Wednesday, September 20, 2006

You'll Thank Me Some Day

I try to be organized. I really do. I have this inate need to have everything categorized, labeled, and easily searchable. Which is why I love things like my iPod: All my music, right there, no swapping CDs or tapes. I want a song, BAM! I'm listening to it within seconds. Or why I finally settled on Canon's ImageBrowser software to organize all my digital images. I want a picture, I know exactly where it is. So I didn't think anything of it when I decided to print and archive all the blog entries and comments from the Coffee Crew Blog, Steve's Thymenage Blog, Toni's "Much Ado" site and the Encyclopedia Giachettica collection. In my mind, it was totally rational: A hardcopy backup of some of the best darned writing this side of the world wide web. I figured it served two purposes: One, is gives me a nice (albeit gigunda-sized) book to be able to pull out weeks, months, or even years later to reminisce over with my friends; and two: it's a physical backup in case something catastrophic happens, such as Blogger going out of business or terrorists blowing up the internet. I never liked the idea of all these masterpieces of literary genius (or even this blog) residing solely in cyberspace; it just made me nervous. So two trips to Office Max and $80 later, I now have a hardcopy backup of everything up to August. It was a just and noble cause. Until Toni questioned why the hell I would ever go through such lengths, and noted I was the only person she knew who would go BACKWARDS in technology and print a hardcopy of an online archive.

Sigh...

Some people just don't understand.

All I can say to that statement is this: What about people who use their fancy $200 cell phones to TYPE messages back and forth? Tell me THAT'S not pushing technology back! So there.

Now Steve, my blogging mentor, would probably love the fact that I'm into the blogs so much that I'd take the time to lovingly collect all the works into a single binder. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out the single flaw which would probably prevent him from trying the same thing: Anybody's comments posted after archiving are not included in the hardcopy, and that's enough to give Steve the shakes at night. I, however, am willing to risk it.

8 comments:

Toni said...

[[All I can say to that statement is this: What about people who use their fancy $200 cell phones to TYPE messages back and forth? Tell me THAT'S not pushing technology back! So there.]]

Um, yeah, and I pointed out that I thought that was pretty silly too, if you'll recall. Pointing out that other people do goofy things isn't exactly a great excuse for doing them yourself you know. I hate to pull out cliches, but I can't help myself this time. If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?

:-D

Paul G. said...

Yes, I do recall, but your arguement is unfounded, since I didn't do it 'because everyone else did', but rather was pointing out a practice I deemed to be much more guilty of your initial accusation. In other words, it's more akin to the "I'm With Stupid" train of thought; belittling someone else or their actions in an effort to feel better about myself and my actions.

And in my mind it works just fine, thank you.

Toni said...

Huh? Okay, maybe its just early, but I read that three times and it still doesn't make any sense. I think you're grasping here to try and prove a point you know is unprovable.

I'm not saying you shouldn't print out electronic blogs if it makes you happy, just don't expect me to stop laughing at you over it.

Steve said...

First of all, I'll thank you right now, because this blog entry f**king rules. But now onto the finer points:

[[[[[ I try to be organized. I really do. I have this inate need to have everything categorized, labeled, and easily searchable. ]]]]]

I'm the exact same way. Granted, I don't always succeed, because I have some collections and things that have gotten unorganized over the years and time constraints have made it difficult for me to find the time to organize. However, I have a million projects like that that are seemingly never finished. Examples: scan, date, and archive every single freakin' photograph I've ever come across; have all my music, including my old vinyl that I don't plan to re-buy, digitized and properly tagged; and ever-ongoing quest to keep my email & computers organized and archived.


[[[[ So I didn't think anything of it when I decided to print and archive all the blog entries and comments from the Coffee Crew Blog, Steve's Thymenage Blog, Toni's "Much Ado" site and the Encyclopedia Giachettica collection. In my mind, it was totally rational: A hardcopy backup of some of the best darned writing this side of the world wide web. ]]]]

OK, this is friekin' awesome. I am so psyched that you have created the Heart and Mind/Thymenage hard-copy blog. And, no, I don't think your crazy, because I always reasoned that I may one day actually self-publish it, just to have it as a hard copy, which basically is the next step. It's like what you did, but with a pretty hard-cover and an ISBN number.


[[[ I figured it served two purposes: One, is gives me a nice (albeit gigunda-sized) book to be able to pull out weeks, months, or even years later to reminisce over with my friends; and two: it's a physical backup in case something catastrophic happens, such as Blogger going out of business or terrorists blowing up the internet. I never liked the idea of all these masterpieces of literary genius (or even this blog) residing solely in cyberspace; it just made me nervous. ]]]]]

I have thought of all of these things, too, and follow the same line of reasoning.

[[[[ So two trips to Office Max and $80 later ]]]]

Wow, dude! You're financial backing of the blogging experience is totally admirable. I've bought TVs for less money than that! (Although I know you probably haven't.) This is awesome.


[[[[ It was a just and noble cause. Until Toni questioned why the hell I would ever go through such lengths, and noted I was the only person she knew who would go BACKWARDS in technology and print a hardcopy of an online archive. ]]]


I've got your back, bro. I, too, have thought of the irony of what Toni has pointed out—and I do think it's ironic, most definitely. And yet, still, despite seeing all points, I think doing this makes perfect sense in a strange sort of way.


[[[ Some people just don't understand. ]]]

True, true.

[[[ All I can say to that statement is this: What about people who use their fancy $200 cell phones to TYPE messages back and forth? Tell me THAT'S not pushing technology back! So there. ]]]]

Wow, great example! I've thought of that, too. I think it's funny how there's an appeal to sending text messages on a device whose main purpose is for talking. Yeah, yeah...I know...you could say, "Why do businesses depend on email then when phones were invented years ago." Sometimes it's easier and/or more appropriate and/or less obtrusive to send a written message then to call someone. But at least typing is, while slower than speaking, reasonably efficient if you're good at it. Text messaging is totally a pain in the ass. And that's why people speak rodent-ese when they text-message: "yo c u l8r luza." Yup, I'll see you later, too. I prefer reading stuff that I don't have to decipher.


[[[[ Now Steve, my blogging mentor, would probably love the fact that I'm into the blogs so much that I'd take the time to lovingly collect all the works into a single binder. ]]]]

Every bit as much as you imagined.


[[[[ But I would be remiss if I didn't point out the single flaw which would probably prevent him from trying the same thing: Anybody's comments posted after archiving are not included in the hardcopy, and that's enough to give Steve the shakes at night. ]]]]

You are right. But in my blueprint, I did include comments, even fully realizing that I may have to do some editing and copy and paste them in manually.

I will say this, though. I have a jillion typos in my blog, and as one of those "some day projects"—probably prior to any hardcopy archiving—I planned to go through and fix 'em. I know that goes against the thymenage concept of "acurate representation," but I think of airbrushing a zit off your senior picture—you're not changing your hair color or doing something drastic.

[[[In other words, it's more akin to the "I'm With Stupid" train of thought; belittling someone else or their actions in an effort to feel better about myself and my actions. ]]]]

LOL! Yes! That's it exactly. Dude, I follow EVERYTHING you say here. It's scary how we have can have different aspects to our personality, and yet our minds work identically.

But Toni said:

[[[ Huh? Okay, maybe its just early, but I read that three times and it still doesn't make any sense. I think you're grasping here to try and prove a point you know is unprovable. ]]]

Toni, check it out again. It makes perfect sense. Now, he may still be crazy, in your mind, but the logic is all there. You're point is valid, too: "Just because other people do silly things, like text message on phones, it doesn't mean that you should do silly things like make a hardcopy of a blog." But Paul's point is: "It's a little crazy, but if we can live without laughing at the text messagers, you need to cut me some slack, because this is not nearly (in my opinion) as bad as this other, societally acceptable quirk."

Steve said...

Grrr!

On the subject of typos, I quickly scanned what I typed a few minutes ago and saw that I wrote:

"I don't think your crazy..."

and later

"You're financial backing of the blogging experience is totally admirable."

That is to say, I didn't use an apostrope on "your/you're" when I should have and then did put one in when I didn't.

Folks, I'm not a total idiot. I just am a busy graphic designer typing during lunch with not nearly enough time to pay attention to what I'm doing.

I'm sure there are a million more typos in it.

Toni said...

Okay, I didn't say I didn't understand the original post, it was his response that didn't make sense to me. But I'm on cold medicine again, so I am willing to conceed that my brain just isn't all there at the moment.

And I do see where you guys are coming from, I just think its silly. But then, I almost never go back and look at old photos, and the few times I've tried to archive anything I just got fed up with all the extra crap laying around and tossed it all in the trash. So While I appreciate the seniment, I know I would never do something similar.

That, and its just fun to laugh at you both.

Michelle Lee said...

I know I'll be laughed out of the room on this one, but I have to defend myself & my other text messaging buddies.

I know it seems stupid to most people. I, myself, used to feel the same way.

Let me present this situation - You are working at a bar. No one is in said bar. You are bored. You want to chat with someone, but hearing anything they say over the music in the bar is a much more futile task that printing out hundreds of pages of blogs.

What is your solution? You guessed it, kids. Texting.

Now, I agree with Steve completely! I hate the abbreviated language most people assume when they are doing things texting or AIM. That's why I personally go through great pains to actually type full words.

"But, Michelle, This must take you hours to type that all out on your phone!"

Oh no, my friends. I use T9. "What is T9?", you may ask. T9 predicts your words for you. It's kind of bizaar and annoying at first, but once you use it, you'll never go back.

I am able to type long words with more than one or two syllables. Somehow it knows what I'm saying. It's magic. It's truely revolutionary.

Now, in defense of Pauls OCD... I love the idea of printing the blogs. I love, love, LOVE the idea of publishing them. I even suggested it before I knew of Steves intentions. I think it's a great excercise in cultural anthropology.

Someday, when the computers have taken over the world Matrix style, and we are all living deep beneath the Earths surface, dancing and pulsing and gyrating to tribal dance grooves, we will be able to reflect on who we once were as a people. And it's all thanks to Pauls OCD.

{Yes, I am sure there are several typos in this. I would apologize, but I think it's something we all can live with.}

Paul G. said...

((Someday, when the computers have taken over the world Matrix style, and we are all living deep beneath the Earths surface, dancing and pulsing and gyrating to tribal dance grooves, we will be able to reflect on who we once were as a people. And it's all thanks to Pauls OCD.))

Heh heh... I appreciate the sentiment, but there is a slight flaw in your thinking... If the women dancing and pulsing and gyrating look half as hot as in the Matrix rave scene.... the blogs will be the LAST thing on my mind.. =)
Sorry Steve.