Feeling Free
More thoughts from Staycation . . .
Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . .
I write this Dan’s New Leaf blog post from my staycation, where I actually happen to be in the “Lot F” parking area of what I still call Comiskey Park, though those around me are acceptingly referring to it as Guaranteed Rate Field.
I do things like this on staycation. Not only do I read Schneier and Krebs – and, by the way, another great security blogger named Chris Bedel – but I also leave my phone at home, or fail to connect to the home system the entire time I’m gone.
It was in this spirit that yesterday morning I found myself irritated with my phone. I ended up tersely saying things to it, like “you are not going to make me fight technology while I’m on my staycation,” or “can’t I just open the same app today that I opened yesterday” or “wow, you’re messing up my mojo,” or “please, I just wanted to check the Sox standings.”
Even if my phone could hear me say what I said next, it’s not like it would’ve cared. But all the same, I drilled down on something I already said. Fortunately it was during the day when everybody else was working, or my neighbors might have heard me talking to my phone, telling it that I am tired of having to learn a new application every single day, just because I use modern technology, “and I vow that will change when I return from THIS vacation.”
That was when my wife, Stacey, who is also trying to enjoy her staycation, saw a cell phone floating through the air. She was sitting in a different part of our deck, and said she just saw the phone floating in the air.
It’s surreal, how when you throw your cell phone, it seems to just float there. In kind of a slow spin. Floating.
I have to admit the feeling I had – knowing that I just threw my cell phone as hard as I could through the air, to the middle of our yard – that is EXACTLY the kind of feeling anybody who’s on a two-week staycation should strive to feel. It’s like throwing the phone – and then leaving it there – set me free.
I felt in control.
Somehow vindicated.
Like I finally found the right relationship with technology.
I remember saying to Stacey when, a couple hours later, she asked if I was going to leave the phone in the middle of the lawn, that I didn’t know. By then she was acting concerned, so I told her I never felt better about my phone than I did now, while it was laying out there, in the middle of the yard, ignored. Safe. Simple.
Unused.
About an hour later, Stacey told me that she saw a video clip on Facebook – a fight between Andersen and Ramirez, in a White Sox game. Somehow my phone ended up in my hands, even though I had forgotten exactly where I had thrown it.
Suddenly, StubHub was open.
Here I am now – in Lot F off Guaranteed Rate Field – waiting to see the White Sox beat the Yankees, meeting my goal to post a weekly Dan’s New Leaf post, thanks to my cell phone.
Hoping there will be another fight.
Original article by Dan Hadaway CRISC CISA CISM. Founder and Information Architect, infotex
”Dan’s New Leaf” – a fun blog to inspire thought in IT Governance.
