Fuddy Duddy

I used to write more about myself on this blog. It's probably good that I don't always focus on myself, but here's some self-musings I've been mulling over recently.

I can begin to see the roots of myself as a Fuddy-duddy. I'm no longer as technically in tune with things as I used to be. I still don't have an iPhone, and probably won't get one as long as I work at my job. But, the iPhone is the killer app technology of this decade, and I'm missing the boat. As a result, I haven't participated in the App writing gold rush, nor do I understand the world through the lens of the iPhone. Kids 10 years younger than me certainly do... and that's one of the first steps to being... old.

Another indicator of my fuddy-duddiness was my misunderstanding of Twitter. I'd been hearing about Twitter for a long time prior to it becoming such a mainstream thing, but I didn't understand the implications of the communication forum. Five years ago, I would have been proselytizing about the thing, but being old, I completely missed the point. And what's worse yet, I let the same old media that missed the point for two years influence me. Oops. I always prided myself on being an early adopter, especially for free things. I was on thefacebook.com when you could only friend people from your own university who shared a class with you... but Twitter, I ignored for two years because I missed the bigger picture!

Another technical fuddy-duddiness indicator is my refusal to learn web programming beyond the basic html that I know. I can already foresee the conversation I'll have one day with Byron Jr. "But Dad, why would you stop at basic html... all you can write with that is static web pages!"

In the non-technical arena, I'm paying less attention to sports than I used to. Some might argue this is healthy, but I know the contempt I held/hold older men in when they "pretended" to be sports fans, but didn't know the Cubs starting rotation. This doesn't mean I'm willing to forgive my Father for not knowing who Willie Stargell was, but I am starting to sympathize.

Is all this fuddy-duddiness bad? Not necessarily, it just means I need to allow my own definition of myself to evolve. I'm not the tech-savvy kid I once was (nor am I claiming to be ignorant of such things). While I know less about iPhones and web programming than I would like to, I did spend some time this morning learning how to train a scent hound (although I already had the basic principals from re-reading Where the Red Fern Grows last summer).

For some, including myself, I guess, this well-roundedness is an improvement, but the sixteen year-old inside of myself still gets upset at myself for being a bit of a phony when it comes to the things I used to care about more than I do now. (And no, I didn't particularly enjoy Holden Caulfield.) On the other hand, I enjoy a dinner party (and am enjoyed at one) more than when I was sixteen. I guess this is called growing up.

Alright, enough introspective angst. Onto the extrospective angst (did I just invent a word, I think I might have.)

I went with Adam and some friends to watch The Hurt Locker on Saturday. I neither liked it, nor disliked it. I can tell you that I didn't enjoy watching the movie, but I'm better for having seen it. It dealt with a lot of things, but for me, the takeaway was poverty. (Perhaps that's because I've been listening to Greg Boyd's poverty series for the last few months.)

There was so much garbage and the streets and everything were unkempt. Iraq, in the movie, was unsanitary and uncared for. It was the contrast between the streets of the movie, and the streets of the supposedly 'tough' Logan Square neighborhood where I watched the movie that really struck a chord with me. So today, walking through downtown at lunch time, I'm watching people and everyone's wardrobe runs to the hundreds of dollars. (For instance, I was probably wearing $270 of clothes and carrying $300 of electronics as I made this observation, and I was dressed fairly casual in comparison to a lot of the other pedestrians.)

Conclusion: We are insular in our culture, and it's good to see other expected norms... even if it's just a film, even if it's just for a few hours.

Second Conclusion: Best Picture of 2009, Really???