I am writing this somewhat “tongue in cheek,” although there are sometimes I wonder… Our society keeps getting more and more complex, with computers and software that interconnect at seemingly endless patterns. As technology has advanced, our reliance on it has also increased. However, technology is also getting more complex. Creating, maintaining, securing, and operating technology systems seem to be easy once it’s all working… but only until something breaks. Keeping these inter-connected systems working 100% of the time, however, seems to be near impossible.
The problem is that we rely so much on the amazing capability that our advanced computer systems provide, that we really struggle when things do not work as they should. The examples could fill their own website. Just two weeks ago, the FAA NOTAM outage could have caused significant outages of aircraft flights for days. A few weeks earlier, Southwest Air had inadequate computing resources to solve their scheduling problem. These are just two recent events, but can you imagine the potential of larger outages?
Imagine ATM and banking systems going offline for days or weeks. Corporate supply chain systems, energy or gas fueling systems could go offline also. Weather systems, public emergency channels, television and radio, government or police computer systems, and many more systems might be vulnerable to outages and attacks. Many of these systems have backups, but there is no guarantee that these backups are fully functional and ready to run unless tested regularly.
All I am pointing out right now is that our technology is incredible, but fallible. Too often companies or organizations throw together systems to create a new or improved capability and don’t realize how the world might be affected during an outage. Let’s just hope these issues remain isolated in our future and we don’t see the full potential of technology failing when we need it the most.
I dream a lot. By “a lot” I mean a lot of very interesting and fascinating dreams with vivid but strange twists. My brain makes incredible stories when I am asleep. Like many people though, I have a hard time remembering much of them unless I wake up and immediately try and recall what was happening. Even the scariest dreams aren’t like nightmares to me anymore. I almost always recognize them as dreams as I wake up and take in the story I was presented by my neural cells.
Yesterday’s dreams were a bit strange however. I do not remember the beginning of the dream or what led to the circumstances, but I was outdoors at night. Someone around me noticed small streaks of light in the sky and we started watching as they increased in frequency and density. Eventually there were two fields of shooting start radiating from a central point and someone exclaimed that it was a meteor storm.” We watched with fascination as it all appeared to grow closer until we could see individual bands of debris orbiting around the earth. It sort of looked like many rings or bands across the sky.
Then we started seeing larger rocks and asteroids flying across the sky and the numbers increased quickly. They were not yet in the atmosphere so the impression was that these were huge! I was fascinated, not scared as I watched the sky.
Then the bands of debris were so close, we could see whole swaths of asteroids tumbling through the atmosphere and coming closer. It was apparent that some of these “boulders” were hundreds of miles across and were headed for us. I never felt fear, just resignation that this was the end and I awoke questioning my acceptance of such a cataclysmic ending to Earth. The scenery in the dream was clear and absurdly detailed which is not common with something that seemed to carry on for several minutes.
I’m not interpreting this – I tend to have some “movie-like” dreams that are simply my mind playing out insane fantasies. I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky a lot lately, so the trigger may have been flying into the asteroid belts to hunt for ship fuel. Anyway, just wanted to share the sort of things that occupy my mind in my sleep :–)
Nature is healing. Nature is pure and real, encompassing the entirety of our world. Without nature, our planet is concrete and pain, busy and tiring. Nature replenishes and recharges. Nature is life, and life is nature.
I have never been an avid 'outdoorsman' as many Americans would call it. I greatly enjoy being outdoors, hiking and enjoying the purity of the Earth Mother. I like camping but I'm not exactly a good camper. For me, the experience is just being there and seeing the beauty. I don't want a fancy RV (although they are nice!), and I don't want a tiny tent. I would prefer to be alone at a campfire with a large and pleasant tent or cabin, listening to the wind in the trees and the birds singing beautiful songs.
I have tried for years to write a blog or at least some thoughts in a public space. You know the drill... sometimes it works out, and sometimes we let it slip. I let it slip, and then I forgot to resume.
I love writing. I am an avid reader and I've always wanted to write some short science fiction stories, and maybe even a novel-length story. First things first though; I need to work on a routine that puts a few things on my blog routinely. I may throw out a few story bits and life posts... ok more than likely, I'll throw out more random brain dumps than anything else. If I get into the routine ok, I'll expand. Honest!
My life is complicated (who's isn't?) and I am committed to more tasks than I have time in the day. That's ok because I hope a few quiet nights at work will allow me to spit out some text-based thoughts.
I will apologize in advance though. This space will not be devoted to any specific topic for a while. I hope to branch out and create a second blog for my druidry studies and writing, but HEY! One thing at a time mister!