technology

Life in the Entitlement Zone.

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Today I spent several hours in the main public library, working at a long countertop that holds a sign saying “QUIET ZONE.”

To be utterly clear, the sign also features “no” symbols placed over a cellphone and a talking head.

Pretty straightforward, right? That rules-enforced peace is the reason I work here* fairly regularly.

And fairly regularly I’m accosted by cell yell. Today was one such day.

Hey, can you hear me?

I look up and a guy, maybe 19 years old, is approaching. Can you hear me? Yeah, what’s up? And naturally he plunks himself down in the Quiet Zone and opens up his laptop while continuing to talk.

 

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In which I buy a dongle.

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thAnimation artist Chuck Jones, the guy who invented Pepe Le Pew and the Road Runner/Coyote binary, once noted the existence of a vast conspiracy to keep people from getting where they need to go. It’s called the Anti-Destination League, and it was out in force for me yesterday.

My to-do list contained eight errands when I set out at 1 p.m. When DF called me at 6 p.m. only four of the to-dos were to-done and I was nearly spitting with frustration.

Our conversation included something I could never have imagined I’d say: “It’s not as easy to buy a dongle as you might think.”

 

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Online news won’t save the planet.

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My newspaper didn’t show up today. A missing Sunday paper is particularly irksome because it’s top-heavy with sale and coupon supplements. Happily, another paper was delivered about an hour after I called the Seattle Times circulation department.

One of these days there won’t be a paper – and not because someone stole it, or because my carrier’s Saturday night stretched into Sunday morning. It will be because newspapers have gone the way of the dodo.

At that point I’ll be seriously bummed. So will dog lovers, bird owners and the thrift store cashiers who insist on wrapping each cup or plate you buy in sheets of yesterday’s news.

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My first laptop, finally.

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Two years ago I wanted a laptop. I thought my life would easier if I could write during my 50-minute bus rides to the University of Washington.

But then I examined the potential purchase the way I examined all others:

  • Can I really justify the expense vs. the payoff?
  • If I got it, would my life be significantly improved?
  • If I didn’t, would my life by substantially diminished?

No, no and no. Buying the laptop would have meant dipping into my nascent emergency fund. It also would have meant one more thing to carry – and a backpack jammed with textbooks and my daily brown-bag lunch already had me feeling that I was toting my house on my back.

In other words, it would have amounted to a very expensive shoulder ache.

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