I started up Skype last night. It was a simple enough gesture mechanically speaking, but I spent an hour picking clothes, having a shower, shaving and doing my hair before I finally brought myself to sit down and get to dialing.
When i finally sat down, for the first time since I could remember, there wasn't a single person in my address book available to talk.
My first thought was that the network was down, so I called the test number and was rewarded with the cheery confirmation that nobody i know wanted to talk. This in itself is pretty odd, as I've reviewed a pile of best-selling phones both mobile and fixed line that have an "always on" feature fully integrated with Skype.
I clicked on a few offline avatars, including my sister's, to see if people were just hiding their status, but they really were offline.
I decided to go for the next best and recorded a quick video message to my sister then to a couple of random friends. It was only moments after clicking "send" that I started checking for replies. Each moment that went by I felt my heart quicken.
How long has it actually been since I spoke with someone. Easily a few months. But how long has it been since I received an email from an actual person, not a mailing list, rss feed, out of office etc.
A long time. A quick check through my inbox gave me a date over four weeks ago. I must be pretty detached from my fellow humans to have let that much time slip by. Now that I'm desperate I can't raise a family member, let alone a (long ignored) friend. I'll have some making up to do once people are talking to me.
Showing posts with label isolated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label isolated. Show all posts
- 3 -
My awareness of the outside world continues to diminish, but I only notice when I think about it. Lately I could swear that traffic noise has all but disappeared. Sure the city is twenty floors below, but this building is right in the heart.
It's probably just a slow time of year, as I've also only had a couple of deliveries this month and both left at the front door.
One of the latest deliveries is yet another dodgy Chinese made mp3 player. It's a nice looking unit, solidly constructed, it plays FLAC and other lossless formats and most other decent codecs. The "but" is that, as usual it comes with the cheapest quality headphones and only sounds good through an amp with a pair of headphones that cost twice as much as the player. To top it off, the battery looks like it lasts under a day at optimum settings.
If I kept every mp3 player, or "PMP" (personal media player) I was sent to review, I would need another room in my apartment. These things have been the staple item in the gadget wars for years and years, followed closely by gaming devices. eBay has been the real winner.
My personal interest in these things waned a long time ago.
Besides, who needs a personal music device when you live alone and have custom built stereo equipment with a room build to optimize acoustics?
In the old days, I think it may have been my love of personal media players, or rather the cocoon they create around you, that started me on my journey to hermit-hood. I could go for days without speaking to anyone going to and from work in a city of millions.
I couldn't have been the only one. Immersive technologies are aimed at providing the illusion of interaction whilst never leaving the comfort of your own bedroom. Before long, dealing with real people becomes stressful, even traumatic.
The only people I deal with are delivery people, and the ones who know my address from hundreds of deliveries just leave things in my secure box by the door. When I'm busy I tend not to hear the door, so rather than waste their time, we have an unspoken agreement. Everyone knows the hermit in the penthouse is always home.
Next time there is a knock at the door though, I might answer it. It must have been a month since I saw an actual face. Maybe I'm not as much of a loner as I thought, because I can't think of anything nicer right now than swapping pleasantries with a real human being in person.
It's probably just a slow time of year, as I've also only had a couple of deliveries this month and both left at the front door.
One of the latest deliveries is yet another dodgy Chinese made mp3 player. It's a nice looking unit, solidly constructed, it plays FLAC and other lossless formats and most other decent codecs. The "but" is that, as usual it comes with the cheapest quality headphones and only sounds good through an amp with a pair of headphones that cost twice as much as the player. To top it off, the battery looks like it lasts under a day at optimum settings.
If I kept every mp3 player, or "PMP" (personal media player) I was sent to review, I would need another room in my apartment. These things have been the staple item in the gadget wars for years and years, followed closely by gaming devices. eBay has been the real winner.
My personal interest in these things waned a long time ago.
Besides, who needs a personal music device when you live alone and have custom built stereo equipment with a room build to optimize acoustics?
In the old days, I think it may have been my love of personal media players, or rather the cocoon they create around you, that started me on my journey to hermit-hood. I could go for days without speaking to anyone going to and from work in a city of millions.
I couldn't have been the only one. Immersive technologies are aimed at providing the illusion of interaction whilst never leaving the comfort of your own bedroom. Before long, dealing with real people becomes stressful, even traumatic.
The only people I deal with are delivery people, and the ones who know my address from hundreds of deliveries just leave things in my secure box by the door. When I'm busy I tend not to hear the door, so rather than waste their time, we have an unspoken agreement. Everyone knows the hermit in the penthouse is always home.
Next time there is a knock at the door though, I might answer it. It must have been a month since I saw an actual face. Maybe I'm not as much of a loner as I thought, because I can't think of anything nicer right now than swapping pleasantries with a real human being in person.
- 1 -
Send. Another review submitted and another free piece of semi useful gadgetry bought and paid for with very positive, but not too sickly praise.
It used to feel like such a pleasantly banal way to make a few extra dollars. Making money from a hobby, or more accurately a fetish or obsession, is a dream that rarely comes true.
I wonder if everyone else who manages to make it a reality finds it as underwhelming after a while.
The reality hit after only a couple of years with the realisation that the reviews don't have to be believable, nor overly flattering. Each product has a positive characteristic, and the review should reflect that the reviewer was pleasantly surprised, or when appropriate, proven wrong, by this unique characteristic. Simplistic products possess "ease of use". Cheap or poor quality products are "affordable" or "aimed at the budget conscious", and so on.
Some products are genuinely brilliant, however the real problem with reviewing genuinely brilliant kit is overdoing it. If you bang on about a product too much, you're less likely to get a shot at a competitor's equivalent product for fear of unfavorable comparisons.
It used to feel like such a pleasantly banal way to make a few extra dollars. Making money from a hobby, or more accurately a fetish or obsession, is a dream that rarely comes true.
I wonder if everyone else who manages to make it a reality finds it as underwhelming after a while.
The reality hit after only a couple of years with the realisation that the reviews don't have to be believable, nor overly flattering. Each product has a positive characteristic, and the review should reflect that the reviewer was pleasantly surprised, or when appropriate, proven wrong, by this unique characteristic. Simplistic products possess "ease of use". Cheap or poor quality products are "affordable" or "aimed at the budget conscious", and so on.
Some products are genuinely brilliant, however the real problem with reviewing genuinely brilliant kit is overdoing it. If you bang on about a product too much, you're less likely to get a shot at a competitor's equivalent product for fear of unfavorable comparisons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)