Cord Count: 12

My daily life requires twelve (12) different cords. When did things get so f**king complicated? I didn't even count the cords to items like my lamps or the fridge or the vacuum cleaner (not that I actually use it). No, these 12 are cords that I tend to have to tote around with me every day for all of my various and sundry phones, iPods, computers, etc. Not all at once, mind you. But seriously, this is ridiculous.

Read the list below and see if it doesn't this make you long for a simpler time....a time when you had to be home for someone to reach you on the phone, and you had to wait like a week to find out if your photos were any good, and people weren't glued to electric screens for 85% of their waking hours. Was it that long ago? Aye. Life moves pretty fast these days, and a man loses count.

At any one time my life requires:

2 Phone chargers (one with usb, one plain old charger)
1 laptop charger
1 iPod usb/charger cord
1 hands free cell phone ear piece cord
1 pair ear buds (cord attached)
1 pair head phones (cord attached)
1 Kindle usb/charger cord
1 camera usb cord
1 camera battery re-charger cord
1 car audio iPod cord
1 iPod-to-stereo cord (the red/white plug thing)

So, is this just the rant of another reluctantly reformed Luddite bemoaning the loss of "the good old days"? Or maybe simply a man who came of age just close enough before the late 90s tsunami of technology to remember a simpler time and be forever ill-at-ease with modern life? Or even still just a frank assessment of how goddamned complicated daily life has become in 2012 vs., let's say, 1992?

One thing's for sure: there's no going back. As long as Modern Civilization stays intact (and, well, your guess is as good as mine how long that'll go on) we're not going back to the pre-cellphone, pre-internet days. And frankly, I'm a direct beneficiary of the convenience of the Information age. The internet and advanced telecommunications have allowed guys like me to have careers, work at home for long stretches of time, be able to get work into the public eye in a vast number of media outlets that wouldn't have otherwise existed were it not for the net.

In a creative field where attention -- essentially -- is the main goal, the modern age enables me to get that and to gain the kind of traction that before would've cost me years or an entire lifetime to earn. Has there been a real material benefit to all this? Well, let's just say I'm still waiting for the checks to come in. BUT, I'm still writing and getting my stuff seen by people regularly, and that's because of the convenience of the internet.

But, lest we lose sight of the main point of this rambling post: Modern life requires far too many cords.