Most of the people I work with carry Blackberries. Today they were unable to get onto the internet or check their email. They were in a panic. I was not. I don't carry a Blackberry. I could. Work would like me to. I choose not to. I still carry a cell phone and it can do text messaging and send and receive emails through the text system. That's good enough for me.
The people who carry Blackberries (or I phones) seem to be stuck looking at them all the time. Normally when I teach a class I tell the people to turn their phones onto vibrate. In our positions we can't have the phones off but that doesn't mean they need to interrupt everyone around us. With phones that connect to the internet and especially email people are continuously looking at their email. Is everything really that important that you can't review your email during your break every hour or 90 minutes, you have to do it during class? How often do you look at your email? Remember what your life was like before you had email?
Last Monday in Europe the internet and email portion of Blackberry came to a screeching halt. This problem started spreading and hit the US today. We need to figure out some sort of backup to our ways of getting instant information. Sure it was only the Blackberry. I Phone was fine. Actual internet was fine. What if there is more to it than just an overload of one system that then overloaded the system worldwide and caused it to crash.
What about the supposed assassination plot out of Iran? If that country is willing to come to America to kill and cause mayhem, what else are they willing to do? Detonate a nuke about the country? EMP anyone? Then your Blackberry will come to a screeching halt for more than just a day or two.
I left the north state and am in the state Capitol tonight. Only one more day of teaching, then I'm heading home. Dinner in my own house tomorrow. I'm going to make homemade bread. I miss the grandkids and the animals. I have to figure out what happened to the ewe since oldest daughter told me that a ewe is dead in the back of the pasture. I had her put the rest of the sheep in the barn stalls in case the sheep were attacked. They are safe up by the barn but oldest daughter is using most of the rest of the hay to feed them.
Yes, it's time to get home.
Sorry you lost an ewe, hopefully you get that figured out and it's nothing catastrophic to the rest of the flock.
ReplyDeleteWhat can possibly be so important that people can't remove the phone from their hands all day long (besides actual real work). I don't know what they must talk about when they get home from work, they haven't stopped talking or texting/emailing from the second they left the house.
I don't want to be bombarded with stuff all day long that's of no value. 30 minutes a day catching up online is more than enough time, and I can still communicate without my phone.
It does seem we are in a strange place. I've had this week off the catch up on around the house tasks and haven't finished as much as I'd like. Time with family is good though.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy home when you get there.