Anne Pearce, signing in and stuff.

The world really has changed.

When I look around, I wonder how people don’t feel out of place from one minute to the next. When I was born, the world was considerably slower. Communication meant someone traveled from place to place, dropping off parcels or even verbally conveying messages (you know, like that guy who had to shout that the British coming. No, I’m not that old so don’t ask how that fiasco went!).

Now, there are cell phones, email, and instant news coverage from all over the world, tactfully color corrected and delayed for the feint of heart. It’s freaky! The charm of travel and distance has changed a lot. You can hop on an airplane for thirty hours and be somewhere that might have taken over a month before the advent of inflated prices and frequent flyer miles. Sure, the Coliseum is still spectacular and awesome but think about seeing it when you would’ve had to be stuck on a ship for three weeks with bad food and the threat of pirates. That’s earning your tourism!

Even twenty years has seen a significant change. I’ve gone to the mall in the last few weeks and counted no less than fifteen people yacking on phones between my car and the front door. The sheer amount of electronic interference and crossing connections of satellite contact must be doing something to people’s brains. I can’t imagine for a second that half the weird stuff that shows up in the news isn’t at least, in part, caused by excessive cell phone use or at least second hand signal.

Prior to cell phones, things were closer to how I remember them. Humanity was still on a fast track through existence but they weren’t quite at the ‘high speed, low drag’ phase yet. I don’t want people to start thinking ‘Lord, here comes another back in my day speech’ but I can understand how the older generations feel. They see something they considered beautiful slipping away—a part of themselves dying in the world around them. It can be exciting or it can be depressing. I personally pick the former. I’ve been depressed enough in my life.

Blogging isn’t an entirely new concept to me. Someone who lives a very long time has only two choices: constantly embrace the new or risk falling so far behind that getting caught up is daunting, terrifying and sometimes outright impossible. I made it easier for myself by getting involved in a profession that doesn’t move at the speed of light: art. As an artist, I’m able to make my way rather simply with only the real trick being to change my style enough so that clever critics and historians don’t catch on. I doubt I’m very successful at it but I haven’t been bothered yet.

As one could expect, I’ve lived a fairly quiet and solitary existence. From day to day, month to month, year to year, my trysts have all been singular and ended with an exhausted lover needing a few days to recover. It’s not that I’m a demon in the sack or anything (though I’ve been told I was) but rather the whole vampiric thing. You know, the chewing, the tasting, the nourishment, etc. For years, I had to drink almost every night but within the last fifty years, something began to change.

I can’t say specifically what’s different. I began to tolerate the daylight and normal food didn’t cause my stomach to twist into knots that would make a sailor shiver. Suddenly, I could go days without my little drinking addiction and even then, I had met someone that I genuinely fell in love with. Exclusivity was a concept as foreign to me as quadratic equations but so far, it’s worked out great. He even asked me to marry him… what a concept! I’ll get to be a vampire bride at some point. How very ‘Dracula’, right? I’ll wear an underwire nightgown or something in homage to my literary sisters.

I can prattle on and on but I think that the little touch of history seems good for a first time touch on this thing. I consider the world a fabulous place and one that I hope I contribute to positively, even if it’s in a minor way. Lord knows that there are plenty of crazy events well beyond the concepts that are described in the news and supernatural events that no one can talk about without odd expressions or a smile saying they’re kidding. I think that I’ll touch on that stuff later. It deserves it’s own entry after all.

For now, my name is Anne Pearce and I’m extremely pleased to be here!