You know how one lightbulb burns out and two more follow....then another and another? That's how it's been at our house lately but instead of lightbulbs it's been the internet, cable, the scanner, the wireless router and the computer monitor. One by one things seem to be reaching the end of their increasingly shortened technological lives. Hence why I haven't been able to post anything to this blog for over a week and even maintaining an internet connection long enough to add a couple of photos to my Flickr site proved to be quite an achievement and, as much as I hate to admit it, a source of some considerable frustration. Just yesterday, as I tried to view the photos I took on our trip to Port Townsend last weekend, we discovered the SD Card reader we've had only a few short years was never designed to handle anything larger than a 2GB camera card.....because they just didn't exist a couple of years ago.
So one by one we've replaced or upgraded things as they've failed.....but I always feel horribly guilty about it. Parts of some items can/will go for recycling but otherwise they're simply castaway additions to an ever-growing landfill problem. So quickly outdated, inadequate or no longer fit for their original purpose; now they simply serve as reminders of just how disposable all this 'stuff' is becoming. And as much as I try to be 'green' and hate wastefulness and consumerism, I'm evidently still caught in the spell of a technologically enhanced lifestyle. For all its advantages, I'm increasingly aware of - and uncomfortable with - the consequences. The bottom-line cost to the environment and that underlying sense of excess and wastefulness because we've become so spoiled (dare I say ruined) by immediacy, power and being permanently 'connected'.
So while I'm glad to be able to post again (since I'd only just got started), I feel a strong uneasiness about the extra 'stuff' it involves and all that we throw away.
If my Dad was still alive, he would no doubt have written many of his 'world-famous poems' on the matter, summing it up much more eloquently than I ....but instead this little quote will have to suffice:
Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
Alan M. Eddison
About Me
- Katrina
- Vancouver, Canada
- Originally from a small seaside town in the North of England, I lived and worked in France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Maldive Islands before moving to Canada in 1995 - where I intended to stay 'just a couple of years'. Well, I'm still here. I live with my fabulous (Canadian) husband, Lorne, in Vancouver's Westside, close to beaches & downtown. We opted for kitties over kids and are proud parents to 3 wonderful rescues; Mel & Louis, who we adopted in 2010, and little miss Ella, who joined us in 2013. I miss my family in the UK but luckily my sister and best friend, Victoria, lives just down the street with her family. I remain very European at heart and would love to move back there, even for a while. Hopefully I'll convince Lorne & the kitties one day. Besides, I'm fluent in French & German but rarely get chance to use either here. Outside of work I love photography, writing, making cards, working out, camping, kayaking, horse riding & most things really. I've always been an animal lover, support several animal protection organizations and haven't eaten meat in 27 years.
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