July 6, 2003

The Monkey on My Back

I disconnected yesterday. No, I wasn't in the mountains hiking I was at home, the power was on, the network connection was working (the kids were online). I did not boot up my system at all.

By early afternoon the withdrawal systems were palpable: what happened at Henley; what happened in the Prologue; was anybody reading Modulator (but why, there was no fresh content), was there new email, what were you talking about in the blogosphere? For hours every time I paused from other activities I'd feel the grasping tendrils of the net pulling at me.

I did, though, finish the new Harry Potter, mow the lawn, do some rearranging in my office and by dinner time I did not feel the reach of the net near as strongly. Later in the evening we watched a 1969 cinamatic essay on freedom in the United States: Easy Rider. At the end it was not clear that much has changed.

No withdrawal pangs this morning: a leisure read of today's papers (lots of bloggable stuff, but for another time), household chores, this post, workout, and later maybe we'll go see the new Matrix before it exits the theaters.

Posted by Steve on July 6, 2003
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