High Tech | Low Life

A way of life, to be sure. What the phrase "High Tech, Low Life" really translates into is simplicity. One gains inspiration from the darnedest places. In this case it is just how I grew up. How my friends grew up with me. Not everyone has the same ethos, but a little of it has seeped into us all. In my case, home wasn't the most conducive habitat for a well adjusted individual. I will spare the gory details for now. I ended up either living with my friends and using my car as a giant foot locker. I never really ran away from home, but for a good many years I pretty much only slept at my parents house...and at times not even that. These were the days before reasonably priced cell phones (think of the big bricks) and lap tops...Hell most of that time if your computer had 128 megs of RAM you were in the butter zone. So i lived out of a back pack and my trunk most of the time. It wasn't until after high school that i started buying stuff. I'm still not a fan of mp3's, though...a different rant for a different day. I have a pretty big CD and record collection. There are ways of condensing this. But i'm digressing...again.

Inspiration is a big key to anything one does in life. Artists, scientists, gamers, knitters, athletes, and about any body doing anything one can think of are in need of inspiration. If society, as it keeps trying, has crushed your inspiration and imagination then give a brother a call...you need help. For me I find inspiration from music, books, and the people that i know. If the title of this blog isn't pointed enough, I'm a big William Gibson fan. I find so much inspiration from cyberpunk literature in general. This goes back to how I grew up and what my friends and I were into for most of our lives. Even now when talking to my oldest friends I see everything from personal to political ideologies that have a ring of cyberpunk philosophy pop through. Maybe i've spent to much time thinking about this subject. Maybe i'll write a blog some day about cyberpunk philosophy. Who knows? Not me...i just put fingers to keys and words end up on the screen. Another big inspiration is music. I've gone to shows, danced, played in bands, and collected. I suppose part of my life decisions come down to the touring life style. At this point i loathe hanging out in bars 3 plus days a week. I don't drink and hate the smell of cigarette smoke (for those far few places that allow smoking inside anymore). I don't mind it now and again to see a band. I always had more fun either on stage playing (big duh!) or traveling with my friends. We were never bogged down with junk. We had the gear we needed and the basics to survive. Now days i can think of a plethora of things that would have made life more comfortable, but you know what they say about hindsight. It's a simple and fun life. If only we made more money than none. That would have been the tits!

Another biggies in my life is nature. I just don't understand how a person can not interact with the natural world. The forests, oceans, skies, caves, deserts...they are all so beautiful. The feeling of wind blowing across your cheek on a spring day. Cool and damp, but warmed by the sun. I once worked at a call center for a hot second. While there i met a guy who had been so cooped up in the urban world that he had never been in close proximity to a cow. Let me say that again. HE HAD NEVER SEEN A COW. I'm sure there are urban settings that are foreign to me. For sure. But to have never seen a bloody cow in the United States...in a city with a nick name like "Cowtown" (Columbus, Ohio) is just insane. In this world one of the back bone portions of simplicity is nature. In nearly all places there are free parks to visit. Nature preserves. Wildlife preserves. Protected monuments. Rivers and lakes for canoeing. The list can go on. Part of the high tech/low life ethos is to live in the world and take part. For me this involves working with nature, but it can also mean just taking your kids or dog to the park more often. It really comes down to your caring about your life.

Our past makes us who we are. It should never lead you around on a leash, but it should put the future in perspective.

Until Next time...

“We see in order to move; we move in order to see.”
― William Gibson