Oh brave new world.
Nov 06Yesterday was my birthday. And my birthday is something that I let slide past me without making any fuss about it. Its a slow quiet day where I contemplate about what i’ve achieved in life and where I count my blessings and am thankfull for all I have. ( I of course also wonder if I am indeed getting older and slowly mutter a curse that my good looks are fading away). But i’m not one of those " Yippie ka Yeey its my birthday types". No big party, no raving half-drunk about the virtues of old age .. no near depressive episodes .. stuff like that.
Usually the day passes with a few phone calls from friends and family who call to congratulate me. (I never know what to say to those, they make me a bit shy and uneasy), the occasional birthday card (fewer and fewer over the years) and that is about that. This year however, that all changed.
The addition of my FACEBOOK PROFILE to my digital lifestyle came with a built in calendar. And that in turn, notified my friends online .. and that changed my birthday experience altogether.
So pretty soon I had friends from far of places sending me best wishes, my Blackberry became abuzz with emails, Text messages started coming in and I even got some phone calls (my mom and my aunt). But all the rest ? All of it was online ! Email, Facebook, Instant messaging.. All of it became digital.
It made me realize just how my life has changed. How I have become a citizen of the world, and the web. How my "social landscape" is much broader then the town I live in. And how importantly I value that "digital lifestyle". And as my perceptions of the world are those of a shrinking planet, bringing us closer together, I feel my horizons broaden as I get to stay in touch with all these different people all over the world. I love it !.
Oh Brave new world.
I’m generally not much of an optimist, mostly cautious in my views on world events. But yesterday the world presented my with a great birthday present. History was made yesterday, as we saw that change, that ANYTHING is possible. The outcome of the elections in the US resonated across the globe. The speech of Barak Obama made living rooms fall silent as people listened in. On Cnn a Hologram reported the victory of a black president in the 2008 elections. Online millions of people commented, participated and experienced the event. It sounds like pure science fiction but it was in fact pure reality. For one , wonderful moment, humanity conviced me that anything is possible if we put our minds to it. : YES WE CAN !
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Audi Arkanoid.
Oct 27
Man ! What a week this has been. Believe it or not, this is the first time I get to sit down decently behind a computer and do something in the vicinity of writing a blog post. Most of this week has been spent on the road, cruising through the beautiful country of Belgium and all of its autumn tainted landscapes. A great experience of course, and ideal for an podcast fanatic like me to catch up on some episodes and beef up on knowledge. Even my own podcasting exploits are benefited by this “time on the road” and I managed to record the next episode already (Now I just need to get down to mixing and uploading the fracker)
The week however was not uneventful as I had my fair share of adventure (or could I call it misadventure ) on Tuesday. I was up in Luxemburg , visiting one of our company sites when I thought it would be a good idea to go out for a little snack during my lunchbreak. I took the car and drove of the industrial estate , trailing behind a car with one of these little trailers behind it. Suddenly I saw something drop off the little trailer. I saw something (I thought it was a peace of Styrofoam) hit the road. The truck coming towards me in the other lane prevented me from swerving out of the objects way so I hit it straight on. Can you imagine the scene in Star Trek 1 where they are heading towards an asteroid, caught in some kind of wormhole effect.. Unable to go left and right ? Well , I had kind of the same situation, minus the ability to launch photon torpedo’s.
There are some noises in the universe who are inherently bad. You don”t have to know where they come from, you dont even have to know what they mean .. you just KNOW it doesn’t sound right; One of these terrible noises perpetrated from underneath the car as I slammed into the unknown object.
I had to pull over right away, switch of the engine (that by now was making an even MORE horrible noise) and got out only to find a BIG CONCRETE BLOCK behind my car , streaked with motor oil and a black puddle that was slowly but surely propagating from underneath my car. The driver who had just LOST ‘unknown object 001’ continued merrily on his way, oblivious to what had just transpired. The audi however had suffered a lethal blow from this unforeseen game of “asteroids” .. or actually its more like Arkanoid since the Audi was minus one rocket launcher to defend itself.
So after calling up road assistance to have the audi towed of to a garage far far away.. I had nothing better to do then to walk back to the company and wait for the replacement car to arrive. As I spend the remainder of my lunchbreak online, quickly doing some emails and posting the ‘recent events” on twitter and facebook.
What was heartwarming is that suddenly my whole online community came alive. Several people commented if I was Ok, asked questions about what happened (and insisted I posted pictures to flickr ASAP ) and others even offered to come and pick me up ! Seriously ! Good friends, most from my facebook list , let me know that if I needed a ride, I just had to give them a shout !.As my blackberry buzzed alive with direct messages from twitter and facebook , I felt a little less alone in the world. ( being without a car in the middle of a deserted industrial estate a far of country of Belgium DOES make you feel lonely) but now, that ONLINE posse that keeps me warm and fuzzy feeling whenever I ‘live online” was literally close to my heart , as I tucked my Blackberry in my breast pocket.
But it all turned out well in the end. The replacement car was delivered in time and I was to go on my merry way. Exhausted from the excitement and the shock ( Because quite frankly, that little event scared the crap out of me) but feeling good knowing that my “virtual friend-scape” had become very real to me that day !!!
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Life is fleeting, pirating is for life.
Oct 18And you know what ? They are right ! Thank you XKCD
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Kc218 : "Tech on the Road"
Oct 17Shownotes.
- Timestamp
- Introduction
- The Audi A3
- The TomTom 710
- The MM 50
- The Blackberry 8310
- Logmein.
- The Setup (pic)
- Music by Planet Boelex.
