If You Could See What I See.

I have to say as much as I have HUGE problems with technology I still take time while others are smelling roses to marvel at the mobile phone. Here you are 10, 000 miles away talking to a friend with a Mars bar held to your head whilst getting your eyebrows waxed or spending quality time with a loved one at a nursing home. A marvel I tell you. A marvel. But now I want a PatCam(tm). It is a tiny device that I attach to my forehead so I can show you where I am and what I am seeing during our call. Not that I won't listen to whatever it is you are going on about, but that you get to SHARE my surroundings with me. I hear this capability is out there, but I am always 5 years behind. There are "early adopters" and there are people like me - "technology's stepchildren." Not a PC term, but there you have it.

For example. I was talking to my friend Jon this morning on my way to return Christmas gifts. He said "Are those horse's hooves?" I could have been way out in the parking lot at the Paramus Park Mall, but I was walking through Central Bloody Park on a beautiful winter day and those were horse and carriages he was hearing! There were also ice skaters and the skyline of Central Park South buildings in front of me. There were the park statues and old couples holding hands. I want to share! LOOK! LOOK! And I want to see what you are seeing too. This is what we call CONTEXT. You know how it is once you finally get invited to someone's home or you have been in their office and then you have that visual of where they are when they speak to you? It just makes the experience so much more personal. Don't you think? And isn't technology pulling us away from "personal"? Okay, so I air my dirty laundry to the world on a daily basis via this blog, but there is that WALL O' SAFETY with it. I wear masks.

(Virginia, daddy just lost his way with his whole point. He is pulling over. )

I returned gifts and redeemed my gift card at Bloomingdales which Jon in San Francisco directed me to, by the way - "just keep walking east on 59th Street." I got this great sweater. Thanks, Leiyan! I then got a hat and I bought underpants. (The camera would be turned off at this point.)

Walking back home through the Park my friend Maureen came back into my head as she often does. (In cyber speak it is called a Widget. She placed a widget in my head.) I have this feeling that if they keep putting widgets in your head you should call them. We had not spoken in a while and it was so wonderful to speak to her. Hat and gloves in the Park right by Tavern on the Green. In our conversation I was reminded of how many great laughs we have had over the years. Just so many. And how many years. Piping. Banking. Life. Death. Hangovers. Fillums. Role Playing. Tawk. Camping Purse. I sat down on a park bench and we had a chat. This was just the best that money could buy with technology. Well, not really. If the phone dispensed boiling water and a tea bag, I think that would have been the best. We talked well past where John Lennon got shot and up through the west side markets to around 72nd Street. She would not have known any of this since as I had no PatCam(tm). For all she knew I was sitting in an empty room talking to her. And maybe that is the point of it.