Like
what?
Well,
like, does blogging make you go blind?
Menocle
notwithstanding, the old eyesight is noticeably worsening. No matter which pair of goggles I put on
Voo-voo's screen is a blur. Many factors
are involved I suppose but right now I don't want to put my medical head
on. This is a place of experience and
process. Part of my process is to adjust
to aging of the physical part of the unit called YAM. Part of the process is to be a bit obsessed
with the process. This gives rise to
behaviours such as blogging.
A
solitary activity yet with far-reaching effects. (Hello to visitors from
Russia, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain,
Finland, Canada, USA, China, Singapore and lets not forget OZ, UK and India!) Whether to believe all that is seen is the
question though.
Blogger
stats will say there have been no visits from OZ when I know for a fact there
has been. Or it will say there have been
47 hits in Germany. Unlikely… or a time
to worry.
It is
gratifying to find that there are folk who, without knowing what they're
getting into, are willing to visit this crazy little nook of Blogland. In turn I have stretched my boundaries and
entered the territory of others. This is
big stuff for little me. For you see, I
have to admit that until some 6 months ago, I really wasn't one to venture this
way. There's a history to that… Are you sitting comfortably? It's Sunday after all, what else are you
going to do?
In an
earlier part of this life I was a computer professional. Analyst/programmer was the title given. This was in the era of room-sized mainframe
computers and at the advent of personal computers. Languages were Binary, Basic, Hexadecimal, Fortran and Cobol. These words used to be common place. Now only geeks
hard-core users recall them. So called
'natural' language programming entered the scene along with the desk-based
equipments and yours truly got a bit left behind. However, for a good while there was still
demand for those who knew how to flick switches and crank turbines. (I jest
not… before setting off on this career I was clerical officer at an Edinburgh
Uni department where I had to prepare input for EMAC on a punch card machine! One of, if not THE, last of its kind. I have no recall as to what EMAC stood for -
possibly Edinburgh's Machine Ate Cards...)
It was
this skill which saw me transfer to Australia (programming, not
card-punching). This is not my
resume. What matters in the scope of
this piece is that it was only a matter of time before it became clear that
(apart from deeply entrenched establishments) my kind was running out of
popularity. What I needed to do was
upgrade to internetting and fibre-opticalising…. And as the 60 hour weeks I was putting in at
that stage of the game were close to killing me, the decision to change
directions presented itself.
A key
reason was that all this 'open air' networking worried me. Heaps.
All too prone to misuse and abuse of folks privacy. To prove my argument, Sydney went through a
spate of ATM thefts of funds via electronic fiddling, (Russian mafia gang was
caught and duly seen to in that instance, but they're not the only ones at it).
It was the first of many and increasingly more sophisticated methods of
invasion and larceny. During my seven
year stint in banking I saw more than I care to of how it can all go wrong.
What amazes actually, is how so much of it goes right. When internet banking came online I was
nearly suffocating from the knowing that there would be trouble. Which of course there was. The naïveté of such institutions that some how
they would be immune from the Shysters and Artful Dodger's of the world was
astounding.
I
continually said, what could be programmed could be hacked unprogrammed and often was reprimanded by my
seniors for not promoting the new wonder product. It was, after all, intended to save money and
pay my salary. (Never mind de-populate
branch staffing.) A few things have been
learned in the dozen+ years of internet banking and now it's nearly as
difficult for a customer to operate through that as it is to locate basic
teller services in the branch near you.
YAM! Kya?
What has all this to do with going blind?
Ah. Long
story short, from the stance of the troglodyte programmer, blogging looked to
be somehow… ...unclean. Who on Earth really wanted to go around
airing their dirty linen? Never mind
that, who wanted to look at it? It
appeared, to me, to be the land of the voyeuristic and exhibitionist, the
narcissist and flagellationist. In it's
infancy, it was still coming out of Geekland, therefore inclined to be
populated with fringe-dwellers.
Don't get
me wrong. I'm a deep Sci-fi fan. I could see the potential. As always, though, I sat back and watched;
and waited. Waited some more. Then kinda lost focus. Didn't even look in
that direction. Too many real-life
things to be getting on with .
Last
year, due to constraints, I was putting together all my 'gumph' in an AllNewsLetter (ANL) and
emailing it to all and sundry on a semi-regular basis. There was one feedback comment that
stuck. "This is blog
fodder". So when I, by sheer
accident I promise, following up on an e-book connection, landed on a blog page
and found myself enjoying it, I was left wondering. That was the 6 month-ago moment. From that blog I began to follow my
nose. Tentatively, mark you. There was still the lurking concern of
hitting upon the gutter-tripe stuff I feared was predominant.
My
intentions were pure however and I think that ensured I found lots of positive
and worthwhile content out there. Before
I knew it I was following one or two.
Then five or sixteen… All the
reading from the screen is affecting me though.
I love all this different and varied reading and viewing material. It's all clean.
But I
think it's sending me blind…
More thoughts on blogging in the next edition of
menosophical.
I enjoy your blogs, as they are well written. Look forward to my daily read and mandala fix. Though I must admit no time to go through others writings, due to lack of time, or focus on playing scrabble, house work, or vedanta reading, writing etc. In relation to the eyes I find that when I am very tired, I cannot focus on reading well. Perhaps to do with meno again. As for my blog long time coming. To put I mildly cannot be bothered.
ReplyDeleteI'm relatively new to blogging too (2 years for me) and adore it. I've met so many lovely people this way and my life has been hugely enriched by their posts and comments.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at library school back in 1973-73, my DH insisted I should do the optional course on Computers and Libraries - all punch-cards and the computer languages you mention. I then worked for 24 years for a library service that didn't actually computerise anything until several years after I left. Sigh.... Now of course, I love being able to reserve books and handle my loans online.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteMahal - so glad they are bringing some entertain...err enlightenment to you...hrrrmpppph. You may have hit the nail on the head with the tiredness versus focal adjustment and of course, we are forced to utilise tube-lighting here. Yuk...
Perpetua - WOW! My key submission for my BSc was a revamp of the campus Library system! I opted for analysis and design, but had to leave for OZ before I could see the programming through. My very dear friend 'Aitch' is an archivist and when it comes to these modern systems I think she is better than me at finding her way round. Often points me in the right direction.
At this stage I need all the help I can get! &~> YAM