Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Why was it such a long day and I got so little accomplished? I worked on stuff all day long and now it's midnight and none of the stuff I worked on got finished. Somehow life seems more complicated than it needs to be. I blame it on the computer.

Computers make our lives easier? Y'think?

Ya gotta log-in here, log-in there, some sites only accept some types of passwords (certain length, combination of numbers and letters, upper and lower case, etc) gotta remember what's what, where to go. Can't do anything without the computer any more. It's very time consuming. I registered for online banking for the sole purpose of moving some money from one account to another and every time you log on, they try to get you to click the "go paperless" link so you never get a statement in the mail, you always will have to log-on every month to see your account. Same with wireless/cell. Just got one recently and they continually send you text messages trying to sell you an additional service and you have to log-on to your account to see it and they try to get you to click the "go paperless" button. Same with the health insurance site and the list goes on. Yesterday, I sent my car tag renewal in and it took me forever to find out whether to make the check payable to the county or to the dmv because they want you to do it online and I don't want to do everything online.

It's all very time consuming. I have different email addresses, one for my website admin, two for personal mail (different purposes), two for my work, then messages come in my email box that I have messages on facebook and in order to reply to them, i have to log-in to facebook. OMG, half my waking hours are spent navigating on the computer to get shit done I used to get done much more quickly before. What a bitch I am, huh? Complain complain complain. Geez. Just saying, I think the computer/internet has made life more complicated rather than less.

Oh and don't get me started about automatic phone systems like when you're calling a company and you really want to talk to a person, not a machine, and you get stuck in the loop of prompts to click 1, 2, 3, 4, etc and there's NO number to push to speak to a human being and there's no contact info on their website other than the phone number you just called, not even an email address. More computer stuff. You can spend an hour of your time spinning your wheels in the loop and accomplishing nothing.

Call me old fashioned but I'm a big fan of human beings. I like to talk to PEOPLE. I also hate the scan-it-yourself checkouts at the grocery store. It's so impersonal and puts people out of work. We need jobs! Pay a person to scan my items rather than computer maintenance contractors to keep the machine running smoothly. I like to say, "Hi! Good morning! How are you today?" and smile and have a chat with the clerk.

OK rant over. You've wasted another 5 minutes of your time on the computer reading my spew. No matter how justified I am in my complaints, your time would have been better spent doing something real. Like eating breakfast with a friend. Or taking your dog for a walk.

Let's all go swimming! Or sailing! Or take a walk in the woods. No blackberries or ipads allowed. No phones, please. Only blueberries and raspberries picked from the orchard and pillow pads to sit on by the campfire and the only dingaling you're gonna hear won't be your phone, it will be me.

Here's my poem for the day:

Tell me your rants & spews. Gimme a shout.
Always wear clean pants & walking shoes.
Peace out.

By the way, this is why there are no jobs. Because the customers are doing the jobs the employees used to do... for free! They don't need to pay customer service representatives any more or account managers because the customers have to service their own accounts. So, the profits that the companies make increase exponentially because they don't need to hire employees to do the work .... they just force YOU, the customer, to do the work while pocketing the $ they save from paying a staff. OK, I'm done. For real this time.

well, the e-mail thing is easier now that i use threadsy. It divides one page into two - one side, for all my e-mails from all my addresses - all the updates (except for most spam).
left hand side of the page- facebook and twitter updates.

believe me, it cuts down time.

threadsy.com

i can't upload it from school, but from home it's great.

the internet has killed a lot of jobs by creating more work for the user like us. banking on line eliminates the drive thru window or counter clerk... purchasing anything on line cuts down the need for brick and mortar stores and their employee needs... reading the news on line cuts into the newspapers... and this internet thing cuts into the arts and going to the gallery or shows when the casual user can see those or even better on their monitor...

this is a great example :

http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_cameron_te ... 2010-09-14

... and everyone wants to know where the jobs are. hah!

This may be a slight digression, but I was very disturbed by a scene I saw unfolding at MOMA...I am walking around perusing the art and of course being a museum there were mobs of students, and rather than the teacher having them look and DISCUSS!!, she let them on their own and they were all taking pics of the art, so the only experience they will really have with the art is on a flat screen when they upload the images.....who needs humans, let the machines run the place...Before too long we won't need to reason or make decisions for ourselves..."Teacher leave them kids alone..."

Digression a lot of it but
I been thinking about Brautigan's poem Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace and wondering if I have an Irony Deficiency

I Googled "watched over by machines of loving grace + irony" and got this result

American poets seldom portray the happy marriage of technology and the natural world. Thus the optimism of the following poem is somewhat unique—unless the reader detects irony, in which case the poem joins the mainstream of antitechnological American verse.

Gangeware, Robert J. Editor. "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace." The Exploited Eden: Literature on the American Environment. New York: Harper and Row, 1972. 376.
Included the following introduction

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Online Resource
Information about this poem at the Digger Archives website

New York State Regents Exams Comprehensive English test, Wed. 19 June 2002, 9:15—12:15 AM.
The question associated with the poem was:

After you have read the passages and answered the multiple-choice questions, write a unified essay about the coexistence of humans and computers as revealed in the passages. In your essay, use ideas from both passages to establish a controlling idea about the coexistence of humans and computers. Using evidence from each passage, develop your controlling idea and show how the author uses specific literary elements or techniques to convey that idea.

Four questions, with multiple choice answers related to the poem were provided. The questions and their answers (in bold) were:

1. What does the speaker suggest about the relationship between mammals and computers in cybernetic meadow?
(1) They influence each other in positive ways.
(2) They compete with each other for domination.
(3) They are unaware of each other's existence.
(4) They tend to avoid each other.

2. In lines 9 through 16, the poet uses images of both
(1) past and present
(2) nature and technology
(3) death and eternity
(4) age and youth

3. The expressions in parentheses (lines 1 and 2, 10, and 18) convey a sense of
(1) eagerness
(2) anger
(3) loneliness
(4) curiosity

4. The speaker implies that, in a cybernetic ecology, machines will have a role as
(1) artists
(2) commanders
(3) guardians
(4) jailers

http://www.brautigan.net/machines.html

No, not easier. Just (supposedly) quicker.

mnaz,
Definitely NOT quicker. Much more time consuming. That's what I was saying. More time consuming and more convoluted... more responsibilities... we have to do all the jobs of the account managers and customer service reps and everything takes so long to do!

Yeah, Cecil, that's why there are no jobs (I said that in my comment earlier, too). Totally agree. Thanks for the Ted link... soon as I find some time, I'll look at it.

Interesting quotes, Jack! Thanks!

I guess it´s different, life is never easy at all!! I only use computers in a part of my let´s call it "free time". I don´t have computers at job but I use it at home to do some job-work -basically not online but using Word-.