I’m a writer. In today’s world that means a computer, and if you can’t afford a typist/assistant with a rate of 90+ wpm, you pretty much have to compose on the keyboard.
-Enter the netbook
This is a little jewel of a device that makes writing on the go practical for the first time ever (since publisher’s stopped accepting hand-written manuscripts). There are many good ones. For compact reliability I suggest Eee pc, Toshiba for ease of use and MSI Wind for raw power and versatility.
Now I seldom go downtown without my netbook in case the muse strikes. I don’t carry a cell phone, have you seen the latest news on gps auto-logging? And I hitch a ride, it’s green, let’s me walk a bit and come one the Starbucks is 50 feet from the only theater in a quiet crime-free suburb of 150,000. Instead I use instant messaging to call for a ride from a friend when I’m done for the day.
But just as this is the Age of Information, it is the age of directed paranoia, one might say weaponized paranoia. And the US government with it’s media and political allies is holding the trigger.
Between “National Security Letters”, laws against habeas corpus and even filing a lawsuit for civil rights infringement, and “a terrorist behind every fist” logic — ol’ Joltin’ Joe McCarthy would be proud of the America he helped to create. Tricky Dicky wouldn’t be disappointed either. And come to think of it “make my day” JFK would probably be pretty pleased as well.
“What’s the point?” you say. “I thought you write fun stories about fantastic lands with any political moral buried beneath a philosophical metaphor!”
Point taken. But there is a point when this sort of thing affects you at home.
Here is some music that I found surreal until I put it into the context of this blog:
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/10/sing_along_with.html