I was reading Vera's journal the other day, and I realized with a jolt that I am totally out of the high-tech loop. I am not a geek or nerd anymore. I am an Average Joe when it comes to knowing the latest whiz-bang gizmos. Vera had mentioned a lunch that she went to with some friends, and made the comment that all three of them had Handspring Visors.

And I had absolutely no clue what a Handspring Visor was!

I read "visor" and I think it's something you have in your car to keep the sun off of you. Then Vera went on to say something about how hers wasn't beaming properly or something to that effect... so now I've gathered that perhaps a handspring visor is some sort of personal organizer or thingummy like that.

Too much technology. Way too complicated. US News had an interesting article very recently about how the sales of High-tech have dropped sharply recently, mostly because everything has become too complicated for the Average Joe to use. Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not a dumb person. I'm pretty well educated, and I have an IQ with triple digits--and the second digit is not a prime number. But I have a wireless phone that I use perhaps 40% of the available features on, because I don't feel like looking up in the manual how to use the damn thing if I want to do something vaguely esoteric. People who design technology (and some of my readers are just such people!) need to remember that more is not always better. Sure, the gizmo may be able to do a jillion different things, but who can remember how to do them all?

Yes, I've been on this rant before. You'll probably see me on this rant again. Linda Dunn has had similar rants in her journal and she actually qualifies as a Computer Geek! Sometimes I really crave simplicity.

I've had a couple of responses to my Dare to Do Something, but so far none from the NAW (other than Linda, but since she initiated this, I don't count her.) I'll give everyone a few more days, since I know that not everyone checks journals daily, but really, there's no excuse for not participating. One person emailed me and told me that she was going to dare herself to start going to church regularly--at least for 12 weeks. That wasn't what I originally had in mind, since I was looking at more of a physical improvement type of thing, but then I realized that there's no reason at all why this dare can't be a total self-improvement--intellectual, physical, spritual. (I'm pretty confident that anyone who reads this journal is already pretty strong in the "intellectual" area, so that's why I'm stressing self-improvement in other areas.) Again, whatever works for you. Personally, I'm just darn happy with my spiritual state. You won't see me in a church except for weddings or funerals, but I am comfortable in my faith and happy with my karma. So for me, I'm working on the physical.

So, Dare to be a well-balanced person.