Blogflog - My Daemons are Crashing

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: My Daemons are Crashing
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

My daemons are crashing, the computer tech said. I thought I’d misheard over the crush of the computer store, but then she repeated it. My smart phone wasn’t working because the computer daemons in it were crashing. Computer daemons are programs that wait in the background until you call them into service, sort of like the original idea of genies, or jinn, that give magical help if you have the power to call and control them. Not too far off from some of the mysterious workings of computers.

Once I was a technophobe, but as I stood there in the computer store waiting for my phone to come back to life, and I felt bereft. I couldn’t call, text, check e-mail, or . . . my hand held office was broken. I have not only embraced technology, but I have drunk deep of the technological Kool-aid. I didn’t realize how deep until the moment I stood in the buzz of the computer store and mourned my non-functioning phone.

I was suddenly a writer that couldn’t write, because I didn’t have a pen, pencil, or piece of paper to my name. I was so distressed that I left my husband to babysit the phone while I ran down to the brick and mortar bookstore to buy a pen and a notebook. I also picked up a new book to read, because I was a writer in a bookstore, come on, I had to buy a book. What book? Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which I’ve actually never read. I decided recently that I needed to fix that, and there’s no time like the present. It was somehow reassuring to hold a real book that was written long before the thought of computers, back when a writer had to have good penmanship so that his editor could read his manuscript. I admit I’m glad I don’t have to write my novels by hand, in fact, I write almost exclusively on my iPad and iPhone, and main computers now. I even take notes on my phone most of the time instead of sticky notes. I’m writing this on my iPad, while we watch, “Fast & Furious 6″ on the big screen LED TV with a Blue Ray DVD. Does anyone remember when if you wanted to watch a movie it had to be on the three, maybe four channels, that you could get on your rabbit-eared TV? The smart phone you’re holding in your hand has more computing power than the computers that sent the Apollo spacecrafts to the moon. How freaking cool is that?

How many of you remember Space Invaders, and how everyone was mesmerized by those little blips on the screen? Now the graphics on the latest games are so amazing they look like mini-movies. Would any of us have guessed how far the computer revolution would come into our homes and change the way we do not only business, but our recreation and play? E-books, electronic books are perilously close to outselling paperback books. Time spent in front of our TV and computer screens take more of our days than being outside in the real world. I know I had no idea when I watched that first rough game move jerkily across the monochrome screen what was coming, and how much of modern life was going to be so closely intertwined with it that one of the things our government fears most is an EMP, electromagnetic pulse bomb that would take out all the pretties that we use everyday.

My daemons are coming when called again, to work their spells. The magic smoke is back in the little box in my hand, and the world is strangely more firm.

Comments

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Djinn are NOT magic little helpers for the powerful to control, as LKH might know if her research extended beyond I Dream Of Jeannie

[miss-maggpie.livejournal.com]

As a cultural classic, she probably hasn't seen 'I dream of Jeannie' either. Waaaaaaaaay too mainstream. Don't you know that peasants watched that show? And it's no way near gothic enough for the darklity darkness of her soul.

They were probably featured on a calendar.

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Only she could make a wonky phone sound like it was created via blood magic and carved from the bones of sacrificial virgins.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Egad, what a drama queen! What was even the point of all this?

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

This comic (http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2014/06/29/the-social-media-generation-comic/) seems remarkably apt here.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

That is actually awesome.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? I've actually been using it all morning to explain to people who are constantly plugged in why I need to unplug so often. The constant stream of acknowledgment isn't validation, to me. It's an assault, and it scares my introverted ass away from Twitter and Facebook for weeks because I can't handle the pressure of people bombarding me with attention and demanding attention in return. Looking at it from this perspective makes it easier for them to understand why I need to escape it. But it's caused a lot of defensive reactions, too. It is a little black and white; there's a lot of value in social media communications, and the internet provides outlets for those who would have none. People form real, lasting relationships online, and are able to stay in touch with those they love who aren't in their physical sphere anymore. But there is this downside, when you generalize us as a connected culture that's increasingly disconnected from the world--though it's just one perspective among many.

...

>.>

~stops rambling~

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, many of the commenters point out the values too ... not everyone has, or can have, or can handle, the RL interactions we crave.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

'Golly gosh, modern technology exists! And I'm using the word daemon for some reason, even though daemons are benevolent nature deities and nothing to do with demons.'

There are daemons, which are computer processes, but since she's such a gosh darn technophobe, I don't think she knows about those.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Why did her phone not working make it so that she had to buy a notebook and pencil? Does she write on her phone? That might actually explain a lot.

What book? Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I hate when she asks herself questions and then answers them. Which she does all the fucking time. Also, noooo, Alice in Wonderland is by Lewis Carroll? What an amazing new piece of information! I'm surprised she didn't call him Linus Carrow.

the world is strangely more firm

What.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

She does write on her phone and a tablet at all times, she says. I don't know how the hell she can. I can't stand using one - GOTTA have a keyboard to really write.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Not only that, but the screens are too small to follow your own train of thought. At least they would be for me. And frankly, I think they are for LKH too.

[apep727.livejournal.com]

So what was her excuse before using her phone/tablet?

Oh wait, I remember - post-it notes.

[jeza-red.livejournal.com]

Well, I kinda can get it?>_>
Everything I write is stored on google drive so that I can get to it from everywhere that has an internet connection - and when I'm out and about and feel the need to add some lines to my story I just whip the phone out and do so. The at home I can fix any possible stuff on a pc/netbook.

It's really awfully convenient. Tho I do keep a pen and a stack of notebooks by the bed in case of the late night muse...

But then again, because my stuff if stored externally I don't have to panic whenever my phone/pc/laptop/whatever meet the Maker;)

[miss-maggpie.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't be too hard. She mostly copies and pastes these days anyway, right?
Especially some of those descriptions. I bet she has an autocorrect that automatically adjusts subtle and well structured character descriptions to: "NATHANIAL WAS A PRETTY KITTY WITH LAVENDER EYES THAT WERE DEEP AND PURPLE LIKE LAVENDER. HIS PERFECT FEMININE, BUT ACTUALLY MASCULINE FACE (BECAUSE FEMININE IS ICKY) WAS SURROUNDED BY A HALO OF RED, AUBURN HAIR WHICH SWISHED AS HE WALKED OVER TO ME. HIS ASS CHEEKS WERE PERFECTLY SCULPTED, WHICH YOU COULD SEE BECAUSE HE WAS WEARING SHORT SHORTS WHICH DID NOT COVER HIS BUTT. ON A WOMAN IT WOULD'VE LOOKED SLUTTY, BUT MEN ARE BETTER AND NATHANIAL IS A MANLY WOMANLY MAN WHO IS FEMININE BUT NOT LIKE A FEMININE WOMAN."

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

I always have a few pens on me at any time. They're just useful to have!

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah ditto - I've always got a spiralback notebook with a pen clipped to it in my bag. That thing has gone with me to pubs, gigs, libraries, you name it. Last week I got stuck in a blackout due to storms, so me and my trusty notebook went to the toasty warm pub to get some work done instead of me freezing my butt off in a dark house.

Plus I've gone through that many technology SNAFUs in the last six months that I can't get myself too worked up about LKH's "noes my phone :(" Sure, it's inconvenient to not be able to access your data, but a) notebook and b) always have an external back up. These things are life savers.

On a side note, she's destroyed and replaced phones in the past with less drama (like the time she waded into the sea to help a turtle). It's not like she's got to weigh up the costs of repair/replacement gadgetry vs bills/food etc.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

What sucks is that this is BETTER writing than in her actual, published books.

Good lord, she's got more passion here than in her own sex scenes.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

She's got more passion in everything than in her sex scenes. However, yes, this is better writing than almost everything she writes, including the stuff she really likes to write, like angsting about haters and fighting with Richard.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Also more coherent writing than her actual, published books. ;__;

[apep727.livejournal.com]

I think that's debatable - this thing is still kinda ramble-y and incoherent.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Presumably because writing about herself is much more interesting to her than writing about anything else, even self-insert avatars.

[lady-fellshot.livejournal.com]

All I got out of this was "Look at all the shinies I have!" :P

[cryptaknight.livejournal.com]

She writes her books... on her phone?

That would explain a lot, actually.

[ravens-shadow.livejournal.com]

Right? I can see using your phone for notes, or you're out and about and get an idea for a scene so you use your phone to make sure you don't forget, but to use it to write a significant portion of a book? That would not work for me.