Writing with a netbook reminds me of when I was offered an early model laptop by the journalist Bob Scheer. He and wife, Narda Zacchino, were upgrading. They knew that the school where I taught had no computers at all and on the salary I was pulling in, there were none in my immediate future.Bob was forcefully arguing that I should take his old laptop--thick as a toaster and still "usable".
Having no internet access, no printer, and no disk drive, it seemed a back-handed present at best. At the time, few people were running with laptops. Cell phones were mostly in upscale cars and if you owned a computer, it took up a chunk of your diningroom. I remember telling Bob and Narda that they should collaborate on a story that got the industry to create a small type-writer that one could stick in a backpack and take into the woods. At the time, that seemed to me a kind of writers' Nirvana...
Today, here I am, punching a word at a time, on a machine the size of a small envelope.It doesn't have a printer attached and it still needs to be plugged in to recharge. But I could take it in my knapsack/backpack/hobo bag.The amazing thing is that I've lost track of Bob and Narda--they upgraded out of my life. We all out-sourced from Orange County and moved in various directions, theirs much more main-stream successful. My hoped-for invention hasn't made me a better writer--yet--only a more public one. And it is a pain to work on...so,who is right and who is a failed visionary? In the end, does it even matter?
Who is keeping track?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
COMPUTER BLUES
So,my trusty friend can no longer interface with my ethernet...I am regulated to this little netbook with only a wee memory and a keypad that makes me want to scream...I need a full time teaching job; I need a new laptop with a current operating program that recognizes my house's wireless signal; I need professional clothes that are not from the boys' section of Goodwill...I need to be able to pay my debts; my taxes; get a car less than twenty years old and a new pair of bi-focals!
I had to miss a day of subbing because I had to be home to meet with the computer guy cause though others use the wireless system, "I am the reason it is here in this house..." Of course they sent the guy right out and of course the minute he came, the wireless was on, except for my fried friend upstairs.
"Better take it into the shop...could be a virus...could be the ethernet card...can't say..."
Now, I owe the "visit". Now I have my writing life and my scholastic life (including every damned lesson plan I've ever written) on that old Gateway and it won't give them up...I just paid WEBROOT to renew my security two days before the laptop expired....arrrrrgggghh.....I thought it was supposed to stop virus activity in its tracks? Well, the healing of the laptop will have to take place after the paying of the income taxes and the other bills still wending their way into this house. It is amazing to find that one's life can come to a screeching halt so easily...
"Thank God that you have the netbook!" Mom shakes her finger at me as she spreads low fat mayo on oatmeal bread. (Mom who cannot even operate a Jitterbug...)
Yes. Thank God.
I do. Every day.
I had to miss a day of subbing because I had to be home to meet with the computer guy cause though others use the wireless system, "I am the reason it is here in this house..." Of course they sent the guy right out and of course the minute he came, the wireless was on, except for my fried friend upstairs.
"Better take it into the shop...could be a virus...could be the ethernet card...can't say..."
Now, I owe the "visit". Now I have my writing life and my scholastic life (including every damned lesson plan I've ever written) on that old Gateway and it won't give them up...I just paid WEBROOT to renew my security two days before the laptop expired....arrrrrgggghh.....I thought it was supposed to stop virus activity in its tracks? Well, the healing of the laptop will have to take place after the paying of the income taxes and the other bills still wending their way into this house. It is amazing to find that one's life can come to a screeching halt so easily...
"Thank God that you have the netbook!" Mom shakes her finger at me as she spreads low fat mayo on oatmeal bread. (Mom who cannot even operate a Jitterbug...)
Yes. Thank God.
I do. Every day.
Monday, March 12, 2012
VITAMINS
As we begin to feel the approach of Spring, I look out at the sugar maple tree in the backyard. I grew up under that tree and have featured it,prominently, in recent writing. My Nana fought to have it remain in the next door neighbor's yard--a fight she won. (It helped that the next door neighbors were and remain, our close friends!) I have raked its millions of leaves; pruned its unwieldy branches; fed its denizens and shared its shade. Now, as it holds up battered limbs devoid of everything but a raggedy plastic bag (caught at the top), I send off this reminder to us all:
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind
Instead of the heart
Be compassionate
Work for peace In your heart
And in the world
Work for peace
And I say again Never give up
No matter what
is going on around you
Never give up.
(Thanks to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama).
Like the maple tree: never give up.
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind
Instead of the heart
Be compassionate
Work for peace In your heart
And in the world
Work for peace
And I say again Never give up
No matter what
is going on around you
Never give up.
(Thanks to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama).
Like the maple tree: never give up.
Monday, March 5, 2012
streetrap: writersatwork.wordpress.com
streetrap: writersatwork.wordpress.com: How does it feel to be the poet of the month? Well, for this opening of March, 2012, amid the blustery wind and icy patched snow, it is a w...
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