Sometimes my thoughts go this way and that. I was plagued with my confusion over gender roles in American society. I had penned a few introductory sentences . . . then wham! I was up and off in the other room, thinking I had far better things to do one a sunny Saturday afternoon than sitting in front of a computer writing tomes of thought on why I have such confusion over gender roles in American society. But the computer drew me back.
E-mail, instant messages, blogs, news groups, communities, games, web cams and chat. The Internet has essentially become my link to the outside world. I am able to easily locate any information I want: the latest news right off the wires; the 'how-to-dos' on any subject in the news groups; discussions on all kinds of topics in communities; an impromptu game of spades at the gaming site; a distance face on a web cam; chat with people on the other side of the planet; the latest jokes, news from home, assorted correspondence . . . And SPAM, oh so much SPAM, in E-mail.
I am stuck in a little town with limited, very expensive, broad band service so I am connected by a third-world phone company to dialup service in a town 20 miles away. My connection speed is atrocious! I actually decided that maybe a different dialup service might make a difference, and contracted with another. He sent me a letter telling me that "it was attended service, and I had been connected for more than 11 hours." I responded simply that I was a "high end" user and hopefully there was not a problem with that. That service did not show any remarked difference, and in fact, was a bit worse . . . I will stay with my current service. The $20 gamble didn't pay off, so no need to keep the second service for an additional month.
I am a high end user, but in many ways, the lack of broad band makes it so. I find myself with five browser windows up at any one time, because the page loading time is so long, I have to have that many open to have one fully loaded by the time I get to it. If I find myself uploading a picture or a graphic . . . loading on everything halts. Often the connection dies, but will not disconnect. Reboot, and back to square one. It is an endless battle to get all my E-mail read, responses to messages in every medium, and to catch up on the news in three or so hours after work. The first eight hours are me attempting to sort through the various business related uses I have for my connection. So it is Saturday, a beautiful afternoon . . . and the best thing I can think to do with the free time is to sit here in front of this computer, catching up on the latest activities.
Posted by Tiger at April 12, 2003 04:32 PM