I haven't made a blog entry since November of last year. It's mid-September already. On one hand, I feel terrible about it. On the other, I really don't know what I would have blogged about. It feels like there is so little to say.
I blame my smartphone. When the Bilge Rat enlisted in the Navy and moved across the country, I told myself I had to have one so I could FaceTime with him. But I've always been obsessed with technology and computer games, and the World of Apps was just too enticing for me. Thus I embarked on an eight-year saga of one app after another. I'm ashamed to admit it. At first, I was just crushing candy. Then I was breeding moths. Or merging dragons. Or battling zombies and evolving plants. Or aiming balls and smashing bricks. Or dressing up a doll and having styling contests. Sometimes it was as mundane as playing pinochle or shooting online pool. But it's been one thing or another for going on nine years now - longer if you count the kindle tablet we had prior to the smartphone.
In my heart, I feel that I was born for the smartphone era. I ate up every new technology that was presented to me. I was in grade school when the Atari 2600 came onto the market. Back in 1982, new game cartridges were sold for up to an unbelievable $25. My mom was a single parent with a minimum wage income. I didn't always have the latest games, but I certainly had more than we could afford.
My high school boyfriend's dad was also interested in the growing home computer trend. They used to copy lines and lines of computer code from computer magazines in order to run simple programs that would make a ball bounce, or change colors. This was during the era of 5 1/4" floppies, and every chance I got, I played Space Taxi or some RPG where you ran about the forest, searching for pan and roast lapan. We still can't remember what that one was all about.
Around the same time, my uncle had an early generation home PC from Apple at his house. I don't recall having permission to use it, but I remember staying up late and sneaking down to try it out. The file structure and commands were completely unfamiliar to me, but I was able to figure it out enough to run an early greeting card-making program (printed on a dot-matrix printer), excel at Minesweeper, and play some convoluted 2-D game in which you could explore land and sea. Many sleepless nights were spent there.
My first college had a personal computer (PC) lab. I don't remember ever doing any actual work there, but I did discover computer solitaire. I played until the images were etched behind my eyelids, and I could play complete games just by closing my eyes. Later in my college career, there was a full-blown computer lab where we'd hang out all night. I learned all about DOS and ASCII and Paint (and skipped a lot of classes), and gleaned many useful tricks and skills that still enable me to get deeper into the idiot-proof plug-and-play computers they make today. I actually did write a paper or two in that place, in between King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry and Rogue and the OG Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Ever since college, we've had a PC (or three) in the house. I learned how to play pinochle on a computer. I simulated appendectomies and abdominal aneurysm surgery using a series of 3 1/2" floppies called Life or Death. In the early nineties, we got our first dial-up home internet. I spent $90 one month in 1995 on a dial-a-hint phone service, getting hints to solve puzzles in Sierra's Conquests of Camelot at ninety cents a minute. When my oldest daughter was ten years old, she spent $40 on a simulation game based in ancient Egypt, and I spent countless hours trying to become a pharaoh of the ages. I'm not proud.
After we started homeschooling in 1999, the focus was more on educational games for the kids, but that didn't stop me from trying to beat them too. The Cluefinders Series and the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis are still personal and family favorites, but the original CDs no longer work on any of the newer computers, even the ones that still have a CD drive.
Which brings us to the present day... My smartphone is always at my side, in my pocket, or in my hand. I whip it out to look up more information on everything that crosses my mind. I can get information on any topic we're studying, frequently in the form of a slickly-produced Ted-ed video. I'm cross-referencing every actor's filmography while watching them in a movie. And I've never felt dumber.
From the time I learned to read at the age of two (yes, TWO), I was a voracious reader. As an only child, I had lots of time for reading. My mom always had me subscribed to monthly kids' magazines and book clubs, but every new edition or shipment wouldn't last the week if that long. Midway through high school, I discovered David Eddings, and later Dean Koontz and Stephen King, whose books consumed many a sleepless night - if not by actually reading them, then by keeping me awake in sheer terror. I was exhausted through my high school years, and an absolute joy to be around.
I read my way through college and the first two decades of marriage and motherhood. I always had a stack of fat books to work through. But since owning a smartphone, a graph of my time spent reading would look like a stock market graph of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Not only that, but my desire to read and my interest in books has dwindled to near nothing. I have to force myself to start reading a book. Sometimes I pick up a book I used to like, just to see if I can still read it. (Yes, I can.) I have no interest in reading anything new, and I don't retain the information I've read. I mainly watch videos on topics I'm interested in, or listen to podcasts. In fact, I have to force myself to do anything, everything, other than saturating my brain with information from YouTube or podcasts. This includes prayer, household chores, and even engaging with my family. I was born to own a smartphone, but it's turning me into a drone.
I know I am not alone. I've been hearing (on podcasts) that this is a real phenomenon, and that scientists are starting to study it. How ironic that we are living in an age of instant digital information, and losing the ability to learn?
This brings me back to my blog. I started writing in 2007, peaked in 2012, and have been diminishing ever since. Some years I barely publish a dozen posts - that's less than one a month - and those aren't even spaced out evenly. I'll get a surge of inspiration for a month or two, then nothing for the rest of the year. I have absolutely no excuse. I've got a high-quality camera at my fingertips 24/7, and it's easier than ever to post pictures remotely. That was my original rationalization for starting a blog - to share pictures and happenings with far-away friends and family. It's easier than ever, but I do it less frequently than ever. It makes absolutely no sense.
My life is mundane. Wonderful, but mundane, if that makes sense. The everyday happenings don't seem worthy of a blog post, and then they slip into history. There's too much and not enough all at the same time.
For instance, this week Gina found a Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar, which has just begun its chrysalis. I rearranged the kitchen on Saturday. We had a bonfire on Saturday night with our friends from Ashland. I somehow got a thorn in my foot on Saturday but didn't notice it until Sunday evening, then Sarah removed it. Andy, Natalie, and I played scrabble tonight. I gave Tess's Fitbit to Gina since Tess doesn't use it and Gina needs help getting up in the morning. Our twin daughters went to school for the first time at the VoTech last month. The days are growing shorter and the nights are getting cooler. We finally got some fruits on our Hubbard squash plants in late August, but I don't have much hope that they'll get big enough to use. We had a pretty dry summer, but it's been raining quite a bit lately and that's helped the fruits. My husband has been out of work since the end of June. It's been a blessing to have him around, but now the freezer is getting empty. I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in May. Bilge is in Korea.
I've decided to make a fresh attempt. Just to write a simple run-down of what's been going on, accompanied with a few pictures. Obviously, the well-orchestrated, themed blog posts are outside of my purview at present. This is my first offering. I hope it is well-received.
Tonight's dinner: Dad cooked. Skillet kielbasa & potatoes, braised carrots, applesauce.
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