While rummaging through the inter-webs I came across a interesting article:
100 things your kids may never know and as the name suggests it's a list of 100 things that will probably be (or are already) forgotten by the time you have kids (or at least older kids) reading through the article I realized just how many things I knew myself, and with it the realization that my future offspring will never know about (unless I take the old-timer route and force the info on them through tales involving cheap gum, and impossible slopes)
The list which included many things that may be common knowledge to you, but I bet won't be (for obvious reasons) in the future. After you're done reading this, go and talk to your younger relatives or friends, maybe they're your children, or nephews/nieces, cousins, even neighbors and ask them if they recognize any of the things on this list, and watch as the younger you ask, the less they'll know (if they even know any of it) obviously your results will vary depending on their exposure to technology and if they have older siblings (as I had, which is why I knew about most of those things) but odds are most of whom you ask, won't recognize more than a handful items if even that.
As I thought about all those things long forgotten in an ever changing era, what about the things we know about now? what's changing? all those things that we've taken for granted as staples of the technology industry, how long are they going to be there? and what else will come that we'll start to accept as normal? take google for example, from simple search engine to gigantic company invloved in numerous enterprises from browsers, to email to now operating systems not to mention the bevy of assorted apps that are far too numerous to name. In fact they do so much now that I have no idea what industry they may already been entrenching themselves in. On the other hand look at Microsoft, slowly but surely losing it's market share, now with the open source movement gaining more strength the tides are turning, are we going to see the day when the software giant finally topples (note that if it does I shall start every class that day with a rousing rendition of "Ding Dong the Witch is dead") It's really hard to take in all at once, but the worlds changing. And I'm coming to accept that I'm changing with it.
The headlong rush into adulthood (the real kind, not just legally speaking) that I find myself in is really starting to affect me in ways I haven't noticed til now. This fall I'll be entering my second year at college, and I can't help but marvel at the speed at which I've arrived there, why it only feels like just yesterday I was starting, or perhaps a week ago, that I was sitting in high school waiting for that day that I would finally step up and take my place in that world.
I have 2 older brothers ages 33 and 29 and when I was younger I watched them go off to college and grad school and now work (one even is married with a kid!) and after all those years I find myself actually finally here, and quite frankly it's a bit daunting. The knowledge that I have but 3 more years til I'm thrust out into the "real" world, where I have to have a job and my own place to live, now I could always go the grad school route, put off on making a decision for a few years more, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm no longer sure if that's really what I want to do anymore. So here I am, with less than one month left til school no longer certain of what I want to study, let alone what I want to do after that. and given the nature of my life so far I can expect the time to go just as fast (if not faster as I get closer to the end of college). I've never been one for an office job, while I spend vast amounts of my time at a desk at a computer, it's usually been for reasons of my own, and the idea of spending the rest of my working days in a cubicle or even an office slaving away at a desk, is just not appealing to me. On the other hand I could try research, or teaching (preferably at a college level) or even something else entirely that I haven't considered yet. But in order to do such things, I need to make sure that I'm interested enough in a certain field to actually want to put in the time and dedication to get there, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm no longer sure if I am.
I have in many ways come to terms with the growing expectations of maturity, which are in their own way becoming a bit more visible in my posts (compare my recent posts to my early posts and you'll see what I mean) I don't know what that means, am I actually growing up? or do I just think that I am? I like to think that it's a result of experiences (particularly last semester) but I can't say definitely. In a rather hilarious coincidence my post happens to falls on the same day that this xkcd comic gets posted:
As always I hope you enjoyed (or at least didn't hate) this foray into the recesses of my mind. This is my cue to leave, but if you feel like sharing your thoughts feel free to make your mark in the comments. See ya.
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