Left up to my own devices.
March 9, 2015 3:22 pm
Left up to my own devices.
Moments after you are born, somebody cuts the cord. Doctor, nurse, midwife, parent or friend takes scissors to sever the line that hooked you to your mother’s life-giving nourishment.
After that, we spend the rest of our days making connections.
Day One of Week Two of this Photo 101 class, Cheri sent out the message Connect, with instructions to freely interpret for our picture and then tag the post to ensure as many ties with possible readers as we could muster.
My mind traveled to the way I must communicate with the world.
Today is my sister Fran’s birthday. I immediately wanted to send her a text of good tidings from my cell phone. That’s connected to the WiFi at home, to avoid network data charges. Moments later I had to make a work call from my regular phone, the one I have bundled with my Time Warner Cable TV service, RoadRunner Internet and busy WiFi. I’m happy that doesn’t get too crowded and boot off my iPad Air, which I use to type these blog entries, or my wireless Canon printer, or my dear wife Karen’s cell phone or iPad 2.
All those use the Fi that comes from the one Wi, tucked between the end table and bookcase next to my work recliner in the living room of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Also in that space is the phone modem, a booster the installer hooked up to ensure our high definition service is spiffy on our flat screen, and a multiple outlet power surge protector in which all of that must be plugged, along with the charging cords for the cell phones and the iPads.
That is a lot of connections, and why we keep the tangled mess down there, out of sight, unless you’re looking for it. The flat screen/sound bar combo and stereo system have their own rat’s nest tucked behind the entertainment stand on the other side of the living room.
Where do you keep your conglomeration of connections? Does your setup look neat and orderly or this way and that? How do you interpret the theme connection?
Posted by markbialczak
Categories: iPhone Photography
Tags: #Photo101, Blogging, Cable TV, Eastwoood, Electrical outlets, Extension cords, Internet, Photography, power surge protector, RoadRunner, Syracuse, Telephones, Time Warner Cable, WiFi
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Ah, the connect theme is awesome, and I especially love how you tied an umbilical cord into the array of other cords. Excellent job, my friend! 😀
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By rachelcarrera on March 14, 2015 at 11:25 pm
Ha! Umbilical cord, indeed, Rachel. Funny one, you are. I’m glad you like the photo. 🙂
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By markbialczak on March 14, 2015 at 11:30 pm
😀
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By rachelcarrera on March 15, 2015 at 10:13 pm
Those cords you speak of frustrate the heck out of me, Chum. We can’t live without’em, but they are a sorted mess. I try to keep them orderly. I’m always worried about a fire with so much going on behind the scenes of the entertainment section of the house.
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By Audrey Dawn - Oldest Daughter Redheaded Sister on March 11, 2015 at 4:17 pm
They are a web of worry, I agree, Aud.
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By markbialczak on March 11, 2015 at 6:02 pm
My router is hidden on a table beside me, and all of the cords are hidden. I had cords, wires, all of that mess. Connection is essential!
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By joeyfullystated on March 11, 2015 at 9:21 am
We need all of our stuff, Joey. Good for you to find a hiding place!
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By markbialczak on March 11, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Ha! You connected perfectly with your topic Mark. Well connected. ha! Where I board the internet is included and is of the physical cable variety. It is only a single room so I just ran a cable to my laptop. I do have wireless capability but no router – don’t need one right now. Anyway, the connector failed – just well worn, and I couldn’t get the manager to get it fixed – it’s about a 10 cent connector and likely would cost a $100 service call. So, after trying for a bit, I took apart the connector, took out all the wires and stripped the ends. I then cut off the end of the cable, stripped those wires and then spliced the two together by color. Whew – thems is teeeny wires, I’m here to tell you – and there is a lot of them. The two sets of colors weren’t quite identical as the building cable was old and the jumper cable new. Ha! but we made ‘er work! I achieved connectivity – as you can see.
Fun post Mark.
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By Paul on March 10, 2015 at 1:57 pm
Good splicing, Paul! Your experience into my comment thread as well as your old cable wire into the connector and laptop to keep your Internet going! We’d be nowhere without our connections, my friend.
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By markbialczak on March 10, 2015 at 2:31 pm
So many wires in our wireless world.
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By snoozing on the sofa on March 10, 2015 at 9:29 am
The irony of it all, and I don’t even iron my clothes, Scott. Thanks for your excellent point.
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By markbialczak on March 10, 2015 at 9:38 am
Perhaps it’s my inner neat freak, but your picture inspires visions of tie-wraps and cable tubes. And they don’t attract the ever present dust bunnies our furry friends supply. 🙂
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By Fannie Cranium on March 9, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Tie wraps and cable tubes. A world I should investigate, Fannie. Thank you, my friend.
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By markbialczak on March 10, 2015 at 9:09 am
The science of how bundles of cords get so tangled up has always intrigued me. Mine is an even bigger mess than that… and it’s not like I ever adjust it or anything… it just seems to magically get more and more knotted up. It has to be gremlins…
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By evilsquirrel13 on March 9, 2015 at 10:24 pm
We get in trouble with this location because we use the surge protector to plug and unplug the cell and iPad chargers, moving the whole mess around and further entangling everything. The gremlins like us, Bill, but work their ways when we’re sleeping anyway. Some comments here mention ties and neatness, and I was taking it like a slap to the forehead. Now I feel better because the gremlins would just untie it. Thanks.
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By markbialczak on March 10, 2015 at 9:08 am
Cable modem and wireless router sit on the kitchen desk. The cable and cords are too bulking to hide properly. It’s a bit of a mess
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By joeblee on March 9, 2015 at 9:28 pm
No place to hide them. What a problem we have brought upon ourselves, Joe.
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 9:43 pm
Mark, I love the photo and how it relates to the prompt. That’s a lot of wires. Sometimes I wonder how lost I would feel if all those connections were suddenly severed – all my contact info, all my appointments, all my taxes, all my photos, etc. Scary thought. ❤
Diana xo
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By dianasschwenk on March 9, 2015 at 9:27 pm
That is too scary a subject to ponder, my friend. Nooooo. 🙂 Thanks for your approval on the photo. 🙂 ❤
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 9:41 pm
Mark, I am definitely not very inundated with electronics in my house, two t.v. sets and no computers. My kids have tons of cords and they seem rather complicated but not messy. I feel a little bit at loose ends, in my answer to the ‘theme’ of my life. smiles at you and yours!
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By reocochran on March 9, 2015 at 8:29 pm
Thanks, Robin, for being at loose ends like my life is with these dang cords. Ouch!
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 8:32 pm
i feel like a twisted set of cords just listening to your explanation of connections. ) yikes! we do whatever it takes to connect and sometimes the old way seems easier )
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By ksbeth on March 9, 2015 at 8:12 pm
Got your brain a bit tangled! Sorry, Beth. Oops. Yes, the old way was less complicated, I agree.
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 8:17 pm
It’s getting more and more difficult to keep this kind of connection clean and neat appearing. I suspect one day soon someone will come up with a brilliant idea to do away with all of this wire clutter. And they will make a FORTUNE!
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By Chatter Master on March 9, 2015 at 7:35 pm
It is somebody’s million dollar idea to come, my buddy Colleen, if it hasn’t happened already, and we just don’t know it yet! 😮
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Oh….well then I need to do a little more searching! I could use it! 😉
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By Chatter Master on March 10, 2015 at 8:34 pm
You and Dave, Karen and I, both, my buddy Colleen. 🙂
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By markbialczak on March 10, 2015 at 9:39 pm
Sounds like that inventor might have some royalties coming their way. 😉
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By Chatter Master on March 11, 2015 at 5:54 am
Mark, I really like this interpretation of the theme. I have no idea how any of it works – this falls into the category of things I don’t do (because I don’t have to!) My husband is a former engineer so you can believe all of our cables are neatly tie-wrapped and bundled.
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By Silver in the Barn on March 9, 2015 at 7:16 pm
Neatly engineered. I am sort of jealous of DB household-driven your house, Barbara.
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 7:57 pm
I have real trouble staying connected with the electric socket – my laptop is coming apart and so it won’t charge unless several coasters are placed under the connecting wire. this is what i think about when i hear the word connection.
Your intro made me think of a chat i had with a couple of friends this week – one had seen a TV show about different ways to give birth. One mum feartured in the show had refused to have the cord cut and so carried the placenta around in a bucket while it was still attached to the baby for a week! That was the other thing you made me think of!
how’s the snow?
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By lundygirl on March 9, 2015 at 5:55 pm
That is kind of … upsetting, Rachel. A connection that overstays its need, in my estimation. But I’m a man, so I get no voice in that matter!
We need to figure out a better way to charge that laptop of yours, speaking about bad connections, my friend. 😮
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 7:50 pm
I think we have this many of us, even it would be nice to avoid cables all over Mark. Nice post.
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By irenedesign2011 on March 9, 2015 at 4:41 pm
Thanks, Irene. If we could just be cable-less, life would be better, I agree.
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 4:53 pm
One is tucked behind a sofa and the other is tucked behind the television. Either way, I hate those rats nests of cords!
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By Priceless Joy on March 9, 2015 at 3:33 pm
We can’t get around them, can we, PJ? I think my dear wife Karen is going to be less than pleased that I published a photo of ours!
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 3:47 pm
I know the feeling! They are nothing but a rat’s nest of ugly!
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By Priceless Joy on March 9, 2015 at 3:52 pm
That is a lot of connecting, Mark. What would we do without our Wi for our Fi? Great photo for the prompt!
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By Amy Reese on March 9, 2015 at 3:31 pm
I was stumped for a bit by this prompt, Amy, then I looked down from my chair and had my a-ha moment. I’m glad you like our Wi for our Fi, too, for we’d be a slower couple of bloggers without it. ;-o
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By markbialczak on March 9, 2015 at 3:46 pm