infodenbow

The Best Laid Plans

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Where did they go? Its been a long five years since I’ve lost a lot.

I have been doing everything else trying to get back to that life by taking on the odd job here and there and doing things I am not interested in.

I’ve been wandering around way too long and I haven’t the first damn clue as to what I am supposed to do.

My plans and goals and dreams have gone away and I don’t know how to get them back.

I want to return to making a self-sufficient life. One that can support my family. I want them to be proud of me. 

I want to be proud of myself. 

 

 

17 + 22

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Today, May 4th marks the 17th anniversary that I married the WonderWife.

Tomorrow, May 5th makes it a total of 22 years together.

I love you, Jenny.

The Internet circa 1938

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“The whole human memory can be, and probably in a short time will be, made accessible to every individual. “This new all-human cerebrum need not be concentrated in any one single place. It can be reproduced exactly and fully, in Peru, China, Iceland, Central Africa, or wherever else seems to afford an insurance against danger and interruption. It can have at once, the concentration of a craniate animal and the diffused vitality of an amoeba.

“In a universal organization and clarification of knowledge and ideas… in the evocation, that is, of what I have here called a World Brain… in that and in that alone, it is maintained, is there any clear hope of a really Competent Receiver for world affairs… We do not want dictators, we do not want oligarchic parties or class rule, we want a widespread world intelligence conscious of itself.”

—H. G. Wells in his 1938 prophecy World Brain.

Minimal Bookshelf

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“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” 
― Stephen King

For the longest time I collected and hoarded books. I loaded up bookshelves, totes and closet space to store them. But after moving around the country a few times those books began to become a burden and no longer a joy.

Eventually it became necessary to sell or donate these once-treasured items. I resisted the urge to go to an e-reader. That is almost blasphemy.

In most recent years I’ve discovered the value of digital reading. I can store thousands of books on my virtual bookshelf that I can hold in one hand. Now I get upset if I can’t find a digital copy of a book. 

I’ve purged almost all of my physical copies and have replaced only a few of them when migrating to digital.

Why didn’t I do this sooner?

Digital Moderation

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You know what I learned from my one week digital cleanse?

Moderation.

After a self-mandated abstinence from digital media I had almost 1000 blog feed posts waiting for me. 5,000 tweets and numerous G+ posts.

I redeemed my time by reading physical books, right-sizing the material stuff I own and dabbling into PhP, MySQL and Apache server systems.

So great was the temptation to consume media that I had to bury the pervasive Google apps in a folder deep down to the kernel.

I used Firefox for a week because Chrome has those tempting apps built in.

From here on out, I will moderate and limit my intake.

Check the feeds once a day. Check email twice a day.

Now it is time to declare digital bankruptcy and clear the notifications and alerts and the feeds. Starting from zero…now.

Attitude Adjustment

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The next time you adjust a setting, think twice. Sometimes it’s better to change yourself to appreciate the defaults than to change the defaults to suit you.

Someone
I am going to struggle with this concept.

Digital Cleanse

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After the mental stress of sending off the tax check I sat down to the laptop and mindlessly surfed the internet for an hour.

Right then I declared it is time for me to cleanse and purge.

As I consumed large quantities of posts, tweets, videos and images, the eyes strained, my back hurt and I wondered where the time went as I shuffled off to bed.

Yes, it was downtime but I kicked myself for not making the most of it. They say that “the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time” but this was not enjoyable. 

Over the past few years, we’ve been purging our material stuff and relied on essentials only. We are surviving without them. So it is also time for a quick cleanse to my digital consumption.

I don’t need to keep up with the latest news and trends. I am really not missing out. I don’t need to know that yet another company has shunned Android users with a great new app. Who cares? I used to. 

I will not be reading blog feeds, G+ posts, tweets or mindlessly surfing for a minimum of a week. Emails will be addressed from the laptop only, not the phone.

If I get a text, I will not respond immediately. You may get a voice response instead(!)

The laptop will be used only as a medium for tasks such as emails, bill paying, blogging, etc.

The tablet will do the same and for book reading only.

I’ll add more posts later with the thought processes and experiences.