Cry For Help

My Friends. Friend? Heh.. The internet has come so far since it's "humble" beginnings. I had a static IP address and my own website (complete with domain) in 1996. As a successful and young(?) software engineer, a rising star with a very well-known database company (not 'O', the other one - Microsoft purchased a (windows) code branch from us, and not too originally, called it SQL Server), I wrote the code for my, at the time quite flashy, "WebSeer" domain and my "Stephen's Page", bunch of java to activate eye-candy from mouse movements, clicks, etc.. Anyway - I mention this because, well, honestly - no one else will. No, seriously - my accomplishments of late are not anything much to write about, but the point is that the internet is now an appliance in (virtually) everyone's home, everyone's life. They bring it in their cars, in their pockets even. My nephew and I are talking about a T.V. show the other day, and trying to remember some actor's first series or something... 20 seconds later he has the answer, browsed and retrieved using his Blackberry (Raspberry? Strawberry?). Conversations in 2010 need not suffer any unanswered questions, no matter how trivial. Of course, when opinions are eloquently stated as facts, then the casual seeker of answers may have some problems, but forget that for now. This is amazing stuff, and few of us would have believed we'd have such power in these tiny, little, toy-like packages, if we were told it would be so, even 20 years ago. At least I would not have guessed we'd be that far along. And the uses, the myriad of ways to communicate, are still being discovered even today. Never mind the constant text chatting ALL OVER the place. Today's twits are "tweeting" and "dweeting" (tweeting while drunk) right and left. And, IMFAO, "twit" still means what our british buddies say it means - it's not a verb, and it's not a compliment. Still, the everyday people who think themselves nerds are stealing well-established slang, American and British, every day - and "twit" has been at least temporarily absconded, and is now synonymous with "tweet", by virtue of a million twits-a-twitting, tapping away cheerfully with those nifty opposing thumbs that evolution kindly provided. I apologize for trying to sound like a clever, blogger type. Most of us, now and then and here and there, say things to amuse and hope that we don't sound too derivative or forced (fat chance ;). Anyway, I digress, but 'tis my blog after all. And it'll be weeks, perhaps eons (never), before anyone even reads what I put down here. It's just too much. If everyone is blogging .. - well, the numbers do not support the contention that we're reaching millions, even hundreds. Most of us are not even reaching tens of people. Of course, the challenge being to do something to get noticed. And that's a shameful, albeit often entertaining, segment of this medium (YouTube, etc..) as well. The neat thing about only reaching a couple of people, or perhaps just one and maybe no one? Well - let's say you reveal something, perhaps to "the world" (doesn't care), or maybe to loved ones, or ex-loved ones, or just family - siblings perhaps. And you never know if they'll get your message, let alone when. What the hell am I talking about? Well - what if I were to write up a "goodbye" of sorts. Maybe getting personal, or maybe remaining at a distance, but saying "I am going away, and... hell - thanks for all the fish" ^[1], or something. Then, maybe they get the goodbye right as you leave - maybe they get it a week, a month, maybe a year later. It's fun, for some reason, to think about the uncertainty of this communication. Perhaps a stranger, or an old friend from a distant-past, reads it and tries to contact someone, to pass on the message. Adds some excitement, and randomness, to the typical, mundane way of communicating. Like a note-in-a-bottle, tossed in to a virtual sea. Ah... still total nonsense? Heh. Don't worry. I know it sounds a little "out there", but think about if you were typing up a "stream of consciousness" and just posting it haphazardly. Not an editorial or an article or a story. Just a stream. They tend to sound a little more bizarre, so cut me some slack. It's a message in a bottle about messages in bottles.
Don't get me started on my slim little eReader (electronic book) - super thin, paper-back sized, holds thousands of books, magazines, newspapers or whatever, and I can browse and purchase more of same from anywhere, and download a new title to read. This makes the "datapad" from Star Trek's 90's efforts (DS9, Voyager) look like a big ol' encyclopedia. And I can listen to music, and like I said, download whatever I want to read, from anywhere that a cell phone would work. Darn.. I really should have ended with the "message in a bottle" line above. Oh well.   Of late I've been hearing "There's a Better Life", a song from the Vietnam era, going through my head. It is a valid ballad baby, right now - aside from the clearly implied couple ("...for me and you") in the song's story. It's just me now. It doesn't sound as good ("... for meeeeeeeeee"). ;) Anyway, do not worry yourself(ves) over me - I'm not done yet, and while hope's not in great supply, the well's not quite totally dry. I'll keep ya posted, meanwhile - do good things, every day. For you and for your others. Ciao baby.

1. Douglas Adams, the author of "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", first used the "..thanks for all the fish" line in that book, referring to the dolphins of planet earth and their farewell note to humankind as they were whisked away by their alien buddies. Douglas wrote another book in the series with that very line as the title, iirc. Very clever man, was Douglas; may he rest in peace. ↩