Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Well that was interesting
I can't say I learned much from not accessing the Internet for 20 days other than that email stresses me out far more than I knew. After day 2 I had totally forgotten about it and, in fact, t hat I have a job.Accomplishments while being unplugged:
Books read: 5
Movies watched: 10 (!)
Songs listened to: over 1,000
Podcasts listened to: 0
I'm sure there's more to report, but I can't be bothered to think about it nor do am I compelled to Google anything.
Ah, vacation: now it is done. I have over 200 in work emails alone. Joy.
I'll probably keep the Unplugged website and post things to it on the off chance. I never really got into the swing of it.
Labels: blogging, journal, meta, return, vacation
¶ 8:16 AM 1 comments
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Thursday, December 13, 2007
And so it begins
The day and the hour is here (well almost here.) As of 5:00 pm MST today I will not be consulting the Internet for anything. That's right: no email, no last minute looking up stupid facts to impress people, no nothing. I will, however, be posting at Signifying nothing Unplugged by scanning in notebook pages:
I've already started, just to get the hang of it. (And yes I know a standard blogger.com template is not the most elegant way to do this, but I don't have the time or the inclination to make something fancy.
See you in 20 days!
Labels: abstinence, blogging, fasting, fear, loathing
¶ 4:28 PM 1 comments
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Friday, November 30, 2007
Outcomes assessment
I've noticed three things about the NaBloPoMo experiment:- blog writing gets much more concise
- blogger's don't comment on other blogs as much
- a favorite topic of blogging is that one has to blog
The cause of each of these outcomes is the very pressure to blog. Blogging is concise, because one feels pushed to post something. Bloggers who are consequently pushed to write something, do not take the time to read other blogs and post comments. Given that the pressure of such blogging is higher than for folks who blog a few times a week, it becomes a topic in and of itself simply because it is a noticeable change in a blogger's life.
For whatever reason, I tend to blog a great deal more than my more discursive and more thoughtful blogging colleagues. No doubt this is because of my general fidgety nature. The upshot of this, however, is that the blog every day thing has not really been that big of a hassle for me. I am glad it is over, however, in that I won't feel compelled to write when I may not feel like it.
I am also glad it is over because my blogroll will get back to normal with long discursive explorations that I miss.
Labels: blogging, criticism, evaluation, NaBloPoMo
¶ 1:44 PM 6 comments
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The plan
So a few entries ago I wrote about the plan of not accessing the Internet's tubes starting December 13. While in New York, I came up with a better plan: I will still blog, but it won't be in the conventional sense. While there I purchased this
a Black n' Red notebook imported from Ye Olde England. I shall be writing in this text, scanning the pages, and then uploading them to this old blog. While uploading I will refrain from checking the Internet for anything else (like email or comments). The temptation, of course, will be great, but I shall resist by shouting, with my arm to the square, "Get thee behind me Satan!" (Bet you didn't know I knew that much about LDS practice, did you?) I might, too, put on a hair shirt while doing this. (Bet you didn't know I knew that much about Catholic practice, did you?) I suppose the inspiration for this came from a couple of different sources, most notably Jeff Bridges, who has had a handwritten website/blog for many years now.
So, although I will not be interacting with the web, it will still be a part of my existence. It will be a bit like living in a Panopticon, I suppose, given that I will know people are reading the stuff, but I won't know what they are saying. That makes me slightly nervous, and I've contemplated turning on extra-security in comments to keep the riffraff at bay. If I were going all hog on the effort, I might just get a post office box where people could mail me comments. Now that would be a hoot, but a bit impractical.
One thing that I don't want this experiment to turn into is a running commentary on what it is like not to have access to my beloved Internet, although I fear that will be a major topic. I don't want it to be a meta-blog, simply because I find that kind of stuff tedious. We'll see how it goes.
I suppose the biggest challenge is going to be the email thing, but having ready access to information, as well as things like my banking are of equal importance. I will steel myself by offending all my email contacts so they don't feel compelled to write me and declare bankruptcy before the experiment begins.
Labels: abstinence, blogging, challenge, Internet
¶ 6:29 PM 4 comments
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Monday, November 12, 2007
Being as the hypocrites...
The interaction below with lisa b. of Hightouch Megastore has inspired me to go on a 20-day Internet hiatus starting on December 13 and ending January 1, 2008. And to make it an interesting project, I will document my efforts in a real-to-goodness journal I shall purchase for that very purpose.Why? I hear you ask. "Why not?" is my non-reply. Actually I do like to take breaks from all things electronic once in a while, but I've never documented it. Further more, you might do better to ask me something like "why don't you own a car you freak?" which seems like a perfectly more justifiable question.
Well I was going to, but it seems a bit too pushy to ask. Why the hell don't you have a car? What are you some kind of hippy? I guess I should have, but haven't, documented my self-chosen carlessness. There could have been some good money in that, after all. I mean, my heck, Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about buying local for a year, and there have been others. Guess I just missed my chance. Oh well. In any case, I don't own are car and I'm not really sure why anymore. Maybe that's why I haven't written about it.
Ah so going off the net is like not having a car? Maybe. I don't know. In any case, I'm going to take the hiatus and write about it while I'm doing it. I will then share the results when I return from the land of the disconnected.
Why December 13? No particular reason other than I will be done with work by then and headed out on a great long vacation. I also thought it would be cool to do 20 days. It has sort of a biblical ring to it.
Oh I was wondering about the 20 days bit. You were right to think about asking. I would go for 40 days, but I ain't got 40 days. Does anyone have 40 days to do anything any more? Not even Morgan Spurlock has 40 days!
What do you hope to learn from this experience? I think I want to explore how being hooked-up like I've been for most of my adult life changes my experience. I can already foresee a couple of problems: I do all my banking online at this point. I will have to make sure I pay everything before I go on my adventure.
So you are getting rid of everything electronic? No. Do you think I'm an idiot? I'm just going to dump the use of the Internet: email, blog, flickr, etc. I will maintain use of my cell phone (as it is my only means of communication). Since I am not a fool, I will also, if an emergency arises, violate my rule to access something that I can only get to on the Net (such as my banking) but I will document that usage as it happens.
What have you done for me lately? Not a damn thing. Hit the road, jack!
Labels: anti-blogging, blogging, dialog, Internet, italics, ludification, unhooking
¶ 2:53 PM 4 comments
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Friday, November 02, 2007
Im in yur netz readin yur blogz
Labels: blogging, brilliance, lolcat, NaBlogPoMo, wasteoftime
¶ 6:42 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
Doing my part to end world blog hunger
Lisa b of Hightouchmegastore has ordered that everyone blog every day for the month of November in honor of NaBlogPoMo or the National Blog Posting Month. Given my reputation for complete compliance to requests and peer pressure, I at first was tempted to take the entire month of November off from any sort of writing with the final post being "screw that" in regards to NaBlogPoMo. I don't mind being an asshole like that, generally, but I thought better of it as it would not be nice to Hightouch who has been a faithful reader and commenter for several years now, and I pretty much write the most inane crap everyday anyway, so it really isn't going to be that different now, is it?So here I am, just doing my part. Small children in India will no longer have to go without blog posts about ex-kid show stars who stalk bloggers to read!
"Good night, and good luck" or is that "Courage"?
Labels: blogging, cantakerous, contrarian, NaBlogPoMo, writing
¶ 11:59 PM 1 comments
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Sunday, April 01, 2007
Bus stop
So I'm standing across from my abode waiting for the bus to go downtown to the Depot to see Apples in Stereo and a car suddenly pulls up. I'm thinking that it is someone visiting the grandma who lives by the bus stop, but no. Out of the car pops a regular looking joe who asks "are you a blogger?""Uh, yes," I reply flicking my cigarette, feeling slightly self conscious about smoking, feeling that this fine upstanding citizen does not need to see me smoking.
"Theorris?"
"Yes."
"I'm Capital Carnage. I recognized you from your picture."
The wookie picture? Oh wait, I've posted various pictures of my fine visage over the years, I guess.
How odd, I think, wondering about the logistics of this chance happening.
- A car.
- A person waiting for a bus.
- A person driving a car.
- Said person notices a fellow blogger.
- Said person pulls over.
"Where's the Depot?"
"Way downtown," I reply. "We're going to see a show."
"What show?"
"Apples in Stereo!" Catinlap exudes energetically. He's had a few beers and is quite loquacious.
"It is a great band," I add.
Capital Carnage laughs. I laugh. Catinlap laughs. The Croin laughs.
Capital Carnage asks my real name and shakes my hand again. It was a pleasure to meet him.
Talk about surreal moments. The Croin likes to talk about surreal moments.
I prefer talking about broccoli or some shit like that. ¶ 12:46 AM 8 comments
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