#9 Finding yourself, analog style

I’ll never forget the day about ten years ago when I saw a guy walking through a parking lot with one of those newfangled PDA things, trip, and drop it into a puddle. The terror-stricken look on his face was enough to convince me to stick with paper and pencil for a while yet.

I eventually succumbed to the siren song of the cell phone, but I still keep a paper calendar. I love the physical act of writing in it. I love flipping through the pages and knowing just by feel how much time has passed in the year, and how much more is yet to come. I love seeing the dates and events I’d planned to do but later scribbled over or out.

You can think of the coming global climate change cataclysm as one big puddle that’s going to drown our CrackBerries, cell phones, PDAs and GPS devices. They’ll work for a while, but when the juice is gone and you can’t just plug ‘er in and go, how are you going to know how to reach all your old friends?

Now, while the electronics are still buzzing, write down the contact info you have for your family and friends. Phone and e-mail addresses, sure, but the power failure that keeps yours from working will do the same to theirs. For post-cataclysm contact, you’ll need their actual, physical street addresses.

What does it mean to “write down?” I’ve created a video that shows an actual person writing so you can see how easy it is. It’s similar to using a stylus on your PDA. The biggest difference is that when you’re done, you can see your handiwork without electricity or battery power.

Imagine that.

[For more cool pics of parrots in puddles, visit the BrooklynParrots.com blog]