Ashyknees' Time Killer

The author is willing, but her punctuation is weak.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Different People

Last night I hung out with a different group of people. It was interesting. None of these people were librarians. Only one worked at a university. Most of them were much younger than me. Many of them had high tech jobs at the same huge corporation. It's been over ten years since I worked in the for-profit world. Even when I worked in the business world, I tended to work for ad agencies, media production companies, and law firms. Often, the closest I would come to a technological professional was when I would call a help desk and hear some ass say, "Uh, is it plugged in? Try turning it off and on again." That changed during the years I worked in a large research library, but now I work in publishing with a lot of "book people."

I don't miss corporate culture, but I wish I knew more people who have a deep understanding of science and technology. I wish I knew more kinds of people, still, I don't want to bother spending any more time with people who are just plain pricks. I think it's natural that over the years I have narrowed down the kind of people I spend time with, but this has had it's drawbacks.

On a political and community level, it makes if more difficult to understand people who don't seem to share my views. These people seem stranger and stranger to me, and my mental images of them become based on things I see in the media--the most outrageous and stupid examples--and not so much on more sensible people. (This is not mainly the result of some media bias. Often this is because there are outrageous and stupid comments on the internet which haven't been filtered.)

On a personal and social level, it's hard to know exactly what I might have missed out on by mostly spending time with people who's interests are similar to mine.

Meeting people through online dating sites can mean only meeting people who like the same foods, entertainments, and politics. You cut to the chase by searching for people, because honestly, if you hate tuna salad sandwiches, you don't want to waste time with someone who only eats tuna salad sandwiches. But you lose the benefits of browsing. Meeting people through activities gives you the benefits of browsing. These people share one common interest with you, but on many other fronts they could be completely different.

Here's an example. Months ago, I went on a hike with a meet up group. And in the group there was this guy who said that he was also in an anti-Obama meet up group. Being in a social situation with someone like this was very unusual for me. I'll admit that it made me less comfortable. This person didn't talk to me during the hike. He didn't talk to anyone but one of the other ostensibly straight white men on the hike. Most people like this guy won't strike up conversations with me, casual or otherwise, and that's fine by me. Frankly, I don't enjoy spending time with conservative white people, let along right wing people. I know what they are like. I grew up among them. I went to college with them. I have done my time with them. I don't want to socialize with them, but I want to be uncomfortable with them automatically. I'm trying to think of other groups of people who make me uncomfortable. People who act like thugs and revel in their lack of personal or social responsibility bother me in a different way. I want to be able to completely enjoy my hike, so to speak, whether these people are in the group or not.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

On the Information Super Highway to the 21st Century

In spite of my job title and pretty much everything that has happened in communication technology over the last 15 years, I didn't have home internet access until last week.

Now that I have mobile internet access for my little netbook, I can waste time at home as well as at the office like never before. Now, looking up addresses, checking transit schedules, searching for recipes, and other information gathering tasks can all be done at the last minute, or so it seems.

I sincerely hope that having home internet will reduce my temptation indulge in non-work related facebook status checks at the office. I'd like to believe that there are only so many facebook updates I'll care to see in one day.

Friday, February 12, 2010

I miss you, blog

This blog is (or was) so much better than facebook. I used to feel much freer to speak online. I used to write longer pieces. Now I am in the habit of writing these bad haiku updates for facebook, making sure to leave out anything that is outside the bounds of what I consider an appropriate public image. Would it be better to create a facebook pseudonym? I don't think so. I think there's something about facebook that constrains even those with pseudonyms.

This blog may be ugly, but it's my ugly.