I happen to be home at that time and don’t have anything else pressing.  I also have started watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, because they come on during my typical dinnertime downtime and don’t require close, or regular watching.

There’s really only two exceptions: sports (for obvious reasons, but I only have to watch Big XII football and the NCAA tournament when they’re on) and in the summer, for SYTYCD because it IS the summer, and my friends like to watch it with me.

I don’t feel I need to cut TV watching out of my life completely, but I have limited it.  I don’t have to watch TV everyday, and more often than not, I’d rather read than watch TV anyway.  Since I’ve weaned myself off of must-see TV, I guess you could call me a TV weanie.

What show would you find to be the hardest to give up watching?

I know that I don’t have the largest vocabulary in the world, but I would like to think I have a reasonable grasp on English vocabulary. I’m sure this is helped by the hour or two I spend reading every day and the fact that I often read classics.

However, this apparently is not the norm of the American people, or at least the people that use the same model of phone I use. Only occasionally do I find a word that Blogger doesn’t know, and even less common do I find a word that Microsoft Word spell check doesn’t know (it especially happens when writing seminary papers…clearly Word has never been to seminary), but I find words that my phone doesn’t know (specifically the T9 predictive text function) on almost a daily basis.

Words that I’ve recently discovered were not in my phone’s vocabulary:

Bawl
Yeppers (I said I had an extensive vocabulary, haha)
Roomie (Blogger doesn’t recognize this nor “yeppers,” sigh)
Blog (I know!)

Another question about the T9 function: it’s supposed to give me the words in the order of most frequent use, right? How come when I go to type “jen” (a word I have to use pretty often) does it give me “ken” and “leo” before “jen?” Aren’t there like 40 bazillion Jens out there, many more than Kens or Leos? I mean really, I only “know” one Leo, and that’s only if you can count famous people.

What words have you been surprised is not in your phone/blogger/word processor?

Who’s ready for another school day memory? I am! This week I’m going back to 3rd grade. That year’s teacher was one of the best for me. She was non-traditional and we didn’t use our textbooks too much, which was great. We were taught to estimate weights and distances using things we knew. One M&M is about one gram. One inch is about the length of the last segment of your pinky finger. There was something also about a paperclip too, but I don’t remember that.

I don’t specifically remember doing grammar, but we did have journals that we had to write in each day. Then a couple students would be called on to read the story they wrote to the class. I remember writing a story about a laundry chute, and that very same day another one of the kids had written a story about a laundry chute. I think I always wanted one (these days I’d prefer a maid).

Another non-traditional thing she did was handle conflict in an unusual way. If you want a glimpse of when I became a chief witness to a jury of classmates, click the “childhood games and railroad ties don’t mix” link below.

Another time a valuable floppy disk (you know, the ones that were actually floppy) went missing when our class was in the computer lab (where we would go and play Oregon Trail…I loved that game!). They really wanted it back so they were willing to offer not to punish the person as long as they brought it back. So we had to sit in our classroom with our eyes closed while one student at a time had to go over to the cubbies and put the missing disk in an envelope if they had it. At some point in the middle of this proceeding (and before it was my turn), a student in another class had admitted to taking the disk, and we were cleared.

The last thing I remember about that class was playing with a dreidel, as my teacher was Jewish. We still did the traditional Christmas things, but she taught us about Hanukkah as well.

Well, it’s time to go watch some football. Enjoy, and may the Sooners win!

Other School Day Memories:

Kindergarten and First Grade: Kisses and Skunks
3rd grade: Childhood Games and Railroad Ties Don’t Mix
4th grade: Watching Whales
7th Grade: Teacher Review
8th Grade: 100 Marble Pick Up
9th Grade: Science Nerd
College Senior Year: Why Procrastination Might Not Be My Thing

Point: Blogging is a worthwhile activity.
Counterpoint: Blogging is not a worthwhile activity.

Conclusion: Blogging is a worthwhile activity, within reason.

I agree with pretty much everything I said in the point. That is why I blog. Now, I need to answer the criticisms of blogging.

First of all, as a blogger I have to be careful that blogging doesn’t replace real-life social interactions. For me, I haven’t really found this to be a problem, as I don’t spend a whole lot of time with people in real-life regardless. I’m sorta a hermitess. I do have to force myself to go to gatherings and parties every once in a while (sometimes I need friends’ prompting on this), but I struggled with this before I got into blogging. Regardless, it is something the blogger has to be on the look out for. Besides, if you’re never in the real world, what are you going to blog about?

I do have to be careful that I spend time with my closer friends and interact with them about what I’m thinking. I don’t want the blog to be the only place that I’m sorting through my inner thoughts. Besides, there are things that I need to think through that aren’t blogable, and who better to do that with a friend face-to-face? This is necessary not only for my own health, but for theirs as well. I need them, but I also need to be there for them.

Sure, blogging can seem like you’re just adding to the noise, but the hits on your website are real people reading (or at least glancing at) what you’ve written. If you have something important to say, maybe the just-right person will see it. That’s what gives me hope about blogging. I blog for me, but I also blog for those that may read it.

The biggest struggle I have with blogging is becoming self-focused and prideful. This is something that I have to constantly take to the Lord, seeking forgiveness and help. As a Christian, I feel it is important to remember that it is not about me, but about Him. Even blogging I do for Him, but I can’t do that if I just use my blog to rant about what frusterates me or get driven to have more readers thus glorifying myself.

For me, blogging is a beloved hobby. Sure I have other hobbies: reading, photography (to a certain extent, I’m not really good, I just enjoy taking pictures), and swimming, but blogging is one that I really enjoy. Could I go without it? Of course. But I choose not to. When I weigh out the pros and cons, I still feel like it is worth the time it takes each day as I become a better writer, gain more insight into what others believe, and get to spread the message that I find so important. Besides, I happen to like you, my bloggy friends. It’s like the old song: “Make new friends, but keep the old…” I like making bloggy friends, but I’m going to keep my real-life friends too.

So, what about you? Why do you blog? What struggles do you have with blogging?

This is the second post of 3 on blogging. I discussed the original argument, “Blogging is a worthwhile activity” yesterday. If you’re confused about why I would write against blogging on a blog, see my explanation on the top of the last post.

Counterpoint: Blogging is not a worthwhile activity.

The act of blogging has risen to popularity in recent years, turning the art of journaling into a public affair. Like all technology, it has the capacity to be harmful and unhelpful.

As an addicting hobby, blogging can draw people away from real-life relationships. Activities such as blogging are particularly susceptable to this as they are inherently social, allowing the writers and readers of the blog to feel connected when they are in fact connected merely by the flimsy lines of Internet communication.

Further, real-life relationships can be damaged by blogging when the author takes the opportunity of writing for an audience to list all the faults of his loved ones or to detail their latest argument. He may use blogging to say the things that he really should be saying and processing with those around him.

There are millions if not billions of webpages out there, and blogging is adding to that noise. Today’s culture is obsessed with information, but not necessarily with actually learning knowledge and wisdom. There is little purpose to adding one more page to the already chaotic web.

Because the author of a blog writes what he wants, when he wants, there can be a tendency to be quite self-absorbed and prideful. Though many bloggers open their posts for comments, even then they can choose to delete comments they don’t want. The blogger has complete control of what is said on his blog, offering him an amount of power that is rarely found in everyday conversations among average people. This can lead to pride and arrogance as well, especially when the author sees a growing number of people reading his blog. It is easy to become emotionally attached to the results of one’s blog, feeling depressed when numbers are down and prideful when numbers are up.

Blogging takes time away from other worthwhile activities. If one is writing and reading blog posts frequently, there may be a lesser tendency to read literature and newspapers.

Overall, these concerns show that blogging is not worth the time it takes to write a post.

Conclusion: Blogging is a worthwhile activity, within reason.