Bck n th dy, w usd thngs knwn s vwls. ‘Nff sd.
— Joseff Connelly, publisher and editor-in-chief, “Mister Technology”,VegNews
Can you believe the first home computer was only introduced 28 years ago? And it was DOS! Apple introduced the first GUI computer in 1983 and Microsoft Windows wasn’t around until late 1985. In 1981, IBM introduced the first home computer (remember Microsoft DOS?); Apple followed up 2 years later with the first GUI home computer. In less than 30 years, computers have literally integrated into almost every aspect of our lives. All in way less than a generation.
In fact, in the same amount of time, mobile phones have gone from designed for permanent installation in vehicles to the size of a small airline bag to smaller than a retainer; plus, not only can they make phone calls, but they can do almost everything a computer can do, just on a really tiny screen with little tiny buttons. Not to mention connect to the internet wireless just like my laptop does at home — it’s just startling to think that less than 20 years ago, I was paying AOL a fortune-a-minute on a slower than molasses dial-up modem (1200 bps) that tied up the phone line on a dinosaur-sized computer and now my laptop is connected 24/7 at 17 mbps to a much dreamier World Wide Web where people ramble endlessly on blogs and restrict themselves to 140 characters on Twitter and often use terrible grammar and spelling net etiquette in both.
And in just as little time, there are almost as many cable channels as websites and there’s still nothing on t.v.
But there’s nothing like waking up on a Saturday morning to discover that your triple-play package through the cable company — digital cable, Internet, and digital phone — are out to remind you how dependent you’ve become on technology in less than 30 years. Not only is there really nothing to watch on t.v., but you can’t call anyone to tell them. Well, you could use your cell phone, if you could look up the phone number using www.yellowpages.com but your Internet is out too. (Fortunately, this has happened enough before that I have the number programmed in my cell phone; unfortunately, the outage was several towns-wide.)
I’m one of those people who’s whole day gets thrown off if their morning doesn’t go as planned. I had planned to get up first thing and use the Internet to create a vegan menu plan for the next week; then I planned to take the menu plan and create a grocery list, which I would use to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately, my plans had a certain level of dependency on each other. I admit I probably could have used my own cookbooks, but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed right now about exactly what is and isn’t vegan. I got the real basics — you know, meat, cow milk, animal yogurt. It’s the by-products I don’t get. For example, I think I read something about sugar being a no-no because of how it’s processed, but I forget why. So, I got all paranoid and part of my transition agreement with myself is that starting today I won’t be purchasing anything that isn’t dietarily vegan-friendly.
So, I ate an Amy’s Vegan Pot Pie that I already had in my freezer, which I cooked in my NuWave Oven, by the way. (I defrosted it for 3 ½minutes and then cooked it on PHI for 15 minutes. I think 10-12 minutes would have been better as the top was a bit too crispy, but it was cooked through.) Due to the heat, I’ll probably have cereal and soymilk for dinner. Plus I’m having fruit for snacks today.
My rules for the transition are that I can eat anything that has already been bought — use up what’s in the pantry or freezer, but only buy vegan-friendly items at the store. Whatever isn’t vegan-friendly on September 1rst has to be given away to friends, neighbors or the food kitchen.
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