Happy vs Rat Race

Londy3

I'm sick of this high tech world. I hate what it has done to the simple life. 

I am reverting back to the old ways of things. I'm sick of this modern digital age being forced down my throat. I don't see much personal upside only the loss of freedoms and increase of personal risk.  We are working towards a debt free life and live off the grid as much as possible. 

Pipe smoking is so old school along with iron cookware and acoustic porch pickin! I'm going back baby. Happier days even though they were way before my time. It's less pressure and more about enjoying life.

What about you? 

xDutchx

@Londy3, I certainly echo your sentiments, but I have to also wonder why so many old school curmudgeons enjoy hanging out on pipe and cigar forums?

motie2

<<I have to also wonder why so many old school curmudgeons enjoy hanging out on pipe and cigar forums?>>

Has to do with a lack of face to face brotherhood and communion with fellow pipers because (alas) we are few and far between...... except at pipe shows.

buflosab

Well like just about anything,the digital age can be positive and negative.And yes Londy we have handed over many of personal freedoms over without hardly a fight. I have actually heard people say they don't care if The powers that be dig into your personal info because they have nothing to hide,that's hardly the point is it'? I won't go into the positive aspects because we all know what they are.My other point would be the younger generation has all this information available to them and yet from various things I read and hear they are not any more intelligent for it.That is the disturbing aspect to me.

Woodsman

I enjoy most of the simpler things and I'm surprised how much of my information is out there, I've taken to challenging when asked for my SSN as to why it's needed. I do search out simpler things like back roads instead of highways, Food you prepare yourself.
 This time of year the leaves fall and I can see through the woods to the Interstate they pushed  down our throats which is mainly a Truck/ Dangerous Cargo Bypass of NYC. I feel high and isolated from the Roaring, Rolling Light Show of the Big Rigs owning the highway along with the night as I sit out on my porch, pipe and hot drink in hand with my music on. It's almost like fishing for me where I let my irritations run up my rod, down my line to be washed away by the water. I instead let them join the convoys of trucks heading North and South away from me. (Kind of Zen huh?) The Roadway is about 1/2 mile away and with the trees bare you can hear some of them charging the the slight incline a mile away going north or using the Jake Brake to slow themselves slightly going south.
Progress is unavoidable and change is inevitable but if you look hard enough there's usually some way to get around lots of things.

Londy3

This is not necessarily progress. It's advanced technology, not so much as progress. Along with this "technological progress" comes a new cans of problems/worms we can't fix.  So what did we really accomplish?  Trade one set of problems for another.

Londy3

Sorry guys, this thread was not meant to be a rant. 

ghostsofpompeii

@Londy3 I agree with you whole-heartedly, but were it not for this digital age we probably wouldn't be speaking right now. I have a love/hate relationship with my computer and it's caused me more headaches then I care to remember. But I'd never be able to buy most of the tobacco I like, or pipes.  And tobacco is not only cheaper on the internet - but I don't have to pay the ridiculous State tobacco taxes. Were it not for the internet I wouldn't have 90% of the DVD movies, music, and a few other odds and ends I've collected over the years. Living where I do there are no tobacco shops, the style of music I like (progressive rock) can't be found on the shelves of any local music store or Big Box store like Best Buy, and the same goes for vintage movies. You have to do a search on the internet to be able to find anything released before 2010. 

But on the flipside of that love/hate relationship I've lost more important data, family photos, and music files as a result of transferring things digitally to my computer only to have the damn thing crash. I've been in the middle of writing a short story when I lost it all by pushing the wrong button. Magazine articles and reviews I was working on were lost as well after hours - and sometimes days - of taxing my brain to insure everything was just right. I transferred all my Ghosts Of Pompeii music files on computer for archiving purposes only to lose it all after contracting a computer virus. Then I had to go back and ask friends and family who had a copies of my CDs if I could borrow them so I could re-burn new hard copies on CDR - and forgo storing anything on computer. I now have hard copies of everything.

We have a cheap flip cell phone and buy minutes on a phone card rather than cell phone service or expensive iPhones. My wife and I have been looking to relocate to Mayberry - unfortunately we can't find it anywhere on the map. I long for the simple life as well, but think those days are long gone. And I've been kicking and screaming all the while I've been dragged into the modern digital age and expect I'll go out the same way.

Londy3

Im in technology so I get it believe me. I know you can't go 100% off. But we can control how much of it we want in our lives. All I am trying to say is, technology is a distraction and if you don't pay attention you will get sucked in. It's hard to go backwards to live more analog but I feel better doing it. Kinda like eating good food right? It's tough to find and expensive when you do. But, soon you will learn where to find it, how to grow it and meet others just like you. I think is it's a growing thing like anything else you have interest in. 

KA9FFJ

@Londy3 You mean you don't want to be one of those couples I see at restaurants who sit across from each other but are not saying a word because they are both starring into their cell phones? The social graces are waning rapidly.

And another thing, have you noticed, or maybe it's just me, that it's tough to get these younger adults and kids to look you in the eye when you're talking? Am I imagining that? Some, if not most, seem to have a hard time communicating to a "live body". My daughter would rather spend 5 minutes texting me, and me her for a 40 second conversation by phone. What's up with that?...  

Woodsman

I can identify with losing data. In my old job I dealt with a lot of college Computer Science Departments dealing with mass storage. at Yale a tech that didn't know the system ran a diagnostic to an ancillary device which wound up formatting every drive in the room. All the Higher Degree students lost everything that they were too lazy to back up. I managed to pinpoint what happened and my Company was not at fault, but I really felt for them .
Today the amount of storage in that room wouldn't fill a 32 GB thumb Drive. I remember going into Bell Labs and having their department head proudly pointing out his 1 Gigabyte of data storage. A row of 24 drives.
Now I have a TB of drive in my old Gateway that I've been updating for years. and there's 24 GB of music in my old car.

motie2

You have not lived until you've worked -- slaved -- for days over a sermon, getting it just right..... and then the power goes out.

jfreedy

@motie2 — Jesus saves... & so should you!

motie2

Yeah, but I'm told that "Moses invests......"

KA9FFJ

@jfreedy Now that's funny...

Charles

@Londy3 -- I can relate, agree 100% and have lived most of my life avoiding change and I am not a big fan of technology or modern fads.  I have a very basic phone, not a smart phone with loads of crap to click open.  I discontinued my landline only because it was cheaper to have a cell phone line.  (Still can't believe it.)  I long for the days of simpler life as it was many years ago. I think I was born out of my time element.  I grew up with depression era parents in a neighborhood with that generation and have learned that way of life.  I find that people talked with each other more then they do today.  Smoking sometimes at the local cigar lounge, most of the time it's like being there alone.  Seems that most everyone is either smoking a cigar or pipe but staring into an iphone or some electronic gadget. We now live in a zombie world where people are under the spell of the little electronic box. Whether walking, driving, sitting, or eating, the box has a life of it's own and it is sucking the life out of the user.

ghostsofpompeii

With the work schedules being what they are it's damn near impossible to get my family together and I only have two sons. Yet my Grandparents had four boys and two girls (my Mom was one of the girls) and they managed to get together every Sunday for spaghetti dinner, even though my Grandparents lived in Gary, Indiana and several of my uncles as well as my aunt lived in Chicago. That's a long haul for a bowl of spaghetti. And they had jobs as well - yet somehow managed to get together each and every Sunday as well as the holidays - even if it was after work and they were a little late. Now-a-days I can barely get my little family (which consists of the two boys - one of which is married with three kids, and the other single) together for Christmas or the holidays. And the last time we got together the three grandkids who are in their late teens and early 20s', sat at the kitchen table looking at their cell phones texting people they probably see every day, while family members who seldom find the time to get together were seated all around them hoping to spark up a little conversation. And before the night was up even my adults sons and significant others were engaging in phone activities of one sort or another. My wife and I have no smart phone so all we could do was look at each other and shrug our shoulders.    

Londy3

This is exactly what I'm talking about. There's almost something myserious going on, it's changing people. Look, I'm in the tech field so I understand. I also know I'm in control of these things on my own time and I turn off the computer and don't like TV. When friends or family are over, electronic devices are off or stored away. We actually still eat home cooked meals at dinner and eat together every night, again no electronics on. Who does that anymore?  I bet not many.  We are losing connection with family and friends folks. Things are about to get even more strange I believe.

thebadgerpiper

On one hand, I'm incredibly thankful for technology. Almost all of my friends live over an hour away from me, so I can text and chat with them like I did in the dorm. One of these friends lives overseas, and being able to talk to him whenever we need to is something incredibly valuable to me. I can carry my entire music collection with me in my pocket, and listen to albums I'd have to search for in the basement for. When I write, if I make an error, I can hit the backspace button and retype it, rather than toss out a page. Plus, it's allowed me to meet such fine gentlemen and ladies such as yourselves from all across the nation and talk about our hobby.

Yet there is part of me that seeks out times where I unplug and get away from the constant bombardment of information. There is something lost in communication these days. I see it with my mom, where she'll chat with me, and then look up something on her phone. I do it, too, but until recently she was unplugged for the most part.

It's all about learning a balance between using the benefits of technology and keeping it from being your master. I sometimes lack the willpower to keep it from ruling my life, but I'm working on it.

mfresa

Key phrase from @thebadgerpiper = "It's all about learning a balance between using the benefits of technology and keeping it from being your master."
This is crucial.  We are letting the machines rule us, and we are losing our ability to create a local society based on human relationships. Not good, methinks, for us in the long run.

Londy3

Agreed. Just wait till ai kicks in the mainstream...you ant seen nothing yet.

PappyJoe

I'm an old photographer who laments the creation of a digital photography world. You want solitude? Step into a a late 1970's photolab darkroom and process and print your own black and white film. Most of the time I had music playing but sometimes it was just the noise of running water, exhaust fans and equipment. 

Now digital photography is nothing more than point and shoot like it was when everyone was buying those little 110 Kodak Instamatics. You didn't have to be smart enough to figure out exposure, all you had to do was point and shoot.

Now, I've seen some beautiful digital photography but to me nothing can ever beat the quality of an image made from a properly shot 4x5 inch black and white negative or a large color print produced from a Kodachrome slide.

motie2

Even if it's fiction, as of now, it's scary for the future.....

Slaughterbots -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipTO_7mUOw

jim102864

I feel like I'm under constant surveillance.  My employer has software on my laptop that tracks if I'm "active" or "inactive".  My phone tells the world where I am at all times.  Hell, my employer not only expects me to be available all hours, I'm paying for the privilege in that they no longer will reimburse me for my cell phone expense.  I can get a corporate phone, but then I can no longer freely surf without my activities being tracked by my overlords.   

Londy3

@PappyJoe, yep I agree. I spent a fair amount of time in the darkroom. It's a lot of work but I like it. What you say is the same for music. Give me the old vinyl vs CD or MP3 any day. There is a big difference. I'm telling you, the analog world had stronger benefits over this digital world. 

Londy3

@jim102864,I know what your saying. I refuse to work under those conditions. They can find a millennial who doesn't know the difference and is used to being monitored heavily. Not me. I also don't come cheap so double whammy.

Londy3

That video @motie2 posted is pretty real. Our military already has this technology so we are not far away ai being mainstream. Scary stuff. 

ghostsofpompeii

@Londy3 You may remember a rant I went on a while back suggesting that Big Brother is not just watching us but we stupid consumers are buying the products and equipment to make their intrusion into our lives possible. Even going so far as to install that new product that hears everything you say and reacts to your commands. Can't remember the name now - but Google and a few other companies offer the same device under a different name. And make it seem like you can't live without it. And we also spit our DNA in a bag, send it to some company promising to tell us our lineage, and give them a check for $69.00 to do so. Yet if a cop came to your door and told you to do the same thing you'd cry foul. We install web cams on our computers and Nanny cameras throughout the house assuming we're the only ones with access to them. So in the long run - we not only gave up our rights, we paid full price for the detection equipment, and make sure to get the upgrades every time a new model comes out with even greater technology - like facial recognition. Don't tell me the aluminum in chem trails aren't affecting our brain cells and cognitive ability, as well as eating away the portion of the brain that controls empathy and reasoning. Why else would people be killing each other on a daily basis without regard for human life. Seems like once a week I'm reading about a Mother or Father who killed their entire family, then turned the gun on themselves. And it appears mass murderers are all trying to top the record for the most kills each time there is a mass shooting. Or using their vehicle to rack-up points like their playing "Death Race". Something is seriously wrong here. People have always been a little screwed up ... but not the extent we see occurring with greater and greater regularity. I seriously believe our brains are being turned into mush. Once upon a time I though tin-foil hat wearing Conspiracy theorists were all nuts ... now I think it's nuts not to at least listen to what they have to say and consider the possibility that they may have a point. 

Londy3

@ghostsofpompeii, thank you for the reply. I completely agree. That's why I'm in this "Be Analog" rant. I have had enough.  Ever think about all the radio waves in the air and what that is doing to our brains?  Wireless networks in our homes can't be good either. There is so much distraction we don't pay any attention. We are just cattle walking into the chophouse.

Woodsman

@motie2 I know you're a Google Champ, Have you ever googled "Did You Know"?  If you like, choose Did You Know 2017 Youtube. Let me know what you think.

Londy3

Did you know is awesome!