“In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind; we’ve gone too far.”
–The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”

Or, maybe digital killed the radio star. But, that would be another post altogether.

At any rate, dear future reader, back in the day, circa 1985 or so, there were cable channels that played music videos all day long. And, we loved it. Sure, we watched the videos, but sometimes we’d just leave the TV on and listen to the music. Sure, it was overkill, and modern-day environmentalists would have cows if they found out you had a TV running just to listen to the music. Of course, that’s something you probably don’t have to deal with, after the herds of environmentalists followed each other leaping off bridges in the Great Population Reduction of 2048. Some say they were pushed, but you’ve probably seen the videos that prove otherwise.

Anyway, we listened to different videos. Some videos were really hastily done–nothing more than music acts recording their own concerts and calling it a video. Boring. The ones we liked are the ones that told a story.

But, really, the ones we really liked were ones like this or this. Good stuff.

Anyway, the all-music stations eventually started adding news and reality shows and other stuff that no one liked to watch, and eventually stopped playing music altogether, although they never changed their names, thus confusing people tuning in and expecting to see music videos.

No one knows if they even make music videos anymore, as none of the music stations play them. There are rumors you can play videos on your iPod, but you never see anyone sitting around watching a tiny screen.

“Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR.”
–The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”

For today’s Mundane Monday, we have a photo of a pile of logs.

You see, dear future reader, back in the early 21st century, we had these (often) giant plants around which we called “trees.” You may have read about them in your history books.

We grew them for decoration as well as their functionality. Trees were raised and harvested for lumber and paper and such things. No doubt your history books tell you about these things, and how the big bad paper companies would cut down trees heartlessly to make paper pulp out of them. I’m sure they don’t mention the paper companies also planted new trees to replace them. Few people in our time get upset when a farmer plants carrots and harvests them come fall. But, I suppose if carrots grew fifty foot tall, some people would raise a stink about them being cut down, even if they were replanted the following season.

At any rate, sometimes we cut down trees and chopped them into logs for firewood. No doubt in the future such things were banned to cut down on carbon emissions to fight global warming. And, no doubt your ancestors and our progeny were utterly surprised when they all froze to death in the upcoming ice age. I’m sure that Al Gore argued that the ice age was caused by global warming.

Anyway, the next time you’re out hunting polar bears and penguins for food, remember the trees that once populated the frozen tundra that you call “Florida.” Maybe you can find some timber buried beneath the snow. Perhaps you could dig them up and burn them for fuel and heat.

Unless, of course, Al Gore XL has made a career out of warning how global warming might negatively impact the icy sphere you call “Earth.” Above freezing temperatures will only result in the resurgence of weeds and parasites. That’s the funny thing about politicians. No matter how good things are, or how bad things are, they’ll always find a way to run around warning you about some pending disaster bound to happen if you don’t listen to them, send them money, etc.

Maybe one day, dear future reader, you’ll unearth an incandescent light bulb. Then, you can whack Al Gore XL over the head with it. That would be poetic justice.

For today’s Mundane Monday, we have a photo of a computer mouse, also known as a computer input device.

You see, at the late dawn of the computer age, we had these things we called “mice” (singular: mouse), just like the rodent variety. Like mice–the furry kind–they had a tail (the cord), were blind (like the mice in the rhyme) and made a squeaking sound when they got all gummed up with hair.

Later, of course, we had optical and cordless mice, and we still called them mice, because the name stuck and renaming things only leads to confusion, even if the later things bear less and less semblance to their original namesakes.

Of course, by your era, you probably use your mind to move the cursor around the screen, which is the function the mouse performed for us. On the other hand, perhaps you’ve done away with cursors altogether, having your brains directly wired to the computer and thus eliminating the need for any visual pointing device, and haven’t the faintest idea what purpose the mouse actually served. Alas, certainly you have games, having no doubt resorted to the enjoyable simplicity of something like Pong. You know how you mentally move that bar to bounce the ball back into your opponent’s field? Well, that’s basically what the mouse did. Only, we weren’t necessarily bouncing balls around, but we placed the cursor at different parts of the screen, double-clicked (did I mention the mouse had one, two or three or more buttons?) files to open them and so on.

Thus, dear future reader, is how we used rodents for electronic communications. Contrary to myth, we did not have cybernetic rodents scrambling about, running our lives and spreading diseases both real and virtual.

So, the blogging “experts” say to put photos at the top of your post. Brings in the readers, they say. Mind you, I am beginning to think the “experts” just make stuff up and watch to see if the rest of us mindlessly follow along. So, we’ll do things like post the picture first and pat ourselves on our backs for taking the first step toward blog profitability, while the blog “experts” meet somewhere for lunch and laugh at us as we perform for them like trained monkeys.

But, I have digressed from the Mundane Monday theme. Today, we have a photo of pavement also known as “road surface.” You see, future readers, in the late 20th and early 21st century, we still drove around in cars with wheels. I’m sure you’re familiar with wheels; they’re one of the oldest inventions known to man, right after fire, and you probably have seen them in a museum someplace. At any rate, to make things easier to roll, we paved everything. Horse paths were paved over for horseless carriages, and things just spread out from there. Pictured is asphalt pavement. Asphalt is basically gravel, clay (or peat) and Portland cement or lime. See, we don’t even know what the stuff’s made of, but we put it everywhere. And, where there isn’t asphalt, we’ll use concrete or Bituminous Surface Treatment (BST).

At this point in time, we haven’t developed anti-gravity technology, at least not that we know of. By your future time, Area 51 may have been declassified around the time you first encountered the sentient purple octopodes of Alpha Centauri or when you couldn’t help but notice that military planes no longer had recognizable engines, or both. At any rate, anti-gravity technology is currently not available for mass transit. Sure, hovercraft are available, but they’re hardly ever used anymore. And, tanks are nice, but they lack a convenient trunk for hauling groceries.

Thus the need for pavement. Oh, yes, we have SUVs, but no one takes them off-road. Geesh.

Many years ago, back in school, we discussed a book wherein the author presented modern day items as if found by archaeologists far into the future and presented crazy ideas about their uses. Maybe you will recall the author’s name or book title, as I do not.

Anyway, it is amazing how little we know of life before us. Our parents and grandparents tell us stories, but we still often don’t get it. And, our own memories fade over time, and we sometimes cannot imagine life as it was except framed by our current circumstances. We may remember not having cell phones or whatnot, but we don’t often recall the things that have completely slipped our minds, except on occasion when we may spot such a thing.

So, even life as it was a few decades ago can be difficult to picture, despite all our technology and seemingly endless recordkeeping. Even filmmakers, when researching recent historical periods, have to leaf through old catalogs to try to imagine what people realistically kept in their homes or what they wore or what type of pens, tools and other necessary items were used or looked like.

Think about it. While great pieces of art, or monuments, or historical events are often well photographed and recorded, who thinks of maintaining some kind of record of the ordinary things we use everyday? Even though archaeologists are quite excited when they uncover primitive homes of ordinary people which help illustrate the way the average person lived 100, 500, 1000 or more years ago, today we don’t seem to do much about recording the same. We concern ourselves with how the president lives, how the wealthy live, and so on, but not so much about the ordinary person.

Thus, as a favor to future generations, as well as our own children or grandchildren, I am starting this “Mundane Monday” meme.

To participate, just write, illustrate, photograph or in some other way depict everyday life or mundane things. And, link back to me and leave a comment for some link love in return.

For my inaugural Mundane Monday, I humbly present to you the Plastic Bag:

As you know, we use plastic bags for a multitude of uses, primarily for carrying purchased goods home from the store. This particular plastic bag arrived with an eBay purchase. Inside is corrugated cardboard that was used in the shipping packaging. You can also see a bit of the USPS tape that was used to tape the stuff up. At this point, I actually don’t remember what I received in it–I think it may have been glassware of some sort–but that’s not important now.