How the Future Sneaks Up on Us...

...until it becomes indispensible.

I remember how aggravated I used to be when I called someone and got an answering machine. Answering machines sucked. They were unreliable. They gave annoying tedious instructions. I hated them. And I was aggravated with the friends who thought they were so darn important that they had to know every person who called and why.

Then I got an answering machine. And I got annoyed at friends who wouldn't leave messages. And I was even more irritated by people who didn't have answering machines. What? I had to keep calling them, over and over, until they were home?

I hated cell phones. Who were those people who though they were so indispensible that they had to be reachable all the time? Who would sniff at the need for a pay phone and say, "Oh, I'll just use my mobile."

Then I got a cell phone. Which, I hasten to add, I do not use in restaurants or other public places! And then I began to be slightly cranky when I couldn't reach friends while they were out and about, and we were trying to arrange rendezvous and so on. How could they be so inconvenient? The things are pretty cheap and certainly easy to use. What kind of Luddites were they, anyway?

So, now we come to ebooks. Still don't like 'em, still don't use 'em. I like real books. I like paper.

But I've just read a post by Doug Miller of Erehwon Notebook, and I now know one day I'm going to be saying, "What do you MEAN this isn't available as an ebook??"

My favorite search request EVER

"pictures of the most dangerous and unknown creatures that ever lived"

I'm honored to have turned up in the results.