Ryanware

Time Machine

Posted by Ryan  February 6, 2008

I finished The Time Machine by H.G. Wells the other day. This is the second book I’ve read by him, the first being The War of the Worlds. I quite like his writing style. The Time Machine, as I understood it, is more of a political statement than a science fiction book about time travel. It’s a warning to humanity that this quest for the perfect world, the quest to remove all hardship will backfire if done in the way it’s currently being handled.

H.G. Wells wrote the book in the late 1800s and saw then this trend towards all play and no work. It’s worse now. Think about all our modern inventions: cars, planes, computers, microwave ovens, refrigerators, heating, air conditioning, TV, iPods, bread makers, etc. All these things can make life easier and can even allow us to spend more time on what matters most to us. But where does the luxury stop? If the current course follows it won’t be too long before everything is all taken care of for us. What happens when so much is done for us that we forget to do things any other way? What happens if it all goes away? With all the computerized advances cars are making, they’re getting harder to fix. I don’t even know how to fix a traditional car without any computers in it, let alone these new amazing pieces of machinery.

With all the technological and even biological advances we are making, we would be wise to learn how to live without it all. Life without all our present luxuries (for that is what they are) is not frightening if you’re prepared.

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Prolonged Procrastination

Posted by Ryan  February 2, 2008

In my last post I quoted this…

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
- Sun-Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter II. Waging War

… and endorsed Dr. Ron Paul. This time I’m mentioning Ron Paul again because that is what us Ron Paul supporters do (mention him a lot. have you read what he stands for yet?). I really didn’t quote it again to go on about that. If you spend any significant amount of time on the internet you already know all about him (but if you don’t, then you should probably find out). Okay really, I’m done with that.

So I was thinking about that quote from The Art of War and since I’m not exactly, and am certainly not planning to be, a general in a war it’s kind of useless to read the book only to learn about war. It’s far more useful a book to apply to work, education, dating (kidding! sort of!), and grocery shopping (why not?). Basically, just life in general. So let’s try it shall we?

There is no instance of a person having benefited from…
… prolonged decision making [when the outcome isn’t that important anyway].
… prolonged TV watching.
… prolonged shoe shopping.

See how easy that is? Okay, maybe that last one only applies to shopping-haters such as myself, but you get the idea. Also, I’m sure someone could argue the other two, but I’m not here to do that. I’m really only saying that I need to stop prolonging all my decision making. Seriously, most of the things I have to decide aren’t that big of a deal, yet I take forever to make up my mind. I put off the decision until the last possible moment, sometimes even farther, causing much grief.

Okay, a sort of related question for anyone out there reading. What do you to organize your life? I tried a day planner type thing, but I refuse to carry them around so they’re utterly useless to me. I don’t like carrying stuff around with me. If it’s not my phone, wallet, keys, or iPod (an old shuffle! whoo!), then I don’t like carrying it. Currently, I try to remember everything. I put some reminders in my phone, but my phone is kind of crappy. I use Backpack and Remember The Milk (along with twitter) to send me text message reminders, but nothing has really clicked for me to the point where I can’t live without it.

I’m thinking a better phone would really help. Something with really good calendaring. iPhone? Treo? Blackberry? Something else? What do ya’ll think? Sorry for the rambling-ness of this post. Your suggestions/comments/jokes are appreciated.

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