gatsby-mail and the green light

Gmail chat screenshot (LHS status lights only)
Whatever program(s) I’m using on my computer, there is almost always a narrow strip of another window showing on the left hand side where I can see if I have new emails. (Yes, I’m sure I could set up an audio alert, but we all have our idiosyncracies.) Not only do I see when new messages arrive, but I also see the little green lights flicker and I know when contacts around the world log on and off.

Perhaps the “g” in gmail stands for Gatsby.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And then one fine morning —

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I’m not sure where “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” fits into things, but I can see my attempts to keep up with everything that’s happening on the web mirrored in that quote.

Tomorrow we will read faster, scroll down the page farther…
And so we click on, surfing against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the ether.

And so I blog on, posting against the current…

splash!

car driving on flooded road

I guess the locals didn’t build enough snowmen.

(See the BBC story Can building snowmen really help to prevent flooding?)

snow song

snowy landscape

One last snow post for the moment, as rain is forecast now and they say it may all clear soon. An earlier version of this poem was posted a couple of years ago; I haven’t made huge changes, though I’ve added line breaks and tweaked it a little.
Continue reading “snow song”

snow warnings

weather warning colours

It’s a long time since I was resident in the UK and there are things that catch my attention although I’m sure most people take them for granted. I giggled childishly, for example, at last night’s weather forecast, when they announced a “yellow snow warning”.

I thought Frank Zappa warned us about that decades ago.

discussing whether

snow on bare tree branches
When I’m in Spain I can go for weeks without watching or reading a weather forecast: que será, será and we’ll deal with it when it happens. In the UK, though, weather is a sort of national pastime, and I’ve known whole days planned around which TV channel is showing the weather forecast and at what time.
Continue reading “discussing whether”