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bewizeI... really don't have anything at all to say about Computer Programming. I know nothing about it. At all.
Instead, I would like to make a tribute of things that computers have made possible for me.
1. The people: I've made some incredible friends. I know people from all continents now. I've met people who share my interests, from the mundane to the bizarre, and there is a real sense of community to be had.
2. The games: I confess it. I've discovered RPGs. And through the RPGs, I've had the chance to both meet incredible people and just have a great deal of fun. I've been playing in one game since 2002 with the same people. It has given me so many hours of fun that I suspect I've passed into months of it. (Also, the other players have become incredible friends.)
3. The fanfic: Fanfic ate my brain well before I started writing it myself. But then I started writing it myself and I've never looked back. And I've met friends who share my fandoms and encourage my writing. I've undeniably become a better writer thanks to it.
4. The knowledge: I joke all the time that Google knows everything, but you know what? Google knows everything. I honestly do not know how I used to cope without being able to look everything up online. Google knows my bank account balances and directions to anywhere and what time the movies start.
5. The work: Since becoming a freelance writer, I use the computer to do everything from research my topics to writing the actual articles to emailing them to editors. It allows me to work from home, on my sofa, in my PJs. It allows me the chance to do something I actually want to do and to even, perhaps, be good at it!
6. The social awareness: I've become a better person because of the awareness of issues that I have acquired online. I now look at movies, books, tv and politics in a very different way than I used to. I'm more critical and more discerning and generally just more aware than I used to be. This is a very good thing.
7. The recs: I love recs. I make a ton of them when it comes to fic. I make them when it comes to links to interesting articles. I definitely make them when it comes to music. And other people make them and that makes me so damn happy! I love finding new things - from comics to music to fanfic.
8. The squee!: There are days when seeing other people's happy reactions to things can forcibly drag me from a despairing funk into a good mood. I love watching people celebrate things ranging from political elections to the completion of projects to the latest episode of whatever TV show they want. Plus, there are picspams. And I love a picspam. Someone should make one of Timothy Olyphant soon!
9. The history: I've been blogging for 7 years. That's a lot of my life that is there for me to flip through whenever I want. It's interesting to me to see how I've changed and grown in the past 7 years. When I started my LJ, I was nearing the end of law school. It's been with me through 2 jobs, being laid off, starting my own firm. It's been there with me through a variety of personal relationships and a great deal of navel gazing. I like knowing that I can look back and see where I've been, because it gives me hope for where I'm going.
10. The unknown: One of my favorite things about computers is that I don't know where they'll be in ten years. A really good friend of mine, who IS a computer programmer, and I discussed this over dinner last week for about 3 hours (much to his wife's and our other friend's likely disgust). We disagreed, but with amusement, about what computers would do for us in the next 10 years. I propose that we will see the next Big Deal emerge from communities exactly like DreamWidth. It's a way for all of us to share our knowledge and our hopes and - in my opinion - we will see change come from that, both socially and scientifically.
Instead, I would like to make a tribute of things that computers have made possible for me.
1. The people: I've made some incredible friends. I know people from all continents now. I've met people who share my interests, from the mundane to the bizarre, and there is a real sense of community to be had.
2. The games: I confess it. I've discovered RPGs. And through the RPGs, I've had the chance to both meet incredible people and just have a great deal of fun. I've been playing in one game since 2002 with the same people. It has given me so many hours of fun that I suspect I've passed into months of it. (Also, the other players have become incredible friends.)
3. The fanfic: Fanfic ate my brain well before I started writing it myself. But then I started writing it myself and I've never looked back. And I've met friends who share my fandoms and encourage my writing. I've undeniably become a better writer thanks to it.
4. The knowledge: I joke all the time that Google knows everything, but you know what? Google knows everything. I honestly do not know how I used to cope without being able to look everything up online. Google knows my bank account balances and directions to anywhere and what time the movies start.
5. The work: Since becoming a freelance writer, I use the computer to do everything from research my topics to writing the actual articles to emailing them to editors. It allows me to work from home, on my sofa, in my PJs. It allows me the chance to do something I actually want to do and to even, perhaps, be good at it!
6. The social awareness: I've become a better person because of the awareness of issues that I have acquired online. I now look at movies, books, tv and politics in a very different way than I used to. I'm more critical and more discerning and generally just more aware than I used to be. This is a very good thing.
7. The recs: I love recs. I make a ton of them when it comes to fic. I make them when it comes to links to interesting articles. I definitely make them when it comes to music. And other people make them and that makes me so damn happy! I love finding new things - from comics to music to fanfic.
8. The squee!: There are days when seeing other people's happy reactions to things can forcibly drag me from a despairing funk into a good mood. I love watching people celebrate things ranging from political elections to the completion of projects to the latest episode of whatever TV show they want. Plus, there are picspams. And I love a picspam. Someone should make one of Timothy Olyphant soon!
9. The history: I've been blogging for 7 years. That's a lot of my life that is there for me to flip through whenever I want. It's interesting to me to see how I've changed and grown in the past 7 years. When I started my LJ, I was nearing the end of law school. It's been with me through 2 jobs, being laid off, starting my own firm. It's been there with me through a variety of personal relationships and a great deal of navel gazing. I like knowing that I can look back and see where I've been, because it gives me hope for where I'm going.
10. The unknown: One of my favorite things about computers is that I don't know where they'll be in ten years. A really good friend of mine, who IS a computer programmer, and I discussed this over dinner last week for about 3 hours (much to his wife's and our other friend's likely disgust). We disagreed, but with amusement, about what computers would do for us in the next 10 years. I propose that we will see the next Big Deal emerge from communities exactly like DreamWidth. It's a way for all of us to share our knowledge and our hopes and - in my opinion - we will see change come from that, both socially and scientifically.