Lost

 

(Origin of the picture unknown.)

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly found myself without internet access.  Luckily it had been working just fine in the morning. I was able to complete and send off the income tax return forms and bank payments I'd been working with. Then I turned the computer off at lunch time. When I turned in on again later there was no connection. Waited a while to see if it would just come back. It didn't. So then I spent some futile energy on checking everything one should check before calling the service guys. You know -  shutting things off, unplugging, checking wires, restarting, looking for the manuals and all the numbers they might want... Then it was too late to make the phone call!   

Not sure whether 'funny' or 'scary' is the best word for how lost it suddenly made me feel, to find myself unexpectedly disconnected like that from "the rest of the world" - not knowing what was wrong, how long it might last, or how to fix it.

Still disconnected this morning. Had breakfast, then called the cable company. They informed me there was an external fault somewhere, nothing to do with my modem. They had been working on it since yesterday.  When I got off the phone and back to the computer... I found myself connected again!

Somewhere inside though, I have a sort of weird feeling that I might still need some shutting off and unplugging and recharging... Finding it very hard these days to get back to where I was, when something happens to disturb my concentration.

Rocket Post

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly found myself, for no apparent reason, without internet connection. What?! Why?! Help!!!

I confess: I have become an addict. I can no longer function without the WWW! Without access to it, I feel completely lost and out of touch with the rest of humanity!!!

Also have to confess, though, that the initial panic did not last all that long. After all, even though feeling a bit snowed in at the moment, I live right in the middle of civilization; and the only thing not in working order was the internet. Electricity, TV, phones etc were all working just fine.

So while waiting to see if the internet would sort itself out, I decided to watch something sobering to put things into perspective.

Nothing better for the purpose than the British film The Rocket Post (which I have on DVD).

The story is loosely based on experiments in the 1930s to provide a postal service by rocket mail to the island of Scarp off the coast of Scotland. (In those days, they did not yet have telephones on Scarp, and they were feeling a wee bit isolated.) For this purpose, a German inventor, Gerhard Zucker, was employed. Being German, he was of course received with some scepticism by the islanders; and at the same time, the German government was not too pleased with one of their own providing technology for the British. The story in the film focuses on this tension - and, of course, on a romantic love story... The making of the film was also surrounded by a bit of drama in itself, because while it was shot in 2001, it was not released until 2006 - three years after the death of the director, Stephen Whittaker.

Rocket mail, exciting though it may have sounded back in the 1930s, never became a big success. (And certainly not on the island of Scarp.)

However, one phrase used in the film hit me as I watched it yesterday. It was in some conversation comparing telephone vs. rocket mail: "Aye, but you cannot send letters by telephone."

Haven't we come a long way since then!!!

After watching the film, I unplugged my modem, plugged it in again - and voilà! I found myself once more reunited with the world wide web...

(PS. Photo of fireworks taken by me at New Year; not from the film.)

One Minute Winner

The One-Minute Writer blog by C. Beth encourages setting aside one minute a day for writing, and provides daily writing prompts. You can either link to a post at your own blog or just write a comment.

The other day I found that a comment I wrote on May 17 about the Internet had awarded me the button below. The writing prompt was: "Reflect on how the Internet has changed relationships, and whether the net effect is positive or negative."

Click on the button to read my entry as well as all the others!

And in case the button goes on strike some day, or whatever, here is a copy of my "winning" entry:

Nine years ago, an accident turned my life upside down. Not only did I have to stop working, I also had to make a lot of changes in my private social life. Since I can no longer "keep the same pace" or do the same things as many of my old friends, I have lost contact with a lot of them. But through the internet, I have found new friends, new interests, and new and different ways to keep up my some of my old interests, too. One good thing about the internet is that one does not necessarily need to be online at the same time to be able to have a meaningful discussion. In forums and blogs, you can "take your time" and still feel you are communicating with other people.

Picture from unknown source, found by Google picture search.

Quotation of the Week (19/09) - In medias res

"--- it was a conversation begun in medias res, a style of presentation he'd always liked --- for it meant that small talk had already been dispensed with, given that the conversation began in the middle, and in the middle of something the speaker had feelings about."

Martha Grimes, The Stargazey

The Wikipedia definition of the expression "in medias res" is:

In medias res, also medias in res (Latin for "into the midst of affairs (lit. into mid-affairs)"), refers to a literary and artistic technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning (ab ovo or ab initio). The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other.

Back in the 90's, I used to sometimes spend a summer holiday week going away somewhere on a creative writing course. One of the things I liked about these courses was that it was an exciting way to meet people; much like the quotation above. Usually on these courses, we did not bother much about introductions, but dived right into writing, and got to know each other that way.

I can't go away on that kind of courses any more because I can't really do anything "intensive" these days. (I also have difficulties travelling.) I miss that. But since I started exploring the Blog World, I find that this is also a very good way of getting into "in medias res" conversation with people. You jump right in, usually starting with the writer's latest post. And if you get interested, you can go backwards later, to find out more... But at the same time, it allows each one to keep his/ her own pace. Wonderful invention, the internet...!