Keeping up with the times

I just realized as I took a glance around my desk, how much work it takes to keep up with the times. There are at least two dozen books scattered on my desk on absolutely random subjects. I have half a dozen magazines open to seemingly haphazard topics. The most recent issue of JAMA lies on its spine revealing the faults of our health care system. Just under it lies Popular Mechanics, and under that, Time, and on my lap, Car and Driver. The carpet is strategically adorned with piles of LA Times which I have yet to peruse. The lengths we go to in order to stay afloat the flood of new information and technology is at the least like fighting an undertow. Firefox and all of its extensions, the most recent version of AIM encroaching on the Skype icon just beside it, iTunes not playing music from the harddrive, but streaming live radio, cellphones w/EVDO, wireless routers casting lines omnidirectionally. If Rip van Winkle roused from his slumber tomorrow, he would indeed be in a new world. And if all the communication signals created tangible webs, not a second after waking would he find himself trapped, victim to the bustle of the information age. All in all, here I sit with the world at my fingertips.