Cultural Snobbery
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
I found this article in the August ’09 issue of Vanity Fair and it got me thinking. Yes, this post is going to be a bit about me and my relationship with “new age” and “old school” culture and technology. Before you read this post, though, I ask that you read the article. It’s quite short, very interesting, and will explain the background of what I’m about to talk about.
I know I’m one of those people who enjoys the practicality and ease of those little MP3 players that hold about a million songs now a days, who has a couple of shelves lined with my favorite movies in DVD form, and who religiously reads certain blogs every week.
I do, however, also know that I am one of those people who believes that the smell, feel, and presence of a regular book with actual paper pages can never be replaced. And despite the fact that my Creative Zen (apparently the Vision M is no longer made?) comes with me on all of my road trips and is frequently connected to me stereo, I still feel as though those vinyl records are priceless. I still buy CD albums for their album artwork – I mean, someone got paid to spend all that time making those, right?
I feel, especially after reading this article, that our world is lost between technology and the culture that defines and defies personalities and stereotypes. It’s easier to carry around small gadgets that let us read whichever “book” we so desire digitally. Digital cameras can be carried around almost everywhere, but what happened to the old art of working in a darkroom for hours on end?
I know that I’m adapting to this new world of easy technology, however I still desperately cling to the artsyness that was pre-1990s.
Where do you feel you stand in this clash between cultures?
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Friday, July 17th, 2009
Yes, I bought myself a Garmin nüvi 205 today. I will be driving a lot in the next few months (a trip down to Maryland on Tuesday, off to Cleveland and Georgia in August, and probably across Georgia and to Florida during school) so I thought it would offer some serious help.
Although I am a firm believer in bringing maps and written directions along with me… someone telling me where to turn and such is a lot safer than glancing at map instructions frequently behind the wheel.
This and the fact that I could personalize it with The Black Pearl as my vehicle and with an Aussie guy giving me directions, I’m pretty happy. Hopefully, though, I won’t get distracted by the Australian accent telling me where to go, haha. And when I get tired of Aussies, I can always switch the Italiano.
Also, I managed to fix a website (steerhomestead.com) that I’ve been having problems with from the very beginning. I agreed to help my horse trainer build a website for his barn and once I got my own space and bandwidth, I figured the rest wouldn’t be so hard. Well… somehow I managed to spend almost a month getting the website to show up under its own domain name because silly, stupid things kept happening. Nevertheless, it’s up and running now, thank god… and all I have to worry about is editing text and adding photos. HAPPY DAYS!
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