O brave new world…


I’m on vacation this week. It’s my first real vacation in about eight years — when I was going to school full-time, summer vacation meant full-time job, and when I was working full-time and doing school part-time, vacation from work was used to write papers, prepare for exams, and so on. So having this much time is a new experience.

Anyhow, I’m sitting in a cafe reading, and I decide I need a haircut. So I pull out my Blackberry and look up my salon’s number on the Web, call them on my cellphone, and put the appointment in my Palm. I notice that my car is meant to be done at the body shop today, so I look up their number and catch up there, too.

So with all that taken care of without having to get up from my coffee, I go back to my book: Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick.

I was so pleased yet disconcerted by the (unintentional!) irony that I felt I ought to post an entry about it — from my Blackberry, of course.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my coffee is getting cold.


4 responses to “O brave new world…”

  1. I skimmed the book “Faster” in the bookstore on my lunch hour, and emailed James Gleick about it at 2:00pm. He responded in an hour, furious that I hadn’t spent enough time understanding his subtle and complex argument.

  2. you sound like you’re having a typical work day in this neck of the woods.

    a book and a cup a joe (if i drank coffee) would be my version of a vacation. ;P i want no other connectivity unless it’s me turning the key to start my car!