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The Computer and the Damage Done

By Gloria Diaz

Check out Gloria's Blog — Edge of Gloria!

Fort Wayne Reader

2012-01-19

I haven't had a computer at home for a couple of weeks now, and I'm astonished at how much time I spend online. These past few days, if I need to get online, I do it at work or at the public library.

That being said, it's sort of nice to come home and not have access to the heroin known as the world wide web. Since I don't have a computer at home, I've had more time to clean up my place, which desperately needs it. I've thrown out probably a half dozen bags of trash in the last couple weeks, and today I finished painting a wall in my room. It's only taken me a year and a half to paint three walls. I figure in another six months, I'll take the stuff off the shelves of the fourth wall, take the shelves down, and paint that wall. Hopefully I won't be tired of my pink and white color scheme, and I can actually finish the job.

I've also taken time to just RELAX. I've changed to a new schedule, which hopefully will leave me less tired and stressed out than I've been for the last year and a half. It's weird; usually I feel bad if I sit and watch a movie. I don't know where this urge to keep busy comes from, but a lifelong tendency to be impatient and a possible midlife crisis keeps me feeling guilty if I don't use nearly every second of my time for a useful purpose.

Not having Facebook handy has helped my productivity a lot. A recent episode of The Simpsons poked fun at our addiction, and as usual, it was dead-on. "Springbook," created by Lisa Simpson, pointed out the absurdities of Facebook, complete with firefighters posting pictures of a fire they were in the process of putting out, but they were more concerned with picture quality than they were putting out the blaze. At the end of the episode, Lisa and Bart were outside playing, as they should be.

My own computer is in the shop, and I'm scared as to how much it will cost to get it back. My computer guy disappeared, so I tried to stay local. I did get a lead for finding him, but it may be too late for this go round. I would be okay with not having a computer, but I need to write this column. So I broke down and asked a friend to loan me a computer.

So, my productivity may have ground to a halt. Yesterday, I swept and mopped. Today I painted. I thought about rearranging my living room and dining room furniture, but I don't see it happening. I need to run some errands tomorrow. And now I've got a "connection" in both senses of the word. It was nice while it lasted. And now I'm going to check out a couple of other websites and my other email address to see what mail I've got. The dishes and laundry will have to wait until next month, or whenever.