Two Tin Cans and a Piece of String

Since technical failures delayed this installment, instead of what I was going to write, I thought a word or two on technology might be in order. Let me start by reiterating my status as a dinosaur. RRRAAAARRRR! I am not a Luddite. I do not seek to destroy other people's technology. I just want it to leave me alone to wallow in my tar pit until I sink back down into the muck, someday to fuel an internal comubstion engine. I do not trust that technology will work and I am certain that it will fail when you need it most. The nice thing about two tin cans and a string is that it was a phone system that worked even when the power went out, even when the server was down, even when the contract wasn't set up correctly, and even when you couldn't remember the correct spelling for the e-mail address. I will also admit that I am convinced that the fall of Western Civilization began with the invention of the fax machine. Until the fax machine, nobody expected to get anything back for a week. You sent a letter and that took three days, then they would write you a letter back and send it and that would take another three to five days. The pace was manageable. But with the fax machine, everyone decided that if you got the fax today, you should respond this afternoon. When you told someone, the papers are in the mail, the person would say, well, just toss a copy in the fax machine so I can read them now and I will get the original when the mail comes. Of course, this has simply gotten progressively worse with e-mail, cell phones and of course now, the smartphone. I have been resisting the march of evil, but of course, no one can escape it completely. The use of e-mail at the office has increased steadily in the past ten years or so, to the point where the fax machine sits mostly idle, replaced by the scan and e-mail. In 2003, I succumbed to the 21st Century and got a cell phone, but it was just a phone, no camera, no special features. It made phone calls and held a phone directory in it. Alas, the screen on my cell phone died about three months ago and I could no longer use the phone directory, nor see who was calling, nor see the battery display to know how I was doing on charge. I could make and get calls, but without the rest, it was not very useful. So when I mentioned that I needed to get a new phone, the avalanche of opinion came down on me to get a Blackberry or other smartphone. Oh, you'll love it, everyone said. You'll find it so useful. To say that my skepticism was vast is an understatement. I was certain that it would be thirty foot Twinkie bad. (Ghostbusters ref.) But giving in to the pressure, I went and got the darn thing last Monday. So far, all my fears have come true. I lost three hours yesterday trying to get the thing to work with my computer, found out that the plan had been done incorrectly, found out that it takes an extra two days to set up after the plan was fixed, found out that deleting e-mail on the BB does not delete it on the computer so you get to do that twice and found out that typing on a teeny, tiny keyboard sucks. They say I will get used to it, but I usually avoid things that you have to work at to acquire the taste for them, like cigars and beer. So we will see if this snake I am now carrying in my purse is going to play nice and how long that will take. It particularly creates a conundrum for e-mail. Lots of members like to communicate with their Grand Line officers by e-mail. And lots of Grand Line officers and past ones have e-mails associated with their name and year that they set up on aol or yahoo or some other service where the e-mail addresses are free. Mostly they do that to segregate their Eastern Star stuff from their work stuff, so far as I can tell. I would rather not check two places (dinosaurs like to eat from one tree at a time, don't you know) so I have not created a new e-mail address yet. But it also seems that many Grand Line officers create a new e-mail so that it will be easier for the members to remember the address. The problem is that since there is no standardization for how to set up your new address, and really it can't be standardized because someone else might have taken the one you are supposed to use if it was standardized, I am not sure it really makes the remembering easier. Another group I belong to has e-mails set up on their organization domain with the various officers' titles. So for example, if you want to reach the current treasurer in that group, you just write to treasurer at XYZcompany dot org. Or if you want the president, it's president at XYZcompany dot org. Each year, the organization just sets a router that forwards all the e-mail for each title to the private e-mail address for that officer. They've done this for years and the best part is that I don't need to know who the current person is to reach them and the e-mail for the office doesn't change. Most domain names let you set up dozens of these alias e-mails for free, so there is no cost. But for some reason, some people seem unhappy with the thought of doing this for our group and I am not sure why. Perhaps they are worried that members won't remember which office you currently hold in the Grand Line and e-mails will get sent to the wrong people. Or maybe they are worried that when they are no longer a Grand Line officer, no one will know how to reach them. I am not sure. But I wonder if it would be helpful for the average member if we did this. Being the dinosaur that I am, I always wonder if the e-mail will arrive anyway, but making it easier for the members to at least try to send the darn things seems worth consideration. Next weekend, I am in Beckwourth and Portola.