apple juice

I’m turning 31 this week. In conversations with a few friends lately, it’s come up that we’re certainly not sad to see the 20s go. we had some good times, 20s, but really, it’s time to move on. I didn’t really get wistful about it last year either, and after letting that thought cook for a year, it seems that my lack of emotion about the new decade was entirely appropriate.

Though as I settle into 2009, I think I’ve become a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the ways in which technology will change our lives. Maybe skeptic isn’t the right word. Curmudgeon, maybe?

curmudgeon |kərˈməjən| noun a bad-tempered or surly person.

Ok, that’s not it. Anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I am the opposite of if bad-tempered or surly.

Here’s an example: I just ordered some new notebooks, and I’ve spent some time researching what the best pens are for these particular notebooks. I dug out a fountain pen tonight- a gift from my father and reflected on the fact that a nice pen is quite a cool gift. Though, according to my research, a fountain pen might not be the ideal pen for a notebook.

I know that fancy notebooks are all the rage amongst some segment of the blogosphere. Why is that? A standard paper notebook (is it weird that I have to specify paper notebook?) is the lowest tech writing tool around. In the age of spotlight-searchable, mind-map brain explosions, who would write in a notebook?

What if we get 10 more years down the line and realize that all of this technology was, in fact, really bad for our brains. Would we all stop?

So, for my 32nd year, I’m trying to cut the difference, trying to find what we don’t want to lose. I realize in all of this thinking, researching, writing (err, typing) about notebooks I have in fact been using a computer the whole time. Computers are good for all kinds of things, but perhaps they aren’t the best for some important things…

I’d also just like to point out that have been trying to recall the word, luddite, for the past 15 minutes. It took a google search, starting with the Unabomber, leading to the wikipedia, then Bill Joy to Jacques Ellul and then finally to my dictionary application before I could match up the neurons in my brain.

We’ll see how this paper-notebook experiment goes. There are ideas that float in and out of my head all day long, and I’d like to try and capture a few of them. I’m sure a lot of them are garbage. But maybe a few are worth saving.

Well, it might make for more coherent blog posts, at least.