Fax of Life

Oh, you can't do homework on a blocked PC,
You can't do homework on a blocked PC;
You can't do homework on a blocked PC -
But you won't be happy lettin' everything through...

Many people remember listening to Roger Miller singing a list of impossibilities in 'You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd' - that is, people who grew up before the existence of the web. I suppose there's a sound clip out there somewhere. He wrote some very goofy lyrics, but lots of people know them.

I just glanced up at the sky - what an amazing array of pinks, blues, grays and purples right now (7:39 AM). The pine trees and bare oaks in the foreground provide dark contrast. So do the power lines, but they are thankfully lower down - too linear. The sky is fantastic.

On to second cup of tea, and down to today's topic - the Fax of Life. I'm not quite sure about that. The title, I mean. It's oddly composed, as are many things in life. But it's what I put there, so now I need to figure out what to say about it. Or retreat and hit delete. But there's some reason why I wrote that, and maybe it's important.

Bright yellowish white clouds now - such a change a few minutes can make. Somebody's alarm clock going off in the background. Guess I'm avoiding the topic.

Once upon a time, on a PC in my house, there lived three wares. There was the 'hard' ware, the 'soft' ware, and the little baby 'be' ware. They were a cozy family, and they all lived happily together. One day, a young girl came along and sat down at the PC, thinking "I need to do my homework, and I haven't got very much time, and besides I need to have a chat with some friends." So she started typing away and found websites that she needed. "But this one is blocked!" she cried, "And I need it for my homework!" Alas, the site was blocked, because the 'be' ware was sitting in the way, crying. The girl complained to her father, who grudgingly agreed to send the 'be' ware far away from its 'soft' ware and 'hard' ware, so that the girl could finish her homework. The father was sad to do this, partly because he didn't want to disrupt the happy ware family, but also because with the 'be' ware far away, wild creatures could appear unexpectedly and do great harm. For the 'be' ware had an amazing ability to sense when trouble was near, and warned visitors to the PC by crying. The father was so concerned that during his daily blog writing, he took the time to bring back the 'be' ware so that the family could all be together again. And they lived happily ever after, or at least until the next homework was due.

OK, well that didn't really fit the title either, but it was a nice little story. And now I have to go and practice violin for a while. If you want the original story, you can find it here.