i'm starting to feel like a computer-geek poser. i just figured out how to add comments to this thing, but if you'll notice, it's not exactly at the end of the post, where it is on most people's blogs. oh well! i guess i should learn something about html... i'm also getting really excited about getting the updated mac os x "panther" system when it is released next week. then i want to get a digital camera. yikes! what's happening to me?? my friend angie talks about the "laptop syndrome," which hit her when she obtained a laptop through her job (she's a teacher) and she started realizing how nice it was to just "pack it up in my little bag at the end of the day and take it home..." ah, i have so many ideals about simplicity, but i'm thinking of asking for an ipod for christmas. is this consumerism. or is it discovering a new approach to simplicity in an increasingly global culture? before i went to india, i hated cell phones. when i was there, a mobile was my only phone, and it seemed to make everything so much easier that now a mobile has been my only phone in the u.s. for the last year and a half. i have so many friends who live in other places, and am away from my house so often, that it just makes sense to pay the same price every month for the ability to make free long-distance calls whenever and wherever i want to. and, somehow, having a phone with me when i'm traveling makes me feel a sense of security, and it has helped me out when i've gotten stranded by an unreliable car. so, is this sense of security real? am i falsely justifying all of this technology? i guess it's all about the idea of redemption. madeleine l'engle writes a lot about the concept of redeeming the good in everything. instead of viewing things as inherently "good" and "evil," she plants the idea that everything has the potential to be redeemed for good and for God. so, if technology truly helps me to keep my community connected, and to develop my creativity, i guess there is something to be redeemed...or am i just talking a bunch of crazy? tell me what you think!