BloggEd

Ok, it’s somewhat of an overstatement, but it exceeded the threshold of creating a blog about it (threshold being few inches above that of writing about the lint I find in my navel every now and then).

You know, I hate walking. Not the walking per se, but the time it takes and things I’m unable to do while doing the walking stuff, like, moving your feet. It’s not about that I wouldn’t be able to think and walk at the.. ok, it’s not only that, but I can’t learn things very well while walking. And whenever I really can’t do anything really useful, or play games, for that matter, I would like to learn new stuff. Improve. Develop my skills. Avoid being Bob in general.

And so, as I hate walking, I’ve always preferred to go work by skating (ie. rollerblading as it’s inappropriately called as well), using the bicycle or by car—the option I like the least, but at least it saves me time I could use better to learn new stuff.

But now that has all changed.

Having a modern enough cell phone with fixed-rate internet access is really amazing, if you are always thirsting for more understanding about things, trying to learn new ways to see things. For example, take Google tech talks which I have started to listen every day when I walk to work. Of course I miss stuff because I won’t be able to see the video. That’s because I don’t like the idea of bumping into trees all the time while concentrating on the diminutive 320×480 display, but I still get a lot by just listening. And alas, I’ve started to really enjoy walking my way to work and back home.

The another thing is waiting. Back In the ‘nineties, whenever I had to wait for bus, train or anything to happen while I wasn’t at home or work, I had but few choices to do except to think about some new software projects I could do (but never ended up actually implementing), try to really understand some algorithm or methodology, or dream of owning a… ahem, a real light saber and trying to think how it would actually work (to be honest, I still think think of that more often than I should).

But all that’s changed now as well. Being able to read some really interesting blogs whenever, wherever means that I’ll learn more things more quickly and I’ll never be bored if I choose to. You know, if you’re in a boring company you can just fire up the cell phone browser and start reading your favorite blogs while annoying all the people around you (especially if you giggle every now and then, like I sometimes would). Ok, so the new freedom to be able to learn continuously has its price, but I’m at the moment willing to pay it. However, I find it alarming to find myself in a situation where I can avoid being bored if I choose to. I believe a person needs enough unhappiness, at the minimum some minor annoyances, in order to not being spoiled completely as a human being.

But now I have to quit, because writing this is boring and I haven’t read all Yegge’s articles yet. Shoo.