surviving without an iphone

To be honest, I wouldn't mind having an iPhone. But I have vowed to myself to stay on the mitchell family share plan with verizon until I'm cut off. People are starting to think its inconvenient to not have an iPhone. And while it can be, 466453, has made it easier on me. This number is GOOGLE.

My favorite thing to text google for is directions. all you have to text is start address, the word "to", and destination address. And google will text you back step by step directions in about 2 seconds.

And there are many other things you can text. Here is the full list of features.

I'm sure iPhone people will turn their nose up to this post.

tidbits

Work
The two most common questions I get about work are:
do you work 40 hour weeks?
do you like it?
and the answers to these are:
- more.
- I don't love it, I don't hate it.
Summary: post-college life has been an adjustment. Its hard but I think this is the best thing for me to do at this point right now in my life.

Music/Travel
I wish I could have attended Primavera Sound Festival. It is on my list with:
- Sasquatch!
- sxsw
- ATP New York
- Glastonbury

Chris and I have been talking about a trip to Morocco/Spain and I really want to go. and, in the book I'm reading right now, they are in Morocco currently. It wouldn't happen anytime really soon but I wish it would.

Twitter
It already is big but I think it has the potential to be huge. For a variety of reasons in a variety of ways. I semi-jokingly said bigger than google the other day. Very interesting to me.

Looking forward to...
Graduation weekend 6/13
Graduation party at my parents house 6/20
Chicago/P4k Festival 7/18

Weird/Funny music videos

I do not blog very regularly as of late

and the reason is:

1) work. I just don't think I should blog at work. sure, I take breaks, but I would just feel guilty blogging at work. 

2) after working on the computer the whole day, I usually don't feel like jumping on the computer when I get home. I would rather relax, read a book, hang out with friends, leave the house, etc. 

3) I do not have internet at the house so blogging requires going somewhere with the internet. this never used to be an issue as I was always on campus. 

but I will still probably blog on the weekends. or there is twitter which I don't feel bad doing at work since it is pretty quick. 

happy memorial day. 

part two

I was trying to read but my mind is elsewhere. so I will try to do this instead. On a side note this new St. Vincent album is very pleasant. Anyways, I guess this part is more related to twitter and my roommate. And it is related to a lecture from this lit class I was in last quarter. We are the ipod generation. We were the first ones to really "grow up" with the internet and all this technology that we can't live without now at our disposal. Cell phones, ipods, iphones. Myspace, facebook, twitter.

While most of our generation have embraced these things there are still those who refuse and for good reason. I'm not sure exactly where I stand. I mean its hard, being a computer science major, to even try to say that I don't like all the technology (or hard to make you believe that I don't). This is just my experience. The point of cell phones and social networking sites is to better connect people. And I can see how it does. As I said in part one, staying in touch is hard. And I'm sure before cell phones (or phones for that matter) it was harder. Pretty much you had to go to the person or send them a letter. But was this more meaningful than updating my twitter status or sending someone a text message? Probably yes but you can't do this as often.

We communicate very often throughout the day in many different ways, both direct and indirect. Text messages, gchat, blogging, twitter, facebook, e-mail (almost archaic at this point), etc. And while its great to have all these, they sacrifice genuine, in person, real communication.

Basically I am caught in between. and it may even seem like i am stretching the truth to say "in between." All of these things that sacrifice in person communication, I do them regularly. but at the end of the day, no matter how much I've blogged, gchatted, texted, I feel alone. and it can be so one way. friends of mine are staying updated on me and know everything that is going on with me but I haven't a clue about them. I guess I just do these things in hope that everyone else will. maybe it is just a matter of time. until everyone really catches up and then the new communication will become meaningful.

thats why twitter spawned this and why part 2 relates to part 1. I wanted to resist twitter because i figured it would still leave me disconnected but now I have it. and i want to communicate people when I'm not around them but maybe its better to focus on the now and those that are around you.

I suppose it comes down to being realistic and making an effort. I can't expect to communicate on the internet and be fulfilled. And if I focus too much on updating all my profiles and then feel alone at the end of the day its my fault. I just worry about everyone falling into this because its become so easy. and then not recognizing what's going on.

part one

this blog spawned from twitter, my roommate's internet inability, and something that ian said. I was going to write the whole thing in one blog but then I decided to break it up into two parts. i'm not even completely sure what I'm trying to say so hopefully we can figure that out together!

i think that we live to connect with each other. to understand each other so fully that words do not even need to be exchanged to know what/why/how our friend is thinking or feeling. I have this with a small handful of people and I think this is the case for most. to even have it with just one person.

different seasons of life have put me and those that I connect with in different places at different times. i have gone through periods where i have diligently tried to stay in touch with these people and I have gone through times where I haven't tried at all.

i'm trying to figure out where I really stand on this. lately i've been feeling like this situation could be comparable to living in the past/present. maybe its more important to be completely engaged with the people who are currently IN your life. i mean why attempt to connect with people hundreds of miles away when you are not even spending time attempting to connect with your roommates. there are a lot of people that I interact with often, yet, i know they know nothing about me and I nothing about them. and I doubt that this will change with these people.

so maybe the other side of the argument is to cling to those that you know you connect with and not let anything get in the way. i'm sure it depends on the kind of relationship you have. staying in touch can be awkward or easy and i don't think this directly correlates with how deeply you connect.

there are times when I feel terribly disconnected/alone and times where I feel truly connected. i guess i'm trying to figure out why.