Home » Posts tagged 'computer'

Tag Archives: computer

Wait, This Girl Can Publish a Novel, and I’m Too Lazy to Submit Mine?

Posted on by | Leave a comment

I was surfing around on this Internet thing, and I came across this gem of a tweet from a couple of years ago. Lauren Conrad – who I refuse to look up – I believe was on The Hills, and whatever other fake reality shows that MTV throws on the air. I don’t know, maybe she was a founding member of 16 and Pregnant. Honestly, I’m not sure, and I really don’t care; however, I do know two things, her computer was probably trying to tell her something, and someone gave this dumb girl a publishing deal? She was on reality TV, so that puts her in the same realm of “star” as Snooki (also has a book), or that new Farah chick from the other I Got Pregnant Way Too Early, and Now I’m Making Money Whoring Out My Child show, who just put out a sex tape. Hell, I’m sure she’ll have a book out too.

In a world where revenue runs rampant among reality stars, and corporate America no longer cares – did they ever? – about the literacy of the youth, it is obvious that I need to get off my lazy tuckus, and finish up the novel I started six years ago. If she can get something published, I know that I can. If I ever needed inspiration, this is simply one of the wake up calls I’ve received along the way.

And really, does anyone think that she actually knows how to turn on a computer? Was it the computer that froze, or did someone paste a picture of words on her screen?

Are You Digital or Traditional?

Posted on by | 2 Comments

While at my parents’ house a few weeks ago, I noticed something vaguely familiar on the kitchen counter: a floppy disc; It’s faded green label, holding the scribble of my childhood signature. My best guess puts this artifact near 25 years old, I would have been six, and so it probably contains my earliest writings. Unfortunately, it won’t work on my PC disc drive at work, and I don’t have an Apple II anymore, or an apple that can run a disc drive, so I have no way – at least not yet – to know what treasures it contains.

In my home office I have every notebook, scrap of paper, metacog-log, written-in novel or textbook, and printed copies of the majority of my middle school, high school, and college papers. While some of them may now be crumpled and faded, un-filed, and in no particular order, they are at least readily available. The pieces on that disk, are not.

Over the last ten years, I’ve transitioned from notebooks and scrap paper, to computers and cell phones. I can’t remember the last time I picked up a pen to write in a journal. Instead, I type, hit save, close the application, and assume that everything will still be there when I return. Sometimes I bank it up to a thumb drive. Sometimes I store it in “the cloud,” but most of the time, I simply leave it on a device that could crash at any point, and lose my hard work. In fact, I’m currently thumbing out this piece on my iPhone, while sitting in a plane heading back to Portland. How does this new found technology not scare me? How am I, like the majority of writers, now leaving things to chance, or the hope that someone at the Apple Genius Bar will be able to recover my files?

What happens to this generation’s version of the floppy disc, when next generation’s i-whatever comes along? Time to hit print on those thousands of pages, file them away, and hope there’s never a fire, flood, or magic shredder looking for your valuable words.

The Poetry Question of the Day: Traditionalist or modernist?