Re: [tlug] OT - Shutdown day

["SL Baur" <steve@example.com>]

On 4/16/08, Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> wrote:

> I dunno; to me it seems valuable in an introspective sense. I'd like
>  to know just how thoroughly I rely on my computer and the 'Net as a
>  whole.

If that's the way you feel, that's the way you feel ...

>  Plus the power savings stuff can be used to raise awareness of how
>  much energy can be saved by making computers more energy-efficient.
>
>  I think I may participate.

And that's maybe the worst reason.  Sigh.

For anyone who has read my resume on monster.com and
whereever else I put it, or who knows me well there are strange
gaps in my job history.  For example between 1992 and 1995 I got
completely and totally burned out.  I was still somewhat young, I
had some money from a good paying contract, so I decided to
purse a lifelong dream of becoming a professional athlete.  I had a
home Unix box at first, but after it suffered a catastrophic head
crash, I didn't replace it.  So for the better part of three years, I went
without touching a computer.  Oh and proving that the little head
always thinks for the big head, I had echoing through my mind a
statement from an ex-girlfriend who had told me that I couldn't
possibly survive a day without a computer.

So tell me, what does one day prove, other than you have followed
the lead of some whining wankers who want you to think that going
one day means anything?  It doesn't.

Times have changed.  I took a computer with me when I was home
with my wife over Christmas/New Years and the only time the thing
was turned on was when we were doing, like you know, private
stuff and the computer was providing background music and the
other time was when she wanted to see what World of Warcraft
looked like.

The way American society has developed over my lifetime, I'm
a firm believer that folks past school age are much, much better
off spending spare time on a computer than practically anything
else.  Socializing over a computer is not quite the same as
socializing with people directly, but it's certainly better than the old
fortunes -o quote "Who needs friends, when you can sit alone in
your room and drink?" or spending endless hours glued to a TV
set.

-sb