Planned obsolescence. That was a concept we were thinking about in the 70’s, like we were thinking about world overpopulation, pollution, ecology and so forth. At what point did the world become, or did I become dependent on this box as a means to the outside world, or the inside world? I’m not sure. But, now, today, this morning, I have a limited set of tools to work with. My laptop died, I think. I need a new machine and I’m not going to be able to do that soon. Too many other things going on. But, I’ve become used to this as a writer. Since 2001 when I first began writing short stories and getting them published. I’ve owned three computers — the first for grad school in ’95 — ten this one for its classic arty appeal ( a masterwork of design) and finally that fab G4 all silvery and sleek. The prices have gone down and down since I bought the first one. But without working for a nine year period I can’t afford a new machine. I wonder how many other Americans are in this spot? A lot I bet. (I see I can’t do a hard return on the text. ) I feel lucky to have gotten Opera yesterday — in order to be able to blog at all. So, this is all going backwards from where I was because I don’t have the laptop. It’s like falling down a rabbit hole backwards. I am used to checking in on Facebook and then looking at the news, maybe writing in the blog — lately, because I am writing in my old genre again — talking about that. But the frustration levels are off the charts because I can’t use the tools I’m used to. I’m thinking it’s amazing how fast the tech landscape changes. You have to keep up, or? Things I will never get — cars that drive themselves or Google glasses — can’t even imagine what that would be. But I see this world of people like widgets — human processors for data streams. I could almost write a short story about that. The plastic from all of these things washes up on the beach. What good has all of this done for the planet? Human-Human communication has fallen by the wayside — we are becoming little filaments of thought in the vast space of this thing. Wrote a little piece of flash fiction on that for the list yesterday. Maybe I have a short story coming on. Maybe. Anyway, using this shows me that the speed things were going back in 2001 was about half of what my laptop was, and even that was heading toward obsolescence. To go backwards? To go this slow? To not be able to see Twitter, or do my blog, or make comments to friends in FB is very difficult. Have you ever felt like that? ——— xxoo! from Adrienne
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 