The Things We Take For Granted
 

every now in then i'm amazed by cars... everyone has one - its either just transportation, a practical tool and a means to carry stuff, or a nascar lovin rednecks favorite toy - pride and joy ..


but once in a while i marvel at the thought that i'm basically sitting in a comfy chair, tearing down a highway at 100 miles an hour ... my feet less then a foot away from the pavement.

how bizarre and cool would that look if we could do that in regular chairs..

is it just me or isnt it weird when you actually think about it - sitting on your ass - mere inches above pavement thats tearing along at an incredible and dangerous speed. just a chair, a platform and some wheels keeping you alive.

compute harddrives is another thing that i'm fascinated with ... i know how they work - i just cant believe it's possible.


same with records and recordplayers for that matter - how that weird little groove can repeat high fidelity music so perfectly.

i guess i'm digging the technology today.
I know it's the root of all evil some would say .. but i'm loving it..

I think a lot of people would have no idea how to cope without todays "modern" technology...
I mean, think back even further to like, when you were say 20 urg :D , the introduction of plumbing, running water...etc...irrigation, farming, hell - everything is done for us these days - and those that do it for us are assisted by machines...

I'm really glad I'm not the only one here who acts like urge is old enough to remember Babylon and the rise of Mesepotamia :D

I try not to take any modern conveniences for granted. I like have instant access to information: Take away my internet and its like my brain has been removed.

oh dear god, it gets worse ??!!!


:D

Yep. You should see me on 3 hours of sleep and no coffee. I am basically a mentally disabled person with a stutter.


Its not that I am not caapable of "Roughing it", I just dont want to. I worked a crappy, REally crappy job on a farm when I was 21, and then spent 4 years in a woodshop; mind you I am extremely accident prone so that was pretty stressful; so that I could move into a job that paid me very well to sit in front of a computer.

I directed my life from no technology to surrounded by it on purpose. i know what its like not to have it, I never forget it, and it keeps me grounded realizing it could all go away.


That being said, I have always marvelled at file compression. Someone was smart enough to figure out how to make computers hide or remove "extra" bytes to make files smaller. What really gets me is zipping files; trhey are shrunk, but whatever makes them their "normal" size is still there. Just goes to show you that the rules of the digital world have nothign to do with rules of the physical world.

the law of conservation goes right out the window. That would be cool though, could you imagine being able to "Zip" matter? You could pack a 20 bags for vacation, compress them, then stick them in a backpack as a carry-on

Televisions. We're seeing moving pictures on a piece of glass, being sent to us from far away!

The Sofa Car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGu7Jaktz6M
:D

But yeah, techonology is pretty amazing and part of me loves it, but honestly sometimes I wish things were still more simple and less stressful. It seems a lot of technology has come with a price for other things. I can't imagine living at any other time though.

Technology gets better and more complex every single day. When I was a kid we didn't have things like the Internet , DVD, or tiny cell phones and I'm only 33.
Computers control everything!!!! Water plants, Electricity, Sewage, car engines, etc. If "they" suddenly banned computers from society.. most people in the world wouldn't know what the fuck to do.

Great thread, Urge.

oh....another technology thread.....I thought this might be about...

puppy dogs
beer
children's laughter
a baby's smile
naked women
beer
internet porn
frozen pizza

i still remember the 1st time i ever saw a sony walkman .. remember the 1st ones - how big they were.

a friend of mine had the 1st one - didnt know what to make of it - all we had then for portability were tinny sounding transister radios ..

i put the earphones on - and heard his walkman - and it blew my mind. i'd never believed there could be that quality of sound coming from that thing if i hadn't heard it myself.

i became obsessed with them - probably still have 10 - 12 of them around the house - all makes and models.

funny thing is i cant remember the last time i used earphones - my lifestyle doesnt allow for it now ... but i still remember that experience ...

Life .

not me brother - not at my age

Know this old man......I NEVER take beer, naked women or Internet porn for granted....EVER!!!!! :D

Well, you are one of a kind.

Thank god for that

it is true though....the older you get the more you appreciate life itself.

i've always strived to enjoy life as much as possible (probably the result of a shit childhood)

I'd still love to be able to do it all over again knowing what i know now though ..

which basically is - life goes by too damn fast.

slow down, enjoy it - do everything in your power to find happiness - have fun ! (without infringing on the fun and happiness of anyone else of course)

if i'd realized how important this was 30 years ago - i might have done a few things differently.

as of now i try to squeeze something positive out of every second of the day....
i hate sleeping - i just have too much stuff to do/read/play/watch/experience !!!

Well said, dude. :cool:

amen brother



[all the young-uns are saying " listen to these two old coots" an rolling theirs eyes ]

they will find out soon enough........and much faster than they think

you cant tell them young whippersnappers nuthin these days, they jess dont listen to their elders, why just the other day .....


..... Hey, Kid ! Get the Hell offa my lawn godammit !!..........


ah ... uhm... what was i saying just now ?

sumtin aboot snapping your whip



oops....I think I just shit myself





again:rolleyes:

WHAT ? you just shipped yourself ? to where?

thats funny...cause that is my occupation. And it would be to Ireland.

always wanted to go into an Irish pub and have a beer

I'll join you!

I agree with everything you said.



When i was a kid(I'm almost 20 now),VHS was big,then came DVD's,then HD-DVD and Blu-ray.Playing high defintion pictures,from a circular disc,on a wide screen TV.Wow.I wonder what will come next?

The biggest thing that i've think we've accomplished technology wise is "The Internet"

You can talk to anyone,anywhere at anytime,even with different time zones.Hell i bet you can talk to someone if they were on mars.Just need a wider range for the internet.

cool.......as long as you try to take advantage of me when I get drunk. ;)

I agree with urge on everything but sleep. I love sleep. Its not wasted time, especially when I dream. Som eo fmy best "experiences" have been in dreams, including the most gut-wrenching terror of my adult life. I am the only person I know who wakes from nightmares exhilerated.


I know something most americans take for granted, and we would be healthier as a society if we didnt: Food. Its treated as a drug and an inconvenience to most people. Meals are an interruption, something that gets in the way of other stuff; then ends up as a comforter when we are unhappy. So we dont sit down and have a good meal, or even enjoy the shit we are cramming in our mouths when we are in a hurry, so our bodies process it under stress, which is not only generally bad for you (you dont absorb the nutrition properly), stress causes you to retain fat, IN ADDITION to the fact that this very mentality causes us to eat stuff that is loaded with chemicals and preservatives that are inherently low on the good stuff and high on the bad, so its like taking off your bullet proff vest, and then shooting yourself with the really big explosive armor piercing bullets.


My advice, eat food that is good for you, and actually sit down and have a meal. if you cant, dont get stuff you hate. if you are ina situation where all you have for options is fast food or junk food, get something you like and enjoy it.

Why do the french eat "as bad" as Americans yet have less obesity and heart problems? Well, for one, the fatty sauces tend to be made of natural ingredients. However, they enjoy their food. Eating is an experience, not just a necessity. It is WAY more healthy to eat for the love of eating than to jam food down your throat because you need to.

Didn't you just take your wife to Mc Donalds for your anniversary ?

No problem! :D

There's also the red wine theory about it being good for your heart.

Her suggestion. and it was to save time; we each got something we liked and enjoyed it as much as we would have a 4 star dinner ;)


I follow my own advice, and I LOVE fast food. Its very sad.
There is some validity in that, but a slight extra ingestion of antioxidants doesnt account for the fact that as a country they have a high-fat diet yet manage to be per capita in way better shape than us.If I had a PHd, people would be on the "Eat to enjoy" diet.

Am I saying "Eat like a pig, as long as you enjoy it"? Nope (although I am for occaisional binges), if you enjoy eating all the time, and eat all the time, you are still going to be fat. You will just be a little better off than the guy who eats all the time because he hates himself.

Pfff, last time I was in Canada your speed limits (90 kph in most places) made me sick, I'm used to a 75 mph speed limit and I didn't see any limits even CLOSE to 120 kph.

100kph is the fastest you'll see - which bothers me too on one hand.
(i used to go 140 all the time ... a couple of speeding tickets has since kept me to 120 a speed that will rarely earn you a ticket.)

but then again - around toronto - there are a lot of people that should never get in a car - let along travel at a higher speed than 60mph

Nice thread, Urgeok.

Which kinds of walkman's do you still have? The Am/Fm Radio ones? The Cassette player ones? Cd ones?

I can sord-of relate to the Walkman story....in the generation before me (more than likely including you) which included 33, 45 vinyl records and 8 tracks, which of course when I was born (1990) to most was awkward yet intriguing as well. I was definitely exposed to them--my parents still have them...they did upgrade one room where they bought some music player which was a 4 in 1. The very top was the vinyl record portion, the next level down was the Cd player, the next level down was the cassette player, and it had radio as well. So still to this day--every now and then they "unleash the memories."

However in my generation up until now, apparently the more compact we got the better. The orginal cd players just played the compact discs, then went to compact discs and radio, then went to play compact disc as well as the mp3 discs (about half the size of a cd), then played those but added digital radio, then we had a boom in mp3 players; then not to long before there are iPods, then mp3 wants to create competition so they create mp4 players (which do exactly what iPod do, but cheaper--but not as much as memory as iPod can get), then Bill Gates and Microsoft want to get in on the fun and to compete with Apple create the Zune (which does what iPods do--but can also send mp3s to other friends with Zunes via the wifi microsoft enabled on it--which is really neat). So yeah, pretty soon, when I'm you're age (no offense) I'm going to be having fun talking about my iPod or Zune and my music, camera and video compatible cell phone; when kids are going to be roaming around in 2022 with something way more cooler and definitely topped what used to be as Paris Hilton says: "That's hot." :)

a few of each of the ones you mentioned

And I bet they're from all different labels huh?

I just got rid of my last cd walkman sometime in August...thought it was time to tell "Ol Yeller," goodbye. Sadly within the past 18 months, I've gone through and iPod, two mp3 players and two mp4 players. I am so :o . But in due time, I'll get better.

elevators - truly amazing

It would be easier to list the things we don't take for granted.Everything we do,from walking to eating..hell,even sleeping,we take for granted.We are selfish bastards,we really are:)Technology is just one more we can add to the long list of things that we rarely give a second thought to doing/having.There are people that would just be happy to own a television,computer,just about everything you can think of.Those are the people who would actually be thankful for the little things that we have just grown to look at as neccessities.I know not everyone is this way but i'd say more than most are.