Hello all, it has been a while since my last post. Apologies about that. It's not from a lack of ideas, or time really, I just need to be in the right mood to write, sadly that mood hasn't been happening lately. As I have said before I just can't seem to concentrate at home. I am currently in a bubble tea shop, the occasional blender firing up isn't ideal but I think I can cope.
Alright as for the topic of this post, I have been thinking about this one for a while. My original plan is a series of articles but I may just do one big post, I tend to edit as I write, so at least at this point I don't know what the end result will be.
Star Trek, I hope I don't have to explain what it is, and I won't. You are reading this on the internet, if you haven't heard of Star Trek well time for a side trip to Wikipedia, if you don't know what that is, how did you make it here? I am a fan of Star Trek, There are two categories of Star Trek fans. The trekker, simply a fan of the show, that would be me. Then there is the Trekkie, they are a bit more passionate about the show, some would even say obsessed. I say as long as you can still function so what if you really like a TV show? It's not me but hey they seem happy. Is it any different from any other hobby that takes up someone's time?
As a Trekker though that doesn't mean I can't think about and talk about the show. So here I am talking about the show. I have known about the show for as far back as I can remember but I didn't start watching until I was in my teens, a school friend was a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation a.k.a TNG, so I decided to check it out. I can't remember my initial reaction but I obviously liked it enough to keep watching. I It would have been one of the later episodes but I think over the years I managed to catch all the episodes, out of order to a degree but I think I saw them all, next was Star Trek Deep Space Nine a.k.a DS9 I was not a big fan originally but I have since changed my mind, after that Star Trek Voyager or simply Voyager came along, this was the first series I watched in its entirety, well as much as you could in the pre-streaming times. It is not my favourite series but I obviously like it enough that I aumans m currently re-watching it. Star Trek Enterprise then came along, I was pretty excited for this one but I simply lost interest fairly early on, I should give it another chance. Next up was Star Trek Discovery, I have seen an episode but that is about it, I wasn't really pulled in but I didn't hate it. I am not currently signed up for any streaming services that offer access but when I go back to a service that does I will make a point of checking it out. I did catch all of the Star Trek: Short Treks episodes, great concept but only 4 episodes it barely counts. Lastly we go back to the beginning the original series a.k.a TOS. I simply have never watched a full episode, I am aware of several episodes and clips from pop culture but I just never got around to it. Oh I forgot about the movies, I have seen all the TNG movies, and two of the reboot movies. TOS movies though I simply haven't seen.
Now with my Star Trek history out of the way let's talk Star Trek, not the show itself but its universe. The good, the bad, the interesting. The Trek universe takes place in the future and centers around humans but rarely takes place on earth. I would actually love to see an earth based series, but hey space travel is pretty exciting. That brings me to my first topic, exploration. Humanity's love of exploration is a common theme in Trek. I can't deny that, it's true humans love to explore. One thing that has always bothered me is the cost of that exploration. In the Trek universe humans are peaceful. They have moved beyond war, greed, cruelty. Technology has eliminated poverty, money isn't even a thing anymore, no poverty means no hunger, people can still get sick or injured but medical technology is far beyond what we have today, so for all intents and purposes disease as we know it no longer exists. Education, self improvement, science, celebrating life is what it's all about now, it's a humanist utopia.
Now I mentioned a lack of money but that doesn't mean there isn't a cost to space exploration. Space battles are pretty entertaining on television but they do cost lives. Now the humans in Trek are part of the United Federation of Planets, The Federation has some pretty clear rules and directives for how they are to interact with other species. Use of force is only to be used as a last resort. The problem is that they seem to encounter the need to use force on a pretty regular basis. Now of course it is to be expected that conflicts will arise and diplomacy will fail. I can't fault them for developing weapons to defend themselves. What I don't get is their selfish behavior. If your hobby, requires regularly killing other sentient beings on a regular basis maybe it's time to chose another hobby. Now I say hobby here because that is what it is. Without any financial compensation even your job is a hobby. There are parts of the world today that are dangerous. I would not go to theses places as it would be dangerous for me or require me to defend myself against attack. I chose simply not to go to these places. The humans in the Trek universe seem to feel differently. I will acknowledge that they are not the aggressors in these fights but sometimes you are the aggressor by simply being there.
How humans, and the Federation can continue with their exploration simply doesn't make any sense. The Vulcans would say it is illogical. That would actually be an interesting topic for the earth based Star Trek series I mentioned earlier. Maybe not all humans are so keen on this exploration that Starfleet and the Federation seem to love. We could have the regular humans and other Federation citizens on earth trying to change how Starfleet does its thing. Might work better as a movie but either way I would like to see that story.
Well I started this blog post not really sure what I was going to say. I think I said what I want to say for now, so it will be a series. How long a series I do not know yet but there are several other Trek topics I want to tackle. I will try to get another post for next week. I think simply writing that may be just the encouragement I will need to write again next week. I encourage you to comment but please keep it constructive.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Is the Cliffhanger a Cheap Tactic?
No one in Hollywood will see this but it's the internet, yelling into the void is kinda the point isn't it? Why do we as the audience accept the cliffhanger as standard practice? Too many series use this device theses days. What exactly is the point of it? Is it supposed to increase my enjoyment of a show? I don't really see how. Suspense, if properly used can be great, suspense followed by a week or several month break is just annoying. Time constraints exist, especially with traditional broadcast television so I can accept some episodes will be divided into multiple parts. Does that mean the division has to be right at the climax of the action? I think not. At least in the case of two part episodes the wait is generally only one week. My real beef is with end of season cliffhangers. I am not asking for every story line to be nicely wrapped up. Many great shows take place over several seasons. It would be unrealistic to finish every story line and just start with all new adventures for the following season. Having our protagonist receive terrible news or be put in a dangerous situation in the last minutes the season is just teasing the audience, not in a good way either. Why do they do this? Well I am pretty sure I know the answer, they want you to tune in for the next season. If your show is well written though that was going to happen anyway. If I am enjoying a show I will want to watch the next episode no matter how the previous episode ended. If a show sucks, you can end every episode with a cliffhanger and I just won't care. Are there really that many people out there watching shows they don't like just because the previous episode ended on a cliffhanger? I doubt it. With so much choice out there if you aren't enjoying something you just move on.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Scared of technology
Well I had revived the blog a while back but unfortunately I let it slip back into a coma. Apologies for that, I did have a valid excuse for part of that but it was mostly laziness. I really should schedule some blog writing time. I am currently writing this in a Starbucks. I never really understood the appeal but I think I get it. Home is home, it's time to relax. A Starbucks can feel like an office. Oh and since the topic of this blog entry is technology I am writing this on my new ASUS C302CA Flip Chromebook. So far I am really liking it.
Alright now for the actual blog post. Why are so many people afraid of technology? First lets get the definition out of the way, when I say technology here I mean computers and all their various digital companions. Some could argue that a lot of modern mechanical technology wouldn't exist without computers, that may be true but that is not what I am talking about. As for the second definition I admit afraid might not be the right word. Not willing to adapt may be the better term.
A little background for the inspiration for this blog entry. I work in a small engine repair shop. We both sell and service various types of outdoor power equipment such as lawnmowers, chainsaws, and snowblowers. As you can imagine this means I get to deal with the general public. The shop is admittedly a little tricky to find. We are located in a plaza that for all intents and purposes is divided into two sections, there is a map at the entrance but it is easily missed. The plaza is also not accessible from the main road it is on, you actually have to tun onto a side street just before the plaza. GPS systems know where the plaza is but are unaware of the lack of driveways on the main road and you can't enter our specific unit number that would direct you to the back section where we are located. OK so that is a failure of my beloved technology. I never claimed it was perfect. I am happy to help people that call when they can't quite find us. I admit I do get frustrated when they can't comprehend the concept of "We are in the back on the other side of the parked trucks" but that is another rant for another day.
What I can't comprehend is the amount of people who call simply wanting our address, directions, store hours, etc. I get at least one of these call a week. Now Jabbles you might be saying, these are likely all elderly people. Well first off that shouldn't be an excuse, more on that later but these are not old people. I am not expert voice analyst but I can tell the difference between an 80 year old and a forty-something on the phone. Many of the people who call for these easily answered questions via a simple Google search are in the latter category. They already found our phone number they likely have the information in front of them already. I actually recently had a guy ask "What would you have done before Google Maps?" when I recommended using Google Maps to find us. I added a place marker showing our exact location on Google Maps making it much easier to find us. I was letting him know this, it is honestly the easiest way to find us. Take a look before leaving and when you arrive the whole "we are in the back" thing makes much more sense. I really had no idea how to respond. It's certainly possible this guy simply can't access Google, I would be surprised but it's possible. Just let me know and I will offer additional directions on finding us. I am quite confident that he did have access to Google but was somehow offended I suggested he used the best tool available to find us. Somehow I don't think people would have been offended at the suggestion of calling someone on the phone once phones were pretty much universally accessible. I take that back actually I did know how to respond to him, I wanted to ask him how he would have contacted us if phones didn't exist, would he have sent a telegram?
That is what bothers me about this fear of technology. At its core it is a tool. Just like a car, some people enjoy cars and driving, some do not. Many people who aren't car people still own and drive cars because they are a very useful tool. It really should be the same for computers, you may not want to spend a lot of time playing on a computer. You may not care in the slightest about social media or video games but the tool is still useful. There was a time when the cost of entry was pretty expensive but you can get a brand new machine that has accesses the internet for a few hundred dollars these days. Now the actual internet access isn't exactly cheap, especially for someone on a budget but many public places have free WIFI these days.
In a blog about how people don't use technology I feel a little guilty about this part. I can easily go to Wikipedia and read about pretty much any person, place, event, thing, or phenomenon I can think of. One I am done with the Wikipedia article I can move on the the citations and I pretty much have access to anything and everything written about that particular topic. What isn't so easy is finding less tangible data such as how various people and demographics accepted various new technologies as they became affordable. I feel as the school system failed me on that one, I was never taught how to do research on something that isn't already in a book. I would love to know what the average person in the 20's, 30's 40's thought of the car. How people felt about the industrial revolution in it's first few decades. Where people afraid of the electric light 20 years after most homes were wired up?
Lastly I would like to talk about those old people. Sure early computers required a certain set of skills to use. They were certainly a tool back then but a tool that most people simply didn't need, especially given the cost of owning a computer back in the 80's. I can forgive them for not being interested back then. Modern computers however are quite easy to use, yeah if and when they go wrong it can be pretty frustrating but if you think about it machinery in general can be frustrating to deal with when it breaks. Lets take Interac as an example. Interac (debit/credit card machines for those outside of Canada) has been quite common for about 20 years now. The machines do vary and have changed a bit over the years but are quite straight forward. The first step is inserting a card, this is pretty mechanical, there should be no issues here from the "I am not a computer person" crowd. Next you have to confirm the amount you are being charged, not exactly a difficult question. If using debit you chose your account, again simple question. Last step is enter your PIN, unless you never use your card this is a 4 digit number, that should be pretty easy to remember. I constantly get old people who seem flummoxed by this newfangled machine and ask me what to do at each step as if this is the first time using such a device. Now it is possible some of them pretty much always use cash and only very rarely use the Interac machine. Somehow I doubt this is common. Even if they only use Interac about once a month, if they have done so for the last 20 years that is about 240 uses. Why is it still so difficult. I think that is just people being stubborn. I can't tell you why but I do find it frustrating. Why not accept that computers are not that hard to use? You are just making your own life more complicated.
I don't really have a conclusion for this post. I just felt like writing down my thoughts. I have more to say but that is all I have for now.
EDIT: I forgot I wanted to add what I was listening to when I wrote this. It isn't really relevant but I want to record it nonetheless. I like the "radio" feature on Google Play Music. You select a specific song you like and it will play other similar songs. Today's radio started with Faded by Alan Walker.
Alright now for the actual blog post. Why are so many people afraid of technology? First lets get the definition out of the way, when I say technology here I mean computers and all their various digital companions. Some could argue that a lot of modern mechanical technology wouldn't exist without computers, that may be true but that is not what I am talking about. As for the second definition I admit afraid might not be the right word. Not willing to adapt may be the better term.
A little background for the inspiration for this blog entry. I work in a small engine repair shop. We both sell and service various types of outdoor power equipment such as lawnmowers, chainsaws, and snowblowers. As you can imagine this means I get to deal with the general public. The shop is admittedly a little tricky to find. We are located in a plaza that for all intents and purposes is divided into two sections, there is a map at the entrance but it is easily missed. The plaza is also not accessible from the main road it is on, you actually have to tun onto a side street just before the plaza. GPS systems know where the plaza is but are unaware of the lack of driveways on the main road and you can't enter our specific unit number that would direct you to the back section where we are located. OK so that is a failure of my beloved technology. I never claimed it was perfect. I am happy to help people that call when they can't quite find us. I admit I do get frustrated when they can't comprehend the concept of "We are in the back on the other side of the parked trucks" but that is another rant for another day.
What I can't comprehend is the amount of people who call simply wanting our address, directions, store hours, etc. I get at least one of these call a week. Now Jabbles you might be saying, these are likely all elderly people. Well first off that shouldn't be an excuse, more on that later but these are not old people. I am not expert voice analyst but I can tell the difference between an 80 year old and a forty-something on the phone. Many of the people who call for these easily answered questions via a simple Google search are in the latter category. They already found our phone number they likely have the information in front of them already. I actually recently had a guy ask "What would you have done before Google Maps?" when I recommended using Google Maps to find us. I added a place marker showing our exact location on Google Maps making it much easier to find us. I was letting him know this, it is honestly the easiest way to find us. Take a look before leaving and when you arrive the whole "we are in the back" thing makes much more sense. I really had no idea how to respond. It's certainly possible this guy simply can't access Google, I would be surprised but it's possible. Just let me know and I will offer additional directions on finding us. I am quite confident that he did have access to Google but was somehow offended I suggested he used the best tool available to find us. Somehow I don't think people would have been offended at the suggestion of calling someone on the phone once phones were pretty much universally accessible. I take that back actually I did know how to respond to him, I wanted to ask him how he would have contacted us if phones didn't exist, would he have sent a telegram?
That is what bothers me about this fear of technology. At its core it is a tool. Just like a car, some people enjoy cars and driving, some do not. Many people who aren't car people still own and drive cars because they are a very useful tool. It really should be the same for computers, you may not want to spend a lot of time playing on a computer. You may not care in the slightest about social media or video games but the tool is still useful. There was a time when the cost of entry was pretty expensive but you can get a brand new machine that has accesses the internet for a few hundred dollars these days. Now the actual internet access isn't exactly cheap, especially for someone on a budget but many public places have free WIFI these days.
In a blog about how people don't use technology I feel a little guilty about this part. I can easily go to Wikipedia and read about pretty much any person, place, event, thing, or phenomenon I can think of. One I am done with the Wikipedia article I can move on the the citations and I pretty much have access to anything and everything written about that particular topic. What isn't so easy is finding less tangible data such as how various people and demographics accepted various new technologies as they became affordable. I feel as the school system failed me on that one, I was never taught how to do research on something that isn't already in a book. I would love to know what the average person in the 20's, 30's 40's thought of the car. How people felt about the industrial revolution in it's first few decades. Where people afraid of the electric light 20 years after most homes were wired up?
Lastly I would like to talk about those old people. Sure early computers required a certain set of skills to use. They were certainly a tool back then but a tool that most people simply didn't need, especially given the cost of owning a computer back in the 80's. I can forgive them for not being interested back then. Modern computers however are quite easy to use, yeah if and when they go wrong it can be pretty frustrating but if you think about it machinery in general can be frustrating to deal with when it breaks. Lets take Interac as an example. Interac (debit/credit card machines for those outside of Canada) has been quite common for about 20 years now. The machines do vary and have changed a bit over the years but are quite straight forward. The first step is inserting a card, this is pretty mechanical, there should be no issues here from the "I am not a computer person" crowd. Next you have to confirm the amount you are being charged, not exactly a difficult question. If using debit you chose your account, again simple question. Last step is enter your PIN, unless you never use your card this is a 4 digit number, that should be pretty easy to remember. I constantly get old people who seem flummoxed by this newfangled machine and ask me what to do at each step as if this is the first time using such a device. Now it is possible some of them pretty much always use cash and only very rarely use the Interac machine. Somehow I doubt this is common. Even if they only use Interac about once a month, if they have done so for the last 20 years that is about 240 uses. Why is it still so difficult. I think that is just people being stubborn. I can't tell you why but I do find it frustrating. Why not accept that computers are not that hard to use? You are just making your own life more complicated.
I don't really have a conclusion for this post. I just felt like writing down my thoughts. I have more to say but that is all I have for now.
EDIT: I forgot I wanted to add what I was listening to when I wrote this. It isn't really relevant but I want to record it nonetheless. I like the "radio" feature on Google Play Music. You select a specific song you like and it will play other similar songs. Today's radio started with Faded by Alan Walker.
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