{"id":85249,"date":"2015-06-01T18:14:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T01:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=85249"},"modified":"2015-06-03T10:46:48","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T17:46:48","slug":"singing-the-technology-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/singing-the-technology-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing the Technology Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"frustration\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of the things I’m working on in my spiritual life are anger and impatience. They were both tested today by inanimate objects.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>his afternoon, as I was merrily working from home, my Windows-based work laptop suddenly decided that certs were for wussies. <\/p>\n

I watched in helpless horror as one by one my e-mail client, my IM, and then my VPN connection all went down.<\/p>\n

The help desk had me up and running in about twenty minutes. <\/p>\n

The thing is, this happens all the time.<\/p>\n

The help desk always gets it fixed eventually, though the time range can run as long as two hours.<\/p>\n

Nobody in IT is working on discovering the root cause of the problem because “it only effects a small number of users”. <\/p>\n

Thanks.<\/p>\n

The time lost to work is irritating, but the the fact that I’ve totally lost concentration and flow on whatever I was actually working on is infuriating.<\/p>\n

Then, this evening, I was sitting on a park bench merrily dictating into my iPhone. I’m working on a presentation on worldbuilding for a local writers’ group that I’m giving later this week. <\/p>\n

I’ve been having some trouble getting it together, but inspiration struck while I was walking in the park, and I wasted no time in trying to get it all down.<\/p>\n

And then, I watched in helpless horror as, in mid-sentence, my battery dropped from 65% to 10% to 1% to dead.<\/p>\n

So much for getting my inspiration recorded.<\/p>\n

When I got home, I plugged in the phone, and it went from redline to 40% in about forty seconds.<\/p>\n

Infuriating.<\/p>\n

Ryng’s Rule:
\n<\/strong>
\nThe usefulness of any tool is directly dependent upon its reliability.<\/p>\n

By this measure, most computer-based devices are not terribly useful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And if you think I’m alone, just Google “computer frustration”.<\/p>\n

\"frustration2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of the things I’m working on in my spiritual life are anger and impatience. They were both tested today by inanimate objects. This afternoon, as I was merrily working from home, my Windows-based work laptop suddenly decided that certs were for wussies. I watched in helpless horror as one by one my e-mail client, my IM, and then my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-maZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85747,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/mazel-tov\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":0},"title":"Mazel Tov!","author":"Thom","date":"24 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, my step-daughter Michaela married Mr. Corey McKee in a lovely outdoor ceremony. Although she was raised a Reform Jew, it was a largely secular ceremony. There were some nice nods to the Jewish traditions, though. In particular, Michaela's father gave one of the traditional blessings in Hebrew. He then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Michaela, the blushing bride","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2015-08-23-15.56.57-240x320.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":59,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/the-sound-you-hear-is-my-forehead-reapeatedly-hitting-the-desk\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":1},"title":"The Sound You Hear is My Forehead Reapeatedly Hitting the Desk","author":"Thom","date":"17 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm approaching the end of my rope.I'm not there yet, but I'm sliding down quickly and some bastard's greased the last few meters.Nightmares this weekend were the least of it.Tristan has a fantastic attorney, who's cutting us a huge break in terms of payment.Between bailing Tristan out and making the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85943,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/a-meditation\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":2},"title":"A Meditation","author":"Thom","date":"09 October 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In addition to being the Memorial of Saint Denis, today also commemorates Blessed John Henry Newman. For many years, I've had one of Newman's meditations hanging over my desk. Indeed, you can even find it on this site under the \"Prayers and Meditations\" menu above. It continues to bring me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Meditations"","block_context":{"text":"Meditations","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/meditations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/jhnewman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":100254,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/saint-john-henry-newman\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":3},"title":"Saint John Henry Newman","author":"Thom","date":"13 October 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman Pope Francis officially canonized John Henry Cardinal Newman. He had the distinction until this morning of being the theologian most quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church who was not a saint. No more. I will leave it to others to speak of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Catechism"","block_context":{"text":"Catechism","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/catechism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Newman.jpg?fit=724%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Newman.jpg?fit=724%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Newman.jpg?fit=724%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Newman.jpg?fit=724%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108292,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/ten-years-of-altar-server-formation\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":4},"title":"Ten Years of Altar Server Formation","author":"Thom","date":"30 January 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"years ago today, after about a year of ramp-up, we definitively rebooted the altar server program at my old parish of Holy Rosary. This was the genesis of our training manual, and it was when I developed my own particular method of training, developing, and forming servers. I don't know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bishop Peter J. Elliott"","block_context":{"text":"Bishop Peter J. Elliott","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/bishop-peter-j-elliott\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2018-06-22-08.01.20-1-scaled.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2018-06-22-08.01.20-1-scaled.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2018-06-22-08.01.20-1-scaled.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2018-06-22-08.01.20-1-scaled.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85647,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/notes-on-the-transitions-number-3-in-a-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":85249,"position":5},"title":"Notes on the Transitions, Number 3 in a Series","author":"Thom","date":"06 August 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, the Holy Rosary Transition Team met for the first time with our new pastor, Very Rev. Nicholas Wichert, as well as our current pastor, Rev. Jacob Maurer. The meeting was ably facilitated by a number of folks from the Archdiocese, including Deacon Eric Paige and Leigh Stringfellow from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2015 transitions - Holy Rosary \/ St. Joseph"","block_context":{"text":"2015 transitions - Holy Rosary \/ St. Joseph","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/holy-rosary-st-joseph-transition\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Tacoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/photo-e1397947311775-240x320.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85249"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85256,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85249\/revisions\/85256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}