Life Without the Internet

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Living, as I do, somewhat removed from civilisation, I tend to rely on the internet for much of the social interaction that normally comes from a day in the workplace. This means that a lot of my general day-to-day interaction happens not face-to-face, but in writing on IM or IRC, or (more rarely) over the phone.

This has come up twice in the past few days, and I'm going to address the second one first. In a conversation with my boss we were discussing the relative benefits of working remotely (as I do) and how some people are better cut out for the role than others. I commented to him - and it's a comment I've made to others also - that as I tend to express myself better in the written word than the spoken, that it suits me well. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - I have the best job in the world. The caveat here is that it is the best job in the world *for me*. Many would disagree, I'm sure.

The second conversation (or the first, I guess) was with Aurelius, and we were discussing how easily we would be able to abandon what he terms "Cyberia". Of course, being a hypothetical question, I had to discount a certain amount of reality - not the least of which being that, if I were to switch off my internet connection, I'd no longer have a job (see earlier "best job in the world" comment). That aside though, my own response surprised me a little, it was "yes, without question". It was then - and please forgive me if I delve into a little self-analysis here - that I realised I've come full-circle from where I was about two years ago. Then, the concept of making friends, being interactive and being socially accepted by my peers was king. Now, I really just want to please me.

Granted, if I didn't have the internet to play with, my gadget-addiction would probably have me pulling the toaster apart, but that aside, I think I've finally achieved what I wanted - I'm happy being me, I'm completely comfortable with my own company and impressing others and worrying about what they think is right up there on my list of things to do with vacuuming the curtains.

Perhaps Village Life is exactly what I needed, after all.



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As always, xkcd says it all in Comic 308

xkcd is issued under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial license. The statement from the xkcd website can be found here.

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Farewell, "Why Me"; I hardly knew thee

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Just a short note to let those who care know that I am ditching "Why Me?" (otherwise known as the "stolen identity story"). It's not because I don't like the story, or that I think it's not worthwhile. I believe it is a good story, and I have plans to resurrect it yet. The main problem is that the vehicle isn't quite right. The story has come to a sluggish halt quite early on in the piece and that in itself bothers me. I can see where it's heading, I just can't work out how to get the characters there. So I'm going to let it stew for a little while ... turn the temperature down, forget about it for a while.

I may have told some of you of an idea I had whilst singing in church a few months ago. That's all I'm going to say right now, as the idea is still in it's formative stages, and I'm not entirely certain where it's going to go yet. This story feels a little like "Stopping All Stations" to me, which is perhaps a good thing. I know the general feel of it, I know a few of the characters, and I know how they will intertwine. I'm not sure of the ending yet.

Perhaps that is the critical difference between this new one and "Why Me?". I knew where "Why Me?" ended, but not how the middle was going to happen. Both "Stopping All Stations" and the new idea have a beginning and a middle - and a squishy ending that is ready to be moulded to suit.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one :)