I embrace space-age technology!

I had not left Holum since I came home on the last Friday in October. When I wanted more groceries (mostly yogurt and some Pepsi Raw) I walked to the shop across the bridge, some half an hour’s walk from home. Yesterday I tried to do that too, but it was below freezing and a strong wind, and after about 20 minutes my heart began to lurch so I turned around and walked home. It is not usually a big deal, but I usually sleep during the day and write in the night now (following American time while living in Norway) so I had gone a long time without sleeping. Not the best time to test my blizzard resistance, I cautiously concluded.

So today I went to Kristiansand again. That’s the city (by Norwegian standards at least) where I work. I had planned to not do that until the very end of the month. My bus card expired near the beginning of the month, so I could have saved about $200 by staying home all month. It is not like I have much to do in the city, since I can’t go to work during my vacation. Norway has enforced 5 weeks of vacation, so I have to take a month off whether I want to or not. I use that time for NaNoWriMo, since that would distract me from my work (and the other way around) anyway.

Taking the bus to the city felt pleasantly familiar. It is a great time for reading as well as checking everyone’s FaceBook.

In the city I went to the local phone shop and looked at various android phones. My HTC Hero is still working fine, except that it no longer plays the songs from my Opera Unite server in the Flash applet. I have to download them and play them in some other music player, which is inconvenient. So I asked them if the newest HTC they had could do that. (It is called HTC Desire HD and looks to be a great device, but I hate the name with a vengeance. Can you imagine Jesus or the Buddha lugging around a device named “desire”? What’s next, “HTC Rumors” or perhaps “HTC Homesickness”?) Anyway, the shop did not know and the importer did not know (we talked with them on the phone). They recommended trying a third-party Flash.

I also looked at the Galaxy Tab, a thing with a size in between a mobile phone and an iPad. It is nifty, but does not fit into a shirt pocket and probably not all jackets either. And it is badly overpriced right now. In the end, I did not buy anything, as expected.

Afterwards I went to the library. I don’t remember when I was there last time. I am quite sure I have not actually borrowed books there this century, but I do have a library card from 1993 so I did use it as late as that. Of course they don’t use that kind of cards anymore, it was not even magnetic, much less a smart card like people use today. I think I have stopped by a few times later without borrowing anything, but I am not sure how long ago even that was. Years for sure.

They sure have a lot of books. I read a little in some Norse mythology. Perhaps I am going to continue my “Shadow of Yggdrasil” novel at some point, but currently I enjoy writing my Rebirth of Buddha fanfic, with happy sect members doing happy things. Love, self-reflection, cute girls, wisdom, Buddha and eternal progress. Come the way you are and become like us!

Anyway, there sure were a lot of books, and it made me think. If the change of technology had slowed down instead of just speeding up more and more… if everyday technology today was roughly similar to 20 years ago, I would probably have spent a good deal of my free time in that library. When I was unemployed for 13 months back in the 1980es after the collapse of the yuppie boom, I spent much of the time in the library, and I believe I have benefited greatly from it. (I made my way through several of C.G. Jung’s books, including his autobiography which made an indelible mark on me, because it was frankly the first time I read about someone similar to myself, in their own words more or less.)

But of course the world did not stop or even slow down in 1990. And for the most part I embrace new technology heartily. For instance, today I embraced a new frying pan. (I eventually destroyed the old one by overheating it while playing a game. The voice in my heart alarmed me before it could actually catch fire, but the non-stick cover was ruined and it became very sticky and started burning my food.)

The new one is still space age tech, with Teflon coating. If I don’t overheat it, it may last until they invent nanotech frying pans. I am not sure what they will do that this one doesn’t, but I am fairly sure they will appear eventually.