I am taking a quick break from school to write a blog post just for you! Don't you feel loved? That and I need to think about something besides IRB, symbolic interactionism, deterrence, and R&R's. If you can't tell, I'm already a little overwhelmed by the start of the fall semester. Just have to remember to breathe... 1) I fell in love with the slow cooker all over again Wednesday night. I put together this recipe that morning and about 15 minutes before we were ready to eat, I added the final ingredients and boom! A delicious Thai dinner was enjoyed by all! It had leeks in it so Matthew & I had fun with puns all night. 2) I love my family. I do. But I have been traveling so much this summer for various family-related things I am SO excited for this weekend. Why? No traveling. I have been needing a break from road trips and a nice weekend in, even if it is filled with studying, will be perfect. 3) I miss reading for fun. I picked up this book from the library a few weeks ago thinking I would read it during some of our travels. Nope. It is half read and staring at me on the coffee table, begging me to pick it up. I'm a huge fan of the author, Erik Larson, by the way. If you're looking for a good book, I recommend any of his novels. They are non-fiction actually but read like fiction. In a good way. Just read them, k? 4) Matt & I finally upgraded our 2+ year old phones and got Moto X's. I am in love. Why? Well first, I got to customize it. I had a hard time choosing between a turquoise or this pretty chardonnay type color, but I figured I would go for the classier one of the two.
Also-- it is way faster, way better battery life, and just has some really neat features. For example, it can automatically detect when I'm driving and it will tell me who is calling so I don't have to pick it up. I can just say "answer" or "ignore." It will also read text messages to me when I drive and then can send that person a response saying I will respond to them later. Anyway, I recommend it if you're in the market for a new phone and like/are open to the Android OS. 5) I'm planning on devoting a whole post to this in the not-too-distant-future, but I signed up for a 10K. The girl who never thought she could run 2 laps around the track much less 1 mile is committed to running over 6 miles. I have a training plan I've been using and this Wednesday I ran 3.5 miles. Doing that after some weight-training wasn't the best idea, but I did it and didn't stop. October 20th will be here before we know it though so I gotta keep it up! I hope you have a great weekend!
I'm not sure if you have heard about Google's recent endeavor, Project Glass. If not, watch this short video:
For those that didn't watch the video, basically Google is working on these glasses that you would interact with. Calendar appointments, text messages, phone calls, weather, directions, and all other things Google would be projected on your glasses at the command of your voice (and perhaps buttons on the side, not sure).
I have skimmed through some of people's reactions to this and there is definitely a mix- those who thing it is the coolest thing ever as opposed to those who think it will make our over-stimulated society even more so and really hurt the end-distracted-driving movement.
Personally, I'm in the second camp. I think it is cool that we have this kind of technology, but should we go that far? Should we be able to see little icons right in front of our eyes, without even reaching for our phones/planners to see our appointments for the day? A few studies have shown that the overuse of the internet changes brain structure similar to changes seen in alcoholic's brains. Addiction and over-dependence on technology really does not seem like a safe place for our society to be moving. I know WALL-E is an amazing Disney/Pixar movie, but sometimes I see such real-life parallels that I get somewhat anxious about our society's reliance upon technology.
We all know those people, you know, the one you hang out with and they cannot put down their iPhone because they're playing Words with Friends or don't want to miss a text message. We get so fixated on these little devices that we miss out on the actual interactions going on around us. Having actual glasses that we wear seems one step closer to complete immersion in this digital world, one where we communicate solely through the internet and miss out on real, in-person communication.
I know I'm not the first to have these opinions and I know there are benefits to the revolution in technology we have seen in the past 20 years. However, Google said they posted that video to start a conversation, so that's what I'm doing.
What do you think? Would you want those glasses or are they going too far?
