All posts by Dona

[Not] Fanning the Flames

Rant, , , , , , ,

My inbox is nearly on fire this morning. Two email lists are very active with heated discussions. One centers on a proposed cell phone tower at the local high school and the other discussion is about accessible PDFs. While I have opinions about both issues I’m not going to participate in either discussion because I really don’t think that the folks with one view are really listening to the folks with an opposing view so participating in either discussion would be a waste of time, energy and emotions.

Passionate discussions on email lists and bulletin boards all seem to follow the same pattern. Someone posts a topic — sometimes it might be a little inflammatory, but many times it is simply an innocent question — which is true of both of the cases that are being discussed on the email lists today. Then someone answers the question or statement with one point of view and someone else responds to the person with another point of view. Then the really passionate folks start chiming in and often someone makes fun of someone on the other side and then someone from the other side defends their position using stronger words and before you know it, unless the moderator (or a seasoned list user) steps in and tells the folks to calm down or take it off-list or cease and desist, someone is being referred to as a Nazi. I’ve seen it so many times that it is actually sometimes fun to watch.

My 24 hours away from the Internet

Humor, Life

Not counting using my phone to check Facebook notifications (one time) and email (about 10 times), I spent yesterday Internet free. I mean I never used my computer to connect to the Internet.

Here’s what I did instead:

  • Gave a real live, in-person presentation to approximately 40 people about PDF accessibility with a woman I’d met via Twitter and my PDF accessibility blog (my first talk to that many people in 8 years not counting the brief one at a funeral)
  • Drove back and forth to Rockville twice
  • Watched my son’s wrestling team win their meet
  • Visited with son and husband while they packed waited for their ride to Snowshoe for two days of skiing and male bonding (2 adult males & 3 male teens)
  • Leafed through [every page] of the used copy of Jeff Smith’s Frugal Gourmet I recently picked up at a library sale.
  • Made and ate croque monsieur (and half an avocado with balsamic vinegar) for dinner (oh, yeah, and some red wine too)
  • Watched 2 movies (I Love You Man & The Yes Man — [was I missing my men?]) on Cinemax which we get free for 3 months because Verizon hopes we forget to cancel and then they can charge us even more money than they already do
  • Went to sleep at 9:30 (possibly result of red wine)

And you know what? Nothing bad happened. I didn’t get any important emails that I had to answer by last night. No one had a pressing question about PDF accessibility on my accessibility blog. No one had an email that had to be sent immediatly on my neighborhood email list. The wrestling coach didn’t have a post that had to be put up ASAP.

Will I do it again soon? Probably not.

Was it refreshing to stay away from the Internet for a whole day? Eh, it was fine. I didn’t really notice until this morning.

Did I accomplish  more than I would have done had I been online some of the day? Not really. Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe.

Do I have a problem and am I addicted to the Interenet? No comment.

Hoarding

Things, ,
Cables
cables

Yes, I admit it. I am a hoarder. I already admitted to being a pack rat, but didn’t mention the hoarding. After watching the two Edies in Grey Gardens, I figured I’d better come clean — and maybe clean up my closet as well.

What kinds of things do I hoard, you ask?

Mostly electronic related things. For instance here is a list of what I found in my [home] office closet:

  • 12 extra USB cords and one USB cord extender. (granted the cords are not all the same on the small end, but do I really need to keep these things?)
  • 3 extra firewire cords — I guess I might use them some day.
  • 10 extra RCA connectors
  • 3 extra Ethernet cords
  • A couple of cigarette lighter chargers & hands free earphone/microphones for phones we no longer own
  • Several AC cords that I don’t know what they are supposed to be connected to (or if we even still own the item it is meant for)
  • 2 extra FM antennas for stereos and at least 1 AM antenna
  • 2 cordless keyboards
  • 1 corded keyboard
  • A few extra mice, both corded and cordless
  • A CueCat (which i actually use for LibrayThing so I really cannot consider it part of my horde but I coveted it when a friend got one free from Wired Magazine so that’s sort of like hoarding)
  • Hundreds of CDs and DVDs with data or media from various computers I’ve owned over the years (at least I finally tossed the floppy disks I was hording a couple of years ago)
  • A few pairs of earphones, some of which are missing the soft part for the ears

I also tend to hoard recipes. I’ve got a bagful of recipes I cut out of the newspaper or magazines years ago and never tried. I buy cookbooks that I never open. My mom gave me a cookbook that belonged to my dad’s mother (which I don’t consider part of my hoard, but I’ve not used it yet). My aunt gave me a box of recipes that she got from her mother — some of which I may use, others don’t look so appetizing.

I used to hoard paper clips. I know why too —  I once or twice needed a paper clip and could not find one in the house (many years ago), so once I bought some I kept on buying them and if I found one on the floor at school would put it in my pocket to add to the paper clip container. I’ve since gotten over that, especially since I don’t handle hard copies much anymore.

Today I dragged all the extra things out of the closet and hope to figure out what should be kept and what can go. I’ll probably just stuff it all back in the closet though.

But at least I got a blog post out of it.