email, i-phones, and NASA

I would really blog more often if I could readily remember my password on a regular basis. I've been doing this online thing for thirteen years now (I was blogging before I ever heard the term) and I've collected so many passwords and combinations of passwords that it gets confusing. I should probably write them all down. I don't really know why I have to be so clever; I'm not sure who would want to hack my humble blogs, message boards accounts, or other assorted nonsense, nor for what purpose. I guess if just makes me feel more important, like someone would go to the trouble. I'm really only outsmarting myself. Of course, a twleve year old with the right computer and ten minutes of free time could get in if he really wanted, so what's the point?

That's the beauty of how far we've come on this front over the past decade-plus. Everything about the internet and personal computers used to seem so new and complicated, now we've got a full generation that grew up on the things. Remember dial-up? Walking away to get something to eat, start the laundry, and do your taxes while you tried to get a page to load? Now we get antsy if youtube won't load in three seconds or less (while we've got three other tabs open at the same time). Friends from across the world are no more than a IM away, we allow people into our homes via web cams and if some guy makes a spectacle of himself on American Idol it's all over the internet within minutes of broadcast (pants on the ground?). A recent study showed that a good portion of kids don't use email because they said it was "old fashioned". What the hell do they think about the fossils who still send letters ("snail mail", to us)?

All of this progress, and we're still supposed to believe NASA hasn't flown a manned moon mission since the 60s. Really, in 15 years we've gone from mobile phones that were bigger than a brick and needed their own personal tower to make or receive a call to cell phones with video, internet, cameras, games, and a cappuccino maker that fit into the palm of my hand. Yet NASA has spent trillions of dollars somewhere in the last 50 years and they tell us that those old rockets that were navigated via computers that took up a large building and were about as sophisticated as a good model rocket is now were the best we ever got? Not buying it, and neither does anyone with a brain. Why the deception? Maybe the people who are already on the moon didn't want us there.

Parts of this blog are more serious than others. If you're reding this that means you're smart enough to decide for yourself.