The first day back at work after a five day vacation can be rough. All the routines that mattered are somehow shattered. The day stands out as a reminder of all the things that need to be done. Some moments are memorable and other moments slip on by as one day rolls into the next.

Austin from the Sprint store in Derby, Kansas had the HTC EVO 4G in stock. A day earlier and the phone would have been acquired. After a very long road trip the only phone in stock remains in the wrong State.

Shortages on a device should be temporary and not a way of life. It seems like most of the employees dealing with the situation enjoyed the financial commissions, but are getting tired of putting the corporate face and smiling at an endless string of questions that involve political answers.

At some point in the long struggle to acquire a new phone the next generation of technology will inevitably change the game and the cycle will start again. The bleeding edge of technology remains sharp. Trying to figure out how to stay ahead of the game requires a degree of persistence that seemed unimagined just a few years ago.

After Andy from Chicago acquired and celebrated the HTC EVO 4G, I started to develop a plan. Acquiring the new HTC phone will require making several significant changes. After years of working with and paying monthly bills to Verizon Wireless it might be time to switch to Sprint as a wireless carrier. The rational for the switch remains relatively simple. A shared family data plan is the only way to responsibly manage our family finances. Verizon Wireless still uses an individual data pricing model that escalates the price quickly with no hope for a reprieve over the two year contract. A higher monthly bill would only compound the financial damage on an ongoing basis throughout the life of the contract. The plan started by making a call to determine what if any early termination fee (ETF) would apply for switching wireless carriers.

Apparently, the acquisition of the new HTC EVO remains imminent…

Tonight I will be kicking it old school (style) by bringing back the best of homebrew blogging like it was still the early 2000’s. Take a moment and remember back to a time when even the most basic time management scenarios were nothing more than an illusory castle floating the air. One day that mirage of doubt subtly lurking on the horizon manifested in terrible and demanding ways. Writing takes time and crafting the best prose requires a commitment. Being able to pencil in some time or simply make use of an overabundance of leisure time now seems to be a thing of the past.

Recall the simple pleasure of playing a classic movie on the television before the evening concluded. Even those last few hours of the day have somehow grown overly complicated. Maybe it is just a matter of perspective, but now seems to be the time to retake simplicity one moment of stolen inspiration at a time. Taking back the night might seem like the first and best step on a road to recovery. Saying it and meaning it are two completely different things; consider the challenging phrase, “Never again will the sirens call of embedded social networking websites dominate interpersonal relationships.” Something tells me social networking online will never go the way of such asynchronous forms of communication as the post card or the telegraph.

Maybe people are comfortable feeling digitally connected while being personally alone. A digital blanket of information wrapped around an otherwise uncomplicated existence of repetition. Rinse and repeat followed by a pattern of explore and retreat; nothing more than a cycle of planning for the sake of planning with just enough chaos to make it interesting.

Everything will probably change during the course of the next year. The intersection of technology and modernity remains dangerously close to fruition. A singularity where all of the members participating in a given society will share a certain degree of commonality thorough shared digital experiences. Expanding on the shared experience of the grand commons of a town marketplace to the cookie cutter shopping malls of the last few decades the expansive nature of the digital commons changes everything.

Strangely enough the ever changing fabric of the digital commons ensures a degree of chaos that rewards the constant participant and disenfranchises the occasional user.  Trying to swim upstream might be a metaphor that no longer applies to a digital world that has no use for the outdoors, for nature, or for the natural splendor of the physical world. Captured and cataloged for posterity the digital simulacra of our greatest natural treasures have and will no doubt continue to outlast reality.