April 11: Reliance upon the internet

I realised today just how reliant I am on the internet for every day things:

Banking
Conversing
Socialising
Business
Training
Blogging

We have, at best, a dodgy internet provider (I’m pretty sure they’re just a bunch of DoDo’s). We are left without access just as often as we are left with it. And I always find myself left kind of at a loose end when I know I can’t get online and I start to get antsy.

My dodgy connection is one of the reasons I ceased playing games on line, it’s why I don’t make catch up dates on FB and it’s why I would be lost without my SmartPhone.

Do you remember when the internet was actually something that only the “rich” could afford. Or, if you were lucky, they had it at school for research. I remember when my mum first got it on and I tried to play Neopets. I could go to the page, and make mum a cuppa whilst it loaded. Any way, I digress… a lot…

I spend a lot of time online networking, trainings, buying and selling. It is how I fill days, make payments, shop, spend; it is, ironically, where I go when I need human interaction.

We live in an age where the most common answer is “Google it.” If you’re not on Facebook it’s like you’re an alien species. If you have limited access to the internet, you’re technologically retarded and are restricted in most things, such as employment opportunities and study.

Our entire world is now internet based: you can grocery shop, interact, run the bloody stock market on it.
Without it, our whole world would be doomed… like Mayan doomed.

My baby sisters don’t remember a world without internet. They have a world where FaceBook controls every thing they do.

My big sister and I remember days on end running rampant around the Pine plantation the was bordering our town. We remember going to someones house and hoping they’re home, instead of FaceBooking them.

We have become a society that is so reliant on the Web that nearly everyone is lost, or bordering on death by boredom, without it. Now, I could set myself a goal and say “no internet for a day” to try and prove myself wrong… except I know that I would only drive myself crazy and end up failing miserably.

What do you think?
Do you think that the internet has become such a fixture in societies life that we would not cope without it?
Do you ever abstain from it, just to see if you can?
Or are you one of the few that doesn’t live on it?

I love the internet, don’t get me wrong. But it scares me when I sit back and realise just how much I feel I need it every day, just for the most basic of tasks.

APRIL 10: Girl needs job, Girl meets Boy…

Daniel and I are a testament to how workplace relationships can actually work…

On the 16 of Feb 2006 I went into Dominos at the urging of my cousin who knew I needed a job. Her doing that changed my life irrevocably.

After spending a lot of time together, and Dan being there for me at a time where I needed it most, we became friends but it soon developed into something more. Ok, so I may have exaggerated my love of Creedence Clearwater Revival but  hey, that’s just semantics.

On the 10th of April, we sat up until 7am watching re-runs of BeWitched and discussing whether or not Boo Radley would have been as scared as he was if Scout and Jem had just left him alone when Dill came for visits.

We made bets on characters of TV shows, and I’ll be honest, I still owe him 5 bucks from Dick van Dyke not being Darren. We laughed, we spoke, we just spent the time together comfortable in each others company.

It took him two days to stay at my unit, and another 7 before he began staying there every night. I’m not going to lie, it was beneficial to me because where I lived wasn’t exactly the safest for a country bumpkin living all on her lonesome. He made me feel safe in my own home for the first time in weeks, and I stopped staying at my grandparents every night – I think they were grateful too!

In the last six years, Dan and I have travelled OS, to Queensland, gone for weekends away in Melbourne and Sydney, done spontaneous road trips with no clue where we headed.

We have somehow survived the downs, and then the rock bottoms; I am still here after many moments where I bet that he fantasized slitting my throat with a plastic Spork, and he is here even though I have imagined a spatula sticking out of his ear on more than one occasion.

We do not have the perfect relationship – we fight, we disagree, and we have bouts of “How the eff do you come up with that freakin’ conclusion!?!”

But, we have managed to work through it, one way or another; it may have taken some drastic action from either side – including the hiding of my Scrubs seasons – but hey… we did it.

He has lived through marathons of Twilight and Full House; I have lived through weeks of Star trek, SG1, and M*A*S*H.

We have our own little code words and idiosyncrasies and know that a particular twitch of an eye brow means “get me the eff out of here!”

And we know, that no matter what or who tries to put an end to our relationship, we are stronger than them. Even if that strength does come from him going for Cronulla and me going for Illawarra!!!