My netbook seems to have died. I tried to keep it going as long as I could. It was a first generation netbook and Eileen and I had to drive to the nearby city of Grand Rapids to purchase it when they first came out. Now I can go buy a replacement at the local grocery store. I treasure the portable access and convenience this machine has given me to articles, books, news, and my own ideas recorded in online docs. I am not as happy with the inability to repair something like this and make it last longer. I probably will go buy a replacement today or tomorrow.
I quickly caught on to the idea now sometimes described as “living in the cloud.” Weird metaphor. It’s neither exactly “living” or a “cloud.” But the idea is that I use the netbook as a window and access to stuff that’s not stored on it particularly. This means that essentially I can purchase a new one and regain the same access. I will have to load it with the basic softwares I am using (Chrome browser, Kindle reader for PCs, Adobe, and so on). Then I will begin to download and save stuff on it that is sitting online for me to regain access to like books and articles.
Regarding yesterday’s ideas about information which Ray Hinkle comments on, I thought it was interesting that Peter Day one of BBC’s business guys had a program for May 21 called “Global Biz: For Your Information” (link to MP3, link to Peter Day’s Podcast page). I find business people’s use of language dizzying sometimes (see the video I recently embedded, the Collegehumor video: Hardly Working: Startup Guys for funny use of language).
Language and words have always been a big love of mine for some reason. It hurts me a bit to see words hollowed out and lose essential meaning. This love of language definitely colored my reading and thinking about theology (back when I did that). I listened to this interview this morning of the biblical scholar, Walter Brueggman.
One think I really like about Krista Tippett is the way her web site is a deep source on any topic she touches. In this case, she interviewed Brueggemann and instantly threw the tape up online.
Brueggemann is one of those poets of the bible that had so much meaning for me at one point. I still enjoy listening to him and others once in a while about these ideas. Metaphor and poetry is really my basic access to articulated spiritual meaning. I guess that’s why I’m a church musician. Heh.
I just chatted back and forth with a good friend in China. He asked me to google something for him. He said China has restricted access to google and gmail. Hard to imagine the numbers of people this affects over there. The size of China boggles my mind.
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Bill Moyers: ‘We’re Almost Out of Time’ – Truthdig Radio – Truthdig
It makes me crazy that Truthdig doesn’t have an mp3 for me to download, only podcast and transcript and streaming. Oh well. I’ll probably get to this sometime.
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Charges Against the N.S.A.’s Thomas Drake : The New Yorker
If you think you and information are secure, you should read this story about how the government has been monitoring all of us illegally for years.
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Debunking the Top 7 Myths on Iran’s Middle East Policies | Truthout
Interesting counterbalance to stereotypes about this complex country.
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