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Giving in to modernity (way off topic)

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I have taken another giant step in accepting the information age. I was organizing my shop office and shelves and realized that I had not touched the dictionary or thesaurus in years. The keyboard is right there, and I only need type “di” before Google produces dictionary, or “th” to get thesaurus.

Those two big hardbacks went onto the house bookshelves. What I will ever do with a full shelf of dictionaries and thesauri is another question.

I found 3 copies of Strunk & White on that office shelf. One stays, as well as a hardback Bartlett Familiar Quotations and a weird Rhyming Dictionary. I am sure those answers are available on-line as well, but I’ll turn to paper there.

It still shakes me that the answer (or at least some answer) to any question is fingertips away. Google even resolved the age old question “How do you look up a word if you don’t know how to spell it?”

Just start Googling and wait for “Did you mean __________?”
 
yellowcanoe said:
Who still has a telephone book?
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Made me go look in the hall closet. Nope.

We still get a local north-county “Yellow Pages” every year. If I am lucky it arrives on recycling day and goes in with paper before it ever makes it to the house. I should check next time to see if there is a “Do Not Send” option.

Who here remembers finding a job or buying a used car from the newspaper classifieds? Or a used canoe?

Classifieds? Remember classifieds? I feel like the Gyro Captain

http://www.tzr.io/yarn-clip/042a66c7-f5c3-4275-9d96-832bfbcaf515

Mihun09 said:
Phone books, landlines, answering machine and we use paper maps.
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No phone books, but yes to the other three dinosaurs. And I’m still a newspaper junkie, even without the classifieds.
 
I tested your suggestion by typing the first two letters of those two tomes of information, di-dictionary and th-thesaurus. Google gave me a sporting goods store and a newspaper. But those results reflect my search habits as they are, and not as I wish they were. In defence of the keyboard world I'm relying more and more on spell corrections and definitions. Where once upon a time I'd reach for the dictionary (we have 2-3 somewhere around here) now as you say I can just highlight the word and click. I love it. And let's not forget that dictionaries change. Words and expressions infrequently used are dropped and fashionable babble is added. The horror.
There are far too many books here on my shelves I've neglected. And I add to them. For example I just purchased last month (among other titles) books of poetry by Robert Frost and Patrick Kavanagh. (Even now my computer is telling me I've spelt those names wrongly, but I know I haven't.) I'm enjoying these like fine wine, sipping occasionally and savouring them. Rolling the words over my tongue and concentrating on the depth and clarity like a rich and oaky Burgundy. The books I chug like a college kegger are the easy reads; fun and fantastical. But I have one lone DIY book. The internet is an incredible source for stuff like that. Even last week I had to source how to dismantle our oven door. Trust me, they're not all the same. I lean on the wealth of information found with the click of a button, but I get far more relaxation and satisfaction opening a real book than I ever do a laptop; present forum excepted of course.
And as books and e-info relate to canoeing, I own a number of books about the history and craft of canoes and canoe tripping. I dip into those from time to time, and even if I do neglect some of them they will never be boxed up and sold.
I still find wealth in dusty pages on winter nights.
 
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"I found 3 copies of Strunk & White on that office shelf."

All these years with THREE copies! And still, you read those spines as, Elements of Guile!

How are we "banded" in the vicissitudes of shame ever to unburden ourselves of fuschia/tangerine tartan burdened by the black-crooked-webbing-weave of Michael's web-seating ostricizing? Who shall Strunk the Lilly-White paths of our paddled perchways if Google shall afford us no relief?
 
We don't any longer get a phone book as we have no landline. That was costing us a small fortune and the phone often ( along with its pal electricity) often went down. At home we are pretty much self sufficient for utilities.. save this dang computer.. You are all guilty of that too.

And thanks to the computer I never get much mail.. I watch my neighbors who have both landline and subscribe to many charities and are on every ones snail mail list stagger under loads of paper.. We are even guilty of e reading the paper.. saves so much recycling.. Save for the Sunday Paper. That is sacred to do the Sunday Crossword and read the funnies and all the sections sometime during the day..
Even though the first thing we do with the Sunday Paper is recycle about half to two thirds of it.

Putting our mail on hold for thirty days results in a pile of paper less than six inches thick, There are good things to modernity..
 
I have a phone book for when the apocalypse comes. How else will I know which places to loot without the internet? Also unlimited supply of cigarette papers.
 
Muskrat said:
I have a phone book for when the apocalypse comes. How else will I know which places to loot without the internet? Also unlimited supply of cigarette papers.
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Well I was thinking of something else if the well pump fails. That little house out back with the crescent moon.
 
You all may want to hang onto the dictionary and thesaurus. They will give you options for words to yell at your computers when the Internet goes down.
 
I've pretty much switched to Kindle for all my bedtime reading. Much easier to hold than a big ol' book, plus it's cheap and even free to download books.
 
the only trouble with Kindle is that when you are finished you can't use it to light a campfire..!
They will give you options for words to yell at your computers when the Internet goes down.
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Its funny when the power goes out we don't miss anything.. we have a standby generator.. But when the power goes sometimes the Internet does.. And yes we do miss that at home..
In the woods no.
 
I am a big internet user but have no cell phone. I dont text. If you want to ask me something you have to call me on the landline or email me. I like computers for researching stuff but often doubt the legitimacy of the info I find.
I do enjoy pictures of my grandkids though and getting them over the net is way good.
I like books but do a lot of online reading. Mostly I surf kijiji and other retail sites....
 
Still have engineering texts...some of that data is online but much not.
And yes, I still subscribe and read the local Times Union every day, but get this.
If I opt to receive E versions only, it would cost twice as much as a 7 day E version PLUS a Sunday only paper version!! Costs less for more??
 
There are plenty of things that I like to have the latest and greatest of...but there is something to be said for a few shelves of good old print books, maps, etc. I can't imagine getting the same pleasure from reading Sigurd Olsen on a kindle or other e-device.

Seeing family pics on a laptop for instance, seems not to have the interest or reality of passing along dozens of 4x6" prints from person to person, it's more personal and intimate. But good to have dozens of years of family albums scanned and saved onto safe secure hard drives or the cloud.

On the other hand, I don't miss hundreds of dusty easily scratched CDs when I can take my ancient Ipod with thousands of CD quality songs practicallyl anywhere I go or travel. Haven't yet converted back to the pleasures of vinyl...
 
Up in the north GA moutians right now. Could of really used a good paper map like that gazette. No GPS signal. No mobile Internet. When we managed to get signAL for the GPS it sent us down forest roads that after 40 year's of remembering tramping arundel rods here I had yet to find. Need that paper referance material as a back up. Digital only works when you can aces it
 
While I love the overhead views of Google Earth, for planning, and my old handheld GPS, I cannot go on a trip without paper topo's.
I was taught how to navigate with compass and topo's in '66, and I have complete confidence in them both. Most of the time, I am carrying both 7.5 and 15.
Even when in extremely familiar locations, they are with me. Here in Louisiana, we can often get ground fog that can drop visibility down to yards, and when that occurs, I trust my compass and paper maps.

I do enjoy the modern GPS technology, of knowing exactly where on the earth I am, by bouncing data off of satellites, I have yet to be able to trust a handheld 100%. My paper maps and compass don't need batteries, open view to sky, and have never sent me in a direction I wasn't choosing to go. And most of my topos have notes that I have taken on them that are priceless.

I do however, for some strange reason, constantly depend on the GPS function of tracking and waypoints in the depth finders on my powerboats. Guess I need to try one of the new handheld units. Wonder if they come in hardback? And in a large font edition?
 
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I have on my desk, near my monitor, a two volume set of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam Webster Thesaurus, the Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White, and The Thinker's Thesaurus. Of all of these, I've only required the latter in the last year. The fountain pens still figure heavily into my daily use.
 
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