yesterday when"out and about",i nipped into the local rspca mayhew charity shop,where i picked up a couple of second hand books.it strikes me that in some ways the books available are a better selection than was available in our local library before the local LABOUR led council shut it down-although that is NO argument for closure.
more importantly for me,is the pleasure of the element of serendipity when visiting charity or better yet,second hand bookshops.
one of the titles i picked up was Mark Bakers"Nam".A lot of books contain a blurb that might be useful,as a guide to the contents.this one contained some sentences that i found very touching indeed:
"the war billed....as a john wayne shoot 'em up test of manhood turns out to be a warped version of "peter pan".vietnam was a brutal neverneverland outside time an space,where little boys didn't have to grow up.they just grew old before their time."
"even now(1987/1992)something is missing from the history of vietnam........no one has bothered to talk to the men and women who went to vietnam and fought the war....."
it goes on to ask a string of key questions which ends with"how can they now live with the scars?"
i would add a concern for what happenned to the peoples of vietnam and the wider south east asian region?the consequences for ALL are still playing themselves out.....so why are we continueing to conduct such further and even more terrible,imperialist wars?
Thursday 17 January 2013
Thursday 10 January 2013
seething with rage and frustration
I've been locked out of my own blog for so long because its virtually impossible to access.
Is it all down to my age and stupidity?
Do those younger and more able people who live more easily with these technologies have some other way of thinking or what,because i simply fail to get it at all.
It leaves me seething with rage and frustration.
I've never been a particular fan or supporter of the alternative technology-environmental-green movements.I have a range of criticisms,but i will try to stick with one here.I know that sometimes life and particular knowledges are complex and difficult,and we have to face up to that,but i still believe that what can be simple should be simple and,that even where it is not simple,it should as far as possible be accessible.Which brings me straight back to my starting point-that i think these computer focused technologies fail at all levels.They are not accessible at all,and i notice often that even instructions written for idiots like me-what is on the paper page usually does not match what i am seeing on the computer,and that even if it does there is usually an instruction or a feature missing.
when for example,i visit my own site,usually intending to write something,what i get is not a dashboard but something that asks me to set up a blog,because i apparently do't have one,only to be told when i follow those instructions that i cannot complete because someone already"has"what i'm trying to access.
i'm left, as always mystified.The only help i have is two friends/comrades,one of whom helped me set up this blog in about 20 minutes after months spent hour by hour getting nowhere on my own.i feel fortunate that although they seem to work"deep in the labyrinth"that is IT,they both remain human beings who talk to me like we ARE on the same planet.Mostly talking to IT people,i know within seconds that I'm the alien from a galaxy far away from here.But then i knew that anyway
Is it all down to my age and stupidity?
Do those younger and more able people who live more easily with these technologies have some other way of thinking or what,because i simply fail to get it at all.
It leaves me seething with rage and frustration.
I've never been a particular fan or supporter of the alternative technology-environmental-green movements.I have a range of criticisms,but i will try to stick with one here.I know that sometimes life and particular knowledges are complex and difficult,and we have to face up to that,but i still believe that what can be simple should be simple and,that even where it is not simple,it should as far as possible be accessible.Which brings me straight back to my starting point-that i think these computer focused technologies fail at all levels.They are not accessible at all,and i notice often that even instructions written for idiots like me-what is on the paper page usually does not match what i am seeing on the computer,and that even if it does there is usually an instruction or a feature missing.
when for example,i visit my own site,usually intending to write something,what i get is not a dashboard but something that asks me to set up a blog,because i apparently do't have one,only to be told when i follow those instructions that i cannot complete because someone already"has"what i'm trying to access.
i'm left, as always mystified.The only help i have is two friends/comrades,one of whom helped me set up this blog in about 20 minutes after months spent hour by hour getting nowhere on my own.i feel fortunate that although they seem to work"deep in the labyrinth"that is IT,they both remain human beings who talk to me like we ARE on the same planet.Mostly talking to IT people,i know within seconds that I'm the alien from a galaxy far away from here.But then i knew that anyway
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