Without Dash

The good things:

After an initial day of “what to do?”, I found that there is a whole world beyond my computer. I still did have a lot of offline work to do, but somehow the computer was not attractive to me without the little connection icon blinking.

I finally did a big spring clean in the house.

I also spend more time with the people I love and the local community, rather than interacting with this unknown global community.

The bad things:

Of course, I am way behind on my working schedule and the steady rise of visitors to my blogs went downwards a little.

But the main problem for me was physical exertion. After ages behind the computer it is not recommended to embark on a spring clean without warming up. After seven days of physical working rather than mental working, I fell ill. Pain in my back and knees prevented me from having a good sleep. All kind of creative ideas that I could not work out without my beloved Internet was another cause of staying awake at nights. It took me just a few days to get exhausted and sick. Luckily, without the pressure of work, I could spend a few lazy days and feel ready to work through the night now. (Which I won’t, because it is time to get back into my routine)

Another negative result of being disconnected from the world wide web is that I started to watch television, something which I normally would not do. And now I have gotten myself into a few series that I like to continue watching. I did see quite a few interesting things though this week. One of them was this typical ‘coincidence’.

I was watching an earlier show of Oprah in which people had to ‘live one week on less’. Families were challenged to live one week without computer/Internet, with a maximum of one hour television per day, five minutes in the shower max, spending money only on food and nothing else. It was such recognition to see these people living with less. Some of the children were screaming that they could not live without their computer. That was exactly how I felt…

Other things were purely consumerist behavior, which I cannot identify with. After watching the show, I’m proud to say that I am a person that does not spend ages in the shower, not use disposable plates/napkins/etc, am not watching television all day long (not even an hour per day), does not eat out or fast food very often, does laundry with cold water, do not even own a car or motorbike, and only recently got a water heater installed for my showers. I do have to say that my lifestyle is rather a necessity than a choice. But I am not unhappy because of this lifestyle. I enjoy it.

Take away any privileges, and it does not bother me. But do not… I repeat NOT take away my Internet connection!!!!