That's it, I've cracked...

Yes, its true.

Something inside me looked around at the artificial deadlines, the racing towards... towards what, exactly???

...and popped.

And I think it might be permanent.

The way we "do things" doesn't work anymore. No, Really. Think about it. We're carrying baggage from a lot of old "ways of doing stuff" that just simply isn't a good fit to where we are right now...

I had an old college mate ask me if we really do still print mylars / use paper when we send out drawings. We do. We kill trees. And we really do fight with MYLAR sometimes. But that's mostly for government agencies.

Alternate? One of my colleagues just received a memory key in the mail with an entire catalog of manholes on it. Not a paper brick that can fall off a cube divider and kill someone with ninja papercuts and a blunt hit to the skull.... A memory key. Mailed with a regular stamp (whatsit now, $0.41?)

My first computer didn't have a hard drive. My first PC, hand-assembled by my dad and my cousin, had less than 3% of the storage capacity than on a standard CD-R disc, available at any CVS drugstore for a couple of bucks...maybe.... in a multi-pack.

When I was in middle school, my english teacher wouldn't let me use my PC (that's personal computer) to word-process and print out my essays, because it gave me an "unfair advantage over the other kids". In my one act of rebellion in all of my then-years, I typed and word processed my papers and wrote them out longhand. Go ahead Mrs. Miller, take my grade back. I dare ya.

When I was graduating from high school, one of my honor-roll classmates asked for my recommendation if she should get a PC or a word processor as a gift from her parents for college. I said a PC, and that it was much more useful. She asked for a word processor. To this day I don't know why.

When I was in college the web had just started becoming something worth considering, and email had become common, at least for us. That same word-processing friend indicated a bit of dismay at my tackyness when I did a "form letter" to my non-emailing friends as an update to them all on what I was doing with myself, mailing out copies to them all (at $0.29 I think) because they didn't have email in college. I was also editing video using an analog dubbing deck system, after recording it on VHS tape (SVHS if I was very very lucky). And in my senior year I purchased at great expense something called a "floptical" or something like that, to store larger quantities of data on what was basically a rewriteable CD.

I'm 35 years old and having the "when I was your age" conversations with people who are 28. Seriously, what is With THAT???

People used to send each other love letters. In the mail. People used to go check their answering machines at home, and maybe anticipate a fun phonecall from a friend. Now, there's emails, text messages, cell phones, blogs, and social networking sites. And yet, I owe an old friend a phonecall from his call to me early last week, and to sit down and make that call? (Have I done it? noooo... Joe, I will call very soon....) I've taken to sending mass-texts on my phone to invite people out at 6pm to do something at 7pm. (it is new york after all)

"Feeling screwed up at a screwed up time in a screwed up place does not necessarily make you screwed up." (-- Mark Hunter in Pump Up The Volume) I think its time to eat my cereal with a fork and do my homework in the dark.

And still, companies still insist on dragging vendors from picket to post, to call on firms, but not answer questions expediently (or properly), and clients need answers at the speed of light... ON MYLAR. Come on... really... Mylar? Why? get us to send you the PDF file, to scale, and send them digitally hither & yon to your heart's content!

I am nostalgic for my books, but those are heading the way of cassette tapes, mark my words. My dad, ever the futurist (who built the first microwave probably in the whole TOWN, and built the computer, and, and, and...) is now hot on his Kindle.... and still has stacks of old books and magazines.

So, my point is, DeClutter. Declutter your home, and your business practices. There's a lot of dead weight hanging around that really is unneccessary. If it isn't nostalgic to you, by all means, GET RID OF IT. Sell it on Ebay to someone it is nostalgic to. Really, you're going to need the money in your Pay Pal account to upgrade to the next whizbang thing that will come out next year that you didn't even know you needed, but will suddenly become essential.. Hell, my Ipod is already obsolete...

I know what this is, the darwinistic evolution of the species known as technology!

No, actually my point is, life is moving pretty freaking FREAKING fast now, and that doesn't mean we've evolved. Utilize technology, but do it efficiently.

Or maybe my point is to find out who's recycling electronic components and buy stock in their company.

Actually I don't know what my point is.