DOS! Ah yes, I remember that. Some fancy smancy computer engineer will think no one knows about it and expect us to be surprised when they go into the dos command to try to fix a problem. But for the longest time, that's all there was.
That much is true. My father didn't have running water when he was young. Some of what we've lost are things that we've romanticized, but there's definitely truth to it. I was never allowed to talk on the phone with my friends so I didn't develop the same closeness that they did to each other. I hear in Europe, instead of a flat local calls fee, there is a fee for every phone call made, even if it's just right next door or down the street. So they say that Europeans are more willing to get out of the house and just meet with friends over a cappuccino to chat instead of relying on the phone and thus lack of personal presence. Email makes things possible. There are some things that I say in text that I could never say in RL. That's part of the reason I thought I would write, to give voice to these unsaid stories and thoughts. I have seen people take risks. A high school friend met a Dutchman in an English-speaking bar in China while she was touring there, and she took a chance and decided to enter into a relationship with him even though it seemed doomed from the start. For the moment, they're married and happy.
But it is very different. Just to sit at the shores of the West Havens and look outward at the sea, feel the gentle breeze as we walk down the pier and talk about elves and slash. Or sit together at dinner and talk about how the Teleri would love the sushi but the Noldorin and Sindarin elves might find fish disgusting. I sometimes think about how it'd be like if I visited Budapest. You'd show me the main sites that tourists want to see, and I'd be curious to see how you live, the interior design and amount of space you can get for how many euros. I'd look curiously at your walk and stop signs to see if it had red and green men or if the green man meant walk but a red hand meant stop. It's so true. So many little things that are lost just by not being together.
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That much is true. My father didn't have running water when he was young. Some of what we've lost are things that we've romanticized, but there's definitely truth to it. I was never allowed to talk on the phone with my friends so I didn't develop the same closeness that they did to each other. I hear in Europe, instead of a flat local calls fee, there is a fee for every phone call made, even if it's just right next door or down the street. So they say that Europeans are more willing to get out of the house and just meet with friends over a cappuccino to chat instead of relying on the phone and thus lack of personal presence. Email makes things possible. There are some things that I say in text that I could never say in RL. That's part of the reason I thought I would write, to give voice to these unsaid stories and thoughts. I have seen people take risks. A high school friend met a Dutchman in an English-speaking bar in China while she was touring there, and she took a chance and decided to enter into a relationship with him even though it seemed doomed from the start. For the moment, they're married and happy.
But it is very different. Just to sit at the shores of the West Havens and look outward at the sea, feel the gentle breeze as we walk down the pier and talk about elves and slash. Or sit together at dinner and talk about how the Teleri would love the sushi but the Noldorin and Sindarin elves might find fish disgusting. I sometimes think about how it'd be like if I visited Budapest. You'd show me the main sites that tourists want to see, and I'd be curious to see how you live, the interior design and amount of space you can get for how many euros. I'd look curiously at your walk and stop signs to see if it had red and green men or if the green man meant walk but a red hand meant stop. It's so true. So many little things that are lost just by not being together.