The Future of History

(Random note: while writing this piece, I realized that "media" is the plural of "medium." Mind=blown)

Here's an experiment: Look through your bookshelf. How many items there are 10 years or older? Perhaps a few? A lot? Okay. How many will still be there 10 years from now? 20 years? 50 years? Probably most of them, if you're anything like me.

For the vast majority of recorded history, physical media has been the preferred medium of record. That is to say, if you had something important, or something to be remembered, you wrote it down, and you could hold it in your hand. You could bet pretty good money that it would be around for a while.

The examination of books, art, photographs, and other physical media from decades, centuries, or millennia ago gives us fantastic insight in to the nature of society from whence they came. This is made possible through the incredible property of physical media being able to preserve itself. That is, it has endured in spite of society's neglect, or occasionally even efforts to destroy it.

Now, to continue our little experiment: page through your computer's hard drive. How many files are at least 10 years old? Probably relatively few (unless you're a digital pack rat), but most likely because the majority of us didn't have our life centered around a computer 10 years ago, back when AOL was both the leading ISP and content provider on the web.

Finally: take another look at the files on your computer. How many of those will you still have in 10 years? How about 20 years? 50 years? Fewer than your books?

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The prevalence of the internet and computers allows people to create information at a truly unfathomable rate--worldwide, an amount of data equivalent to the size of the Library of Congress is generated in the order of minutes, if not seconds. Websites, articles, blogs, photos, and tweets are created and stored in the digital multiverse, all waiting to be retrieved for the foreseeable future.

But here lies the problem: when a library shuts down, the books remain. One can still go and retrieve the information contained in that building. The written word is, generally speaking, accessible to everyone, anytime. However, when a website (for example) shuts down, the information within is--poof--gone forever, unless someone consciously decides to retain that data in a usable form.

So, I propose my question: Given the increasing dependence on the computer and digital (not physical) media, what will serve as the historical record of our society? How will people centuries from now generate an account of what our lives are like, with so much of our world taking place in the world of 1's and 0's?

Spring Break

...is the last "break" from life I get. Ever. Weird.

Wait, what?

I'm unusually motivated today, for no particular reason. So this is what that feels like...

Priorities

Why is there a U.S. Senator holding a news conference about the New England Patriots' videotape scandal? Don't they have more important things to do?

Slow [E-Mail] Day

Is it bad that I get kind of down when I've only received 4 [non-subscription] e-mails before 1:00PM? I average 8-10 per day, and sometimes I'm literally flooded with new ones.

Is there a support program for that?

..or maybe I'm just bored at work again and need something to do.

Projects

Got 2 projects assigned last week, I'm actually starting to write up one of them 10 days before it's due!

...this is probably a first for me.

Night Off

Taking the night off for once... 'tis nice.

Now if I can just get a whole day off...

Evolution of Homework

I'm working on my first homework assignment that consists of one problem, and one problem only. Remember when homework was something you could pound out in an hour? Yeah, that was nice.

Welcome to engineering school: land of the 3-hour homework problems.

Downfall of Society: Part II

How can making a game show about losing weight a profitable enterprise? 1) most current TV shows are crappy, and 2) people don't take good enough care of themselves.

Classical Music (in more than one sense)

I was bored, so I thought I'd bust out the ol' mp3 player and see what I haven't listened to in a while. Most of the music I've been listening to lately is my "walking somewhere" music - usually Metallica, Dream Theater, Dragon Force, or Rammstein; or my "doing homework" music - Pink Floyd, Blue Man Group, or some film soundtrack.

I scrolled down to find Holst's "The Planets" Suite - it's been a while for this one. I turned it on (with headphones, no distractions) and just laid in my bed for a while with nothing else to think about; this is the most relaxed I've been in longer than I care to remember.

(BTW: my favorite movement is Jupiter, for those of you who care)

Can Life Be Too Good?

How come life seems to be going so smoothly for me, but not for my freinds? It always seems as if I'm significantly less busy and less worried about things in my life like school, work, and how much time I'm spending with my freinds, despite it appearing that I have the same amount of stuff, if not more, going on in a given week.

I hear them commenting (I won't use "complaining," since they're perfectly justified; I do it too) on how busy they are, and I typically try to give advice for them to deal with what seems to be a similar situation to me. When this happens, I typically realize after a while the content of what I'm saying; it nearly feels like I'm bragging about how well my life is going relative to those around me and giving "better than you" advice to them. Then I start feeling guilty and try to avoid the subject, without completely blowing them off.

I have no idea why this is or how it came to be. Is it because I somehow have an ability to deal with a large number of things on my plate? Or perhaps I somehow deal with the stress of being busy in a different, less reactive way? Or is it just that I'm too concious of how I think people percieve me?

I need to figure this out; as we become older and advance in school, it seems like it's becoming a more common problem. I don't want how my life is going to affect the way I interact with people.

Sports Fan

Why do we watch sports? Moreover, why do we pay significant amounts of money to watch sports? Why do tens of thousands of people gather on a weekly basis to watch a few dozen people try to best eachother in events of skill and strength?

Theory: we, as humans, have the need to identify ourselves with a group of people that means something to the rest of society so, if nothing else, society will recognize us for that. Be it a fan of a sports team, from a city, or even a member of a race, we feel compelled to make sure that our peers remember us for something more than what we make ourselves to be.

Downfall of Society: Part I

Why is there an entire industry based on following around celebrities?

Reading

One of my freinds mentioned that he didn't have anything to do tonight, so he went to a cafe and read a book.

I haven't read a book recreationally since last summer when I was commuting to work, and only then before I got my mp3 player. Before that, it was the summer before. I need to do that more often, I just spend all my spare time on the computer or watching TV. Maybe it'll make me more relaxed.

3M is Awesome

Today, I met the guy that invented Post-It Notes.

I (literally) have no free time between 9AM last Thursday and 11AM next Monday.

Welcome to my life.

Something's Gotta Go

My (weekly) to-do list:
- School
- Marching Band
- Hockey Pep Band
- Solar Car
- Work (10 hours/week)
- Social Life

I can see it coming now: something's gotta go, or life will soon become completely unbearable.

I missed two meetings tonight; one intentionally and one I just plain forgot about. I just now realized every weekday evening is pretty much booked, and I have virtually no time during the weekdays. I'm starting to feel like it's one of "those" weeks where everything is going on, and I haven't even started homework or pep band yet.

For the second time in my life, it would appear I've taken on more than I can do. I don't want to go through that again.

I love it all too much to give it up.

Now what?

Hockey!

So, Hockey season is over. I'm mildy depressed at the moment. (or am I just tired?) It seems like forever until the puck drops again. (6 months and counting!) I don't know what I'm going to do with my Friday and Saturday evenings anymore, but I think I'm going to try to cut back on the time I spend on GPL, at least for a bit while the rest of my life goes by (lots of school-but-not-class-related stuff to do).

The regional final was a tough game to be at for the end, losing to NoDak and all (I think I dislike them more than Wisconsin right now), but the rest of the season was well worth the disappointment of not going to St. Louis: the win streak at the beginning, the development and excitement of some of the most highly touted Freshman in the nation, to name a few. My #1 highlight has to be the Final Five, especially the Championship game with Wheeler's Broten-esque goal in OT to beat the Sioux, I have never yelled and clapped so long and loud in my life. Too bad it wasn't on the other end of the ice in front of where I was sitting; but oh well, I can't have everything.

Next year will be even better than the last. We will hang 2 new banners in the ceiling at the beginning of next season (more than enough to ask for). The Freshmen will be Sophomores, the Sophomores will be experienced upperclassmen, and the Juniors will be the Senior leaders that they were always intended to be. Reload with one of the best Freshman classes in the nation, and you've got yourself another great season of good ol' Gopher Hockey.

I will leave you with this great excerpt from one of my favorite blogs to read (http://tnabacg.blogspot.com/), which pretty much sums up why I love this program so much:

(From March 4, 2003)

North Dakota may be a successful hockey program. Duluth may have its rabid fans. Mankato may be very important to people who hail from that city. But Gopher hockey is so much more than that, has meant so much more than that to me. It’s watching the first two periods of the game on MSC, then straining to pick up the third period on your alarm-clock radio after your parents have sent you to bed. It’s attending games in the new Mariucci Arena while wishing that you could have attended a game in the old Mariucci Arena, wishing that you had memories of the old arena when it was still Williams Arena Ice Rink. It’s John Mariucci, and John Mayasich, and the photos of teams going back too many years for anyone to have seen them all. It’s Herb Brooks, prowling the bench, leading three teams to titles. It’s Doug Woog, leading the team first as a player and then as a coach, leading them to a period of sustained greatness the likes of which today’s program can maybe only dream about. It’s Randy Skarda, hitting the post in overtime, and just how the heck did that weak backhander beat Stauber? It’s Neal Broten and the Hobey, Robb Stauber and the Hobey, Brian Bonin, and yes, Jordan Leopold with the Hobey. It’s the murals, where Leopold skates next to Crowley and Stauber makes a save on Woog. It’s the fact that nobody’s going to be wearing number 8 in maroon and gold on the ice anytime soon. It’s Broten chipping one over Iwabucci, Potulny sliding one under Yeats, it’s all the trophies in the concourse, so many that nobody knows exactly what they’re all there for anymore. It’s five gold banners, hanging over the east goal, spanning sixty-three years of Gopher champions.

But maybe most importantly, it’s the five-year-olds I see at the rink on Saturday mornings, when no one’s in the building except me and them, and all they know me as is as the kid who’s driving the Zamboni. They play their games, have their practices, and I see them warming up, skating the length of the ice (taking far too long) and faking this way and sliding one in and, hey, just maybe, if they were a little bigger, they would have looked just like Tyler Hirsch beating Wade Dubielewicz. And then maybe they make their first visit to the rink later that night, getting their first close-up look at the arena. Wow, Dad, how many guys are on that wall? Why are they up there? Dad, who’s going to be up there next? Hey, Grandpa, how many of these guys did you see play? How many banners are there up in the rafters, anyway? There sure are a lot. Why do all those kids say the same things after the other guys get a penalty, why do they all point at the goalie and yell? What are they saying? What do you mean you can’t tell me? Hey, Dad, we scored! What did everyone just say after the band stopped playing?

And then maybe Dad leans over to his son, as my father did to me, and maybe he wants to tell him about all the goals he’s seen, all the great players he’s watched, all of the championships he’s watched when he saw his team play this game, and what a game it is. Maybe he wants to teach him the words to the Rouser and the Minnesota March, and tell him just exactly how his dad reacted when Grant Potulny picked up Jordan Leopold’s shot after it deflected off Johnny Pohl, how Grant picked it up and slipped it under Matt Yeats and the whole state of Minnesota went berserk. But he doesn’t have time for all that. He knows that his son will pick that up in time, that soon, for his son, the game and the team will be the son’s and not just the father’s. Instead, he just sums all of it up in one sentence, with one word.

Instead, he just leans over and teaches him how to spell M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A.

More Stuff

After thinking for a little bit more, I guess I can put down a few more highlights of the last 5 months, in no particular order:

I have become increasingly obsessed with Gopher Hockey. If you make me miss a game, you better have a damn good reason for it. I went to Madison for the Friday game over there (our first loss since the first game of the season, boo), which decreased my road record to 0-1-1. My ultimate goal is to go to a Gopher game at all 10 arenas in the WCHA (currently, I have 3). While in Madison, we "broke" in to Camp Randall and I got my picture taken on the 50-yard line, and saw the slab of bacon (the predecessor to the axe, for you uninformed people).

Solar Car will probably begin/continue to take over my life, especially later this semester and during the summer.

My little brother (now a senior in HS) got his Eagle Scout award, I am very proud of him. He is probably going to Iowa State for college, I don't really mind where he goes unless it's wisky, iowa, or nodak (fortunately, he never considered any of said schools).

I stumbled across quite possibly the most wonderful webcomic ever: http://www.xkcd.com. Some of the stuff is absolutely ridiculous, and others are straight up nerdy, but it's always halarious.

I'm hunting for internships and housing right now (i have an internship interview in an hour and a half). Both are something I've never really had experience with before, it's a little unsettling how much of a bearing on my future this stuff has.

Sam Jackson is Amazing

this made me really happy. I can't wait for August 18th.

Work is good. Most of the time, it's really boring and I get a lot of reading done. I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time (sad, I know) in a week reading almost exclusively at work. Other times, its kind of (but not really) interesting, like when a guy got T-boned by a garbage truck down the street, or when the power went out and our scanners wouldn't work. But mostly, I have money again. sort of. I can't wait to get back to school.