T.G.F.G. (Thank God for Google!)

I remember a time, back in the not-so-distant past, when we didn't have the internet.

(Which, by the way, makes me feel kind of ... old. But that's not the point of this post.)

So.

Back when there wasn't an internet, if you didn't know how to do things, you had some choices:

1. You could take a class in the thing you didn't know how to do, if one was available. I lived in rural Maine, and we had SOME "Hey, you, wanna learn how to do that thing?" classes, but not a ton.

2. You could buy a set of encyclopedias and hope that the thing you wanted to know how to do was covered in the appropriate, alpabetically indexed volume. (We had a huge old set of encyclopedias. They covered a lot but not, you know, everything.)

3. You could go to the library. Again, I'd like to mention that I lived in rural Maine. We had a library, but it was limited because funds were limited... and you had to drive there.

While I still like taking classes and looking things up and going to libraries, I also like that if I want to know something, I can go online and watch and look up and learn (and yes, sometimes take a class) RIGHT THEN. I don't have to wait or hope or drive. I can just do it.

Some people say technology limits actual physical social interactions. This might be true. But it also opens huge possibilities for people to learn beyond what their geography might offer them, and I think that -- and the opportunities that creates -- is a big old deal.

So thank goodness for google, and the internets. Now if you'll excuse me, there are some things I need to learn how to do.