Heavy Heart

My heart is breaking for Japan this morning. They were hit with a massive 8.9 magnitude quake off the coast of Sendai (northern Japan). It’s the biggest in the 140 years they’ve been keeping records. Much of the damage was caused by the 23-foot monster tsunami that hit the coast near Sendai.

From what I’ve read, trains, flights and most public transportation has been stopped–something that almost never happens in country dependent upon it. Millions of people are without power and thousands more have lost their homes along the coast. Unfortunately the death toll will be rising over the next few days and weeks 😦

Here’s a site I found that gives the truly heart stopping truth with pictures of the devastation. I’ve been crying on and off all morning…Japan is a nation that’s had my heart for awhile (if you haven’t noticed…). Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Google Becoming “Big Brother”

I was watching the news tonight and they mentioned the new Google Latitude.

Basically, this program tracks your whereabouts via your cell phone. You enter your number in the site so your friends can see where you’re at.

Um, no thanks.

I don’t really want friends stalking me and seeing that I’m at the grocery store, the library,etc.Not any of their business.

I know there are privacy settings that can prevent your friends from seeing your location, but honestly, what’s the point of even signing up for it? 😛

One of the things on the site says something like this:
Fred wants to hang out with his friends, and checks to see where they are.

How about you just call or text them instead of being a stalker. 😛

Google is looking more and more like Big Brother, first with Google Earth (which is useful, but I still am uncomfortable when I type in my address and see a picture of my house show up) and now this. Apparently, there are many parents who are anxious to use this to track their teens. Which, in my opinion, destroys what trust you have with your child. I know it’s a dangerous world and everything–but it was just as scary when I was a teen. And what if the number gets into the wrong hands? I’m just waiting for stories of this to come up (i.e. psycho ex-boyfriends or girlfriends who use this as a stalking tool).

Seriously, aren’t Twitter and Facebook status updates enough?

The Keyboard Soon to Become Scarce?

I found this article to be of interest. It seems that there is some speculation that in less than five years, keyboards will be scarce, and that in the next ten years the primary Internet connection will be cell phones.

Can you imagine having to dictate your entire novel? I can’t. I know some people who can do that, but I don’t work that way. My thoughts don’t flow as well when I’m talking out loud (ask my friends and family–I tend to stumble through my words). But when I’m writing or typing, it comes easier. So, if this is the wave of the future, I’ll be taking a backwards step and go back to the “old-fashioned” way of handwriting everything before I dictate it into a computer. 😛

I’m also trying to picture the cell phone being the primary way to access the Internet. Talk about an increase in people needing reading glasses if they are going to spend hours staring at a tiny cell screen. I can also see that there will be more cell phone related car accidents with people browsing the Internet while driving.

Of course this is all speculation–and you know how that generally works–so it’s more likely that such things would not happen in the time span they are predicting. Anyway, I just thought the article was interesting and made me think. I certainly have discovered that I’m becoming more old-fashioned and set in my ways as I get a little older…even though I’m still very young 🙂