Always something there to remind you

Been framed
Originally uploaded by Maddy Lou

Here's my cheesy link to this image... there's always something new lurking beyond the thing that's old and crumbling.

I just watched, belatedly, a video put together by Tony Hirst and it struck me what a cool world we live in right now. Sure, there's stuff that's bad. Stuff that's complicated. Stuff that feels like it's going to drown you. But... isn't it just the most interesting time? Old ways of 'doing' do seem to be crumbling (saw a story only today which said that students' most important possessions were a laptop and a mobile phone - books not up there then!) and new ways seem to rush towards us all the time.

Another thing from today... I've been trying to reflect on my role in a certain project... the example I thought of happened just about a year ago... and it's amazing to think how much my thinking has evolved since then. Swoosh and a whole load more technologies have appeared, but it's the way in which I look at the slightly older ones and think about integrating things that's most exciting. I have so many more experiences and understandings to draw on now. It's not that I wouldn't make the same mistakes again, but that they weren't really mistakes... just part of a journey.

The adoption of technology seems to come in three phases. First phase - oooooooh! LOOK at that!!! I could really get some use out of that!!! Second phase - hmmmm... how could I use it properly... the first way I tried didn't work out exactly as I thought it would. Third phase - cool... I don't even notice I'm using it now! Okay, so maybe stage three is a bit of fantasy, but I remember struggling to find my blogging 'voice' a few years ago... tried a few ways of blogging... didn't succeed... found the way that suited me... now don't even really think about issues of 'style', just write. In lots of ways I can't wait for so many things to be at that 'natural use' stage.

One of my favourite quotes is "Technology, a sage once observed, is stuff that doesn't work yet"... I love it when technology ceases to be technology and it just starts being part of what it means for me to get things done.