May 19, 1997

Monday
Well, today at work wasn't too bad. The recharge, and some of the weekend boredom helped propel my day. Perhaps that's a solution? I work because it's less boring than staying home? Nahhh...It would work if I was less lazy, I guess.

That reminds me of something Dad says. He says I come by my laziness "honestly." Since he is (or was) lazy. Grandad (Ga Ga) used to say about Dad, "He's not afraid of work. He can lie down right next to it and go to sleep."

That's me to at "T".

Ga Ga was the fist of my grandparents to die. He is also the one I remember most fondly. I was only 11 when he died, but we have so many stories about him. He was quite a card.

I have his sense of humor. I guess I came by it honestly.


"Monday, Monday, Can't Help That Day"
I love the Mama's and the Papa's. They made real music with their voices and used counterpoint and harmony and all that jazz.

Don't' get me wrong. I like contemporary music, too. Even if an inability to sing can be covered up by an an inability to play guitar. Today's music is complicated multimedia poetry. Lots of angst and GenX shit.

Generally speaking, the Boomers don't really understand our culture. Just like we probably wont understand our kids. Of course, the misunderstand is because the Boomers don't really understand themselves, and what it means that there are so many of them.

The market follows them. As they pass, some of the best stuff stays, and us GenXers get it. But nothing new replaces it. The market has marched on.

There's a book 13th Gen, I think it is. When I read it, I couldn't avoid saying, "yeah, that's it." But they didn't have my anecdote. I'm adding it now.

When I was a kid, oh 7-12 or so, I went to the town library, looking for books to read. The books we had...Hardy Boys, The Red Caboose Gang (mysteries), Danny and the...(science fiction), Encyc lopedia Brown... I'd read most of them already.

Most of them had copyrights in mid to late 50's through 65 or so. In other words, before I was born. Even more specifically, when the Boomers were kids.

I looked to the librarian for help. She was a goddess to my young self, the Mistress of the Books. I told her, "They have all kinds of old stuff, and a bunch of new stuff for adults, but nothing new for kids my age."

She just nodded, commiserating, "A lot of kids your age have that problem."

Today youth fiction is on the rise. Goosebumps and Eerie, Indiana. The Babysitter's club. Judy Blume, saved my sanity. I was that 4th grade nothing.

Boy I sound bitter today. I'm not really. Who and what I am has a lot to do with the way the world is.

The 'net is largely a creation of my peers and other GenXers. The Boomers, in a large part are still finding their way here.The 'net, if it can retain it's true democracy that it has now, will be on of the biggest things to ever occur. {Look ma! we invented paper!}

All because a bunch of nerdy, misunderstood, GenXers who wanted to talk to other nerdy, misunderstood GenXers.

The guy from Netscape. Linus Torvolds, maker of linux.
And so on.
And me.


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