FWD: Signal Dowsing

(fwd of an email post from friend s. smith):

A note from "a telecommunication Zen garden":

In a dead-ish zone, a wooded hillside near a large pond inside all the
loops around Dallas – in my neighborhood – we do the Driveway Dance:
kind of a slalom out toward the street while dowsing for signal with
raised cell phone. In addition, we have to put up with the grousing
about living in an "electromagnetic topographical black hole" from our
visiting rels and friends, as well as delivery folk and repairmen, but
we also get to watch them do the dance.

Nonetheless, I, too, notice that we just accept "the inevitability of
the Glitch." Cell technology has become, to me, something I only use on
the road.

Which is pertinent. ***** and I are developing a wildlife preserve two
hours from Dallas up toward the Red River in Fannin County. It's pretty
remote but has great reception. Pegs out almost all the time. Which is
useful in the country. Lots of miles used to be put on the pickup
looking for someone, or that special someone. Now it's like everybody
has a walkie-talkie, and an umbilical cord.

Hmmm.

At any rate, even an expansive environment like the country – as
opposed to the crumpled psycho-physical terrain of the city – is
defined in a mind-to-mind way by its telecommunications, and therefore
the mind-altering effects of the Faded Signal. River and creek bottoms,
large steel structures containing powerful machinery, and just good ol'
failure of something in the cell system itself all contribute to
interruptions of the neural network. Yet, as Sean points out, we –
including the fiercely independent and pugnacious Bubba – accept it
with barely a whimper.

Troublesome? Maybe.

I think people accept that things don't always work because most people
have a fairly good grip on reality, a reality most clearly defined by
the Second Law of Thermodynamics: things break. Since no amount of
engineering will ever repeal it, if one doesn't accept it, they are by
any definition insane (although this is rarely an impediment to the
academically inclined). More simply put, why should we expect any human
contrivance to work all the time when we haven't experienced any that do?

If your power supply, computer, relevant software, internet connection,
ISP and thousands of routers, cables, switches are working, – and if
your brain just happens to be in the mood – use your browser to look up
the Canadian comedy group Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie and their song
"Every OS Sucks." Then, alas, accept the inevitable . . . and on
occasion, enjoy the tranquility.

www.scootersmith.com