Off the Grid and Back Again — A Geek Tale

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June 21, 2010
by Mariann

I spent last week on  a cruise to Catalina island and Mexico. Needless to say the laptop got left at home and the iPhone was in Airplane mode most of the trip so I didn’t get enormous data or phone charges.

I normally go off grid once a year or so. It always nice to stop checking my email, tweeting, and checking Facebook for a few days. For the first day or so I admit to reaching for the iPhone and glancing at my non-existent messages. After a couple of days I wasn’t looking at my phone, I was just enjoying my vacation.

As I’ve added apps to my phone, I’ve grabbed those apps that I thought would be nice to have access to (excluding games, of course, those are just for fun).  I love having Yelp and IMDB at my finger tips, but I realized that I can still find a good restaurant and remember who was in a movie with the help of the people around me.

So will I give up by iPhone, no way, but I might turn it off more often.

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Jane Austen — A Comic Book Writer??

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June 10, 2010
by Mariann

After lunch with some friends, I stumbled into a local comic book shop. As I was looking along the wall of comics a title caught my eye, “Sense and Sensibility.” I picked up the comic and sure enough it was a comic book adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”. I wasn’t sure what to think, was this an opportunity to introduce another audience to Austen’s writing or just dumbing down Austen.

But I would be a hypocrite to say anything against Austen being dumbed down. I was introduced to Jane Austen not through her books or even through one of the my many literature classes, but through the movies (some bad and some good) based on her works. I didn’t know about Emma, till Gweneth Paltrow (and Alicia Sliverstone) portrayed her. I didn’t learn about Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy till I got sucked into the miniseries on A&E because there was nothing else on TV. (In my defense, I will add that I have gone back and read at least 3 of her novels and am hoping to get through the pile of books I have by my bed so I can get to “Persuasion.” )

I guess I’m saying, maybe dumbing things down isn’t a bad thing and maybe Marvel has the right idea taking old classics and putting them in graphic novel/comic book form.

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Lost, But Not Gone Forever

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May 27, 2010
by Mariann

I was hoping to have this post up a day or so again, but a headache got in the way.

Sunday night saw the series finale of LOST. It was a exciting and sad experience. I wanted to know what the end was, but part of me didn’t want to let go of the show and its character. (A rather fitting emotion with the plot of the final episode.)

I have been a LOST fan since day one. When previews of the show first came out in the fall of 2004, I knew I had to watch. I am a Alias fan and knew if JJ Abrams was involved it would be good. The pilot was amazing and I was hooked.

I’ve love the characters this show gave us. The show’s writers where able to take characters that had done horrible things, redeem them, and make them like-able. It illustrated to me the power of the human spirit to change and be better. It showed how a washed-up, drug addicted musician could become an adoptive-father and hero. I’m still amazed at the emotions and depth this show about a group of plane crash survivors was able to show.

So, Thanks to all the LOST cast, crew, and staff. You might be LOST, but you will never be forgotten.

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Flashbacks — Go Aggies

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May 13, 2010
by Mariann

I spent last weekend traveling to Utah, specifically Logan, to attend my niece’s graduation. She is now an alumni of Utah State University, like me.

I didn’t get to spend much time in Logan, but I did get a chance to walk around campus. It felt oddly like coming home. Thought I only spent my Junior and Senior years of college there, I still think of USU as my school. This was the place I learned what technical writers really did and that I could do it.

Congratulations Danielle and Go AGGIES!!!

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Got to Love the English Language

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April 30, 2010
by Mariann

Last night while flipping channels I stumbled upon a repeat of the The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize honoring George Carlin. They had a number of comedians on talking about him, intermixed with clips from his most famous routines.

I’d seen or heard about most of the routines before, but I was impressed again by the way George Carlin played with the English language. His “Place for my Stuff” routine always makes be laugh. I love that this whole 5 minute routine is really just a play on the one work, Stuff.

His routines reminded why I love language (specifically English, because that is the only one I know). There are so many ways to communicate different emotions, experiences, and thoughts with language and each of us develops our own way of phrasing and choosing words. I can take the same experience and by talking to 3 different people get three different descriptions of the exact same thing. I’m not meaning that people notice different things so much as they emphasis different things by the language choices them make.

English allows its speakers to make an experience funny, sad, or melodramatic just by the words we use. I can take the same sentence and completely change the feel or meaning of it just by changing a few words. I can take a common cliche and twist it by just moving a word or to.

So thank you George for reminding me how much I love language.

And for your entertainment (Just remember this is George Carlin, so these links are not for little ears):

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