{"id":2968,"date":"2011-07-19T22:35:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T04:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davintosh.com\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2011-07-19T22:35:03","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T04:35:03","slug":"tiny-ponies-all-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/19\/tiny-ponies-all-around\/just-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Ponies All Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was Googling (ok, doing a Google search) for something Apple-related this morning, and one of the results at the top of the list caught my eye: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is a horse in the Apple Store and no one sees it but me.<\/p>\n

I think, \u201cWhy?\u201d What is the villain here that blinds all of these people to this situation? Am I nuts for thinking this is exceptional? Does anyone else see this? Did I accidentally drop acid and not realize? I must take a photo. I must verify later, when I\u2019m not potentially tripping balls.<\/p>\n

I think, \u201cWould they notice if it were a tiger?\u201d Or a lamb? Or an anaconda? What would it take to shake the haze from around their eyes? A sale sign? A new iPod Touch? Would they notice a new iPod Touch?<\/p>\n

Are they just divinely focused? Are they meditating in a retail environment? Are they distracted by something shiny? There is so much shiny in the Apple Store. Is it enough to distract everyone from the little tiny horse that is at the Genius Bar?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Frank goes on to make an excellent observation; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Since then, John and I have a term called a \u201ctiny pony.\u201d It is a thing that is exceptional that no one, for whatever reason, notices. Or, conversely, it is an exceptional thing that everyone notices, but quickly grows acclimated to despite the brilliance of it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

There are so many tiny ponies<\/em> in our lives today it’s not even funny. It may sound a bit cheesy, but I’ve often imagined how surreal the world would be to someone who was magically transported to now from the distant past, and how I might explain to them how some everyday things work. Those imaginings make me think about some of the things we take for granted in life… Like air conditioning. When I was a kid, A\/C was a luxury that my family couldn’t afford, so I remember well the times we made it through the hot & humid summers in Sioux Falls with little more than fans and cold water and a swimming pool a ten-block walk from home. But when you think about how we can take a little bit of electricity and use it to beat back the heat and humidity… And how so few people actually understand how it works, but expect it to work on demand. That’s a tiny pony<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Or even clean water on demand in our homes. Not only do we have it running from taps, but we can adjust the temperature of that water for different uses. Another string of tiny ponies<\/em> to make all that possible. Or how about cell phones, or computers, or any other bit of technology that we use and in some small or large way depend on for our daily routine. Tiny ponies<\/em> every-stinkin’-where. And those tiny ponies<\/em> don’t just happen; they are the result of herculean efforts made by people who have gone before us to to invent the gadget, to harness the energy, to design the system, to write the standards, to maintain the system… And most of the time we have no clue who is behind it all.<\/p>\n

Frank closes his post with another excellent point;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When does the magic of a situation fade? When do we get acclimated to the exceptional? Is this how we get by? Would anything get done if we were constantly gobsmacked? Is this how we survive, how we stay sane? We define a pattern, no matter how exceptional, and acclimate ourselves to it?<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I allow myself to get gobsmacked sometimes, and that’s probably a healthy thing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was Googling (ok, doing a Google search) for something Apple-related this morning, and one of the results at the top of the list caught my eye: There is a horse in the Apple Store and no one sees it but me. I think, \u201cWhy?\u201d What is the villain here that blinds all of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool-technology","category-fun","category-just-stuff"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davintosh.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}