I’m sitting in the Rochester N.Y. Airport, after a four day weekend planning marketing strategies with Claudia Bishop for our upcoming release of Merry Band of Murderers. Oh it wasn’t all marketing talk. Claudia, her husband, my wife and I drank some wine, saw the finger lakes, saw the new Johnny Depp movie ( absolutley the worst movie I have ever seen) ate some good food and toured their goat farm. Yes, goat farm. But we did get some serious work done, and the anthology, which comes out at the end of August, will be a lot of fun. We could have done the marketing by phone or on line.
Now, I’m sitting here at the airport, working on ten minutes of battery and one tiny green light of wireless power, and I’m watching people. Almost everyone has a cell phone glued to his ear. At least twelve people are on the computer and I’m guessing, with wireless at the gate, they are on the web. Five uniformed airport employees are on a phone or using pagers, and the loud speaker system makes personal and impersonal announcements about every thirty seconds.
I just read that human interaction is at an all time low. People aren’t dating, arent’ seeing each other as much, aren’t going out to eat as much…all because of communication technology. There’s no reason to go out of your way to see each other. You can call, e mail, and page. It’s easier, less time consuming, probably cheaper and obviously faster.
I make no judgement. I use the latest in communication technology, but sometimes you have to visit a goat farm and actually see real people. Sometimes.
Don
Congrats to Judy on her starred review in Library Journal!
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My in-laws have 3 llamas at their house. My MIL had a portion of the yard fenced in and a small barn built. My kids love going there not only to visit Grammie and Grandpa but to visit the llamas. Contrary to popular opinion, they do not spit. The llamas OR the kids. Llamas only spit at each other when the girls don’t want attention from the boys. In any case, I think my kids are so lucky in that not only do they get to see their grandparents in the flesh, but they get to learn about some very sweet, docile and cute as a button animals.
I’m not opposed to any technological advances, but person to person communication is so important. My sister and I email each other every day but I get as giddy as a school girl when I know we’re going to SEE each other. Spending time with those we hold dear is a gift. A gift that I can’t ever wait to open!
Just finished “knit One, Kill Two” by Maggie Sefton
by Debbie
on July 18th, 2006 at 6:59 am
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Debbie;
Claudia and her husband are buying some Lamas as “watch dogs” for the goat herd. ( over 300 goats). Apparently Lamas are great at protecting the herd.
Claudia writes the Hemlock Falls series.
Don
by Don
on July 18th, 2006 at 9:07 am
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I love goats! They are sweet, little bleating things, aren’t they?! LLamas are very protective. Claudia should have good luck with them.
I’ll check out Claudia’s series, thanks!
by Debbie
on July 18th, 2006 at 9:34 am
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I just saw a TV show (60 minutes?) that showed couples who actually call each other from rooms IN THEIR OWN HOUSE. They can’t take fifteen seconds to walk down the hall to talk to their spouse in person. Can’t see how that would help a relationship at all. Yikes!!!
by Judy
on July 20th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
