It's good to be back online. We lost our Internet connection at home on Tuesday, and it has only come back on for a few minutes sporadically ever since then, just enough time to send a quick email before it vanishes again. Making sure goos got published in time wasn't easy.

It's no fun feeling dumb when you call tech support. The first thing we did when we lost the Internet connection was to turn off the cable modem, wait for it to reset, and try it again, then repeat with the router. No luck after several tries. So of course when I finally get tech support on the line, they tell me to do just that, and I do, and the connection comes right back up, and I get a short educational lecture about how that helps. Five minutes after I hang up, the connection disappears again. Thanks.

The technician today finally determined that the jack in the wall was failing, so we switched to another and it's fine now... just in time for us to spend the evening and all day tomorrow out with friends. I need to spend less time online anyway. I thought Internet addiction was a joke until I had to face it for a few days.


Four Replies to Jacked

Scott Hardie | November 21, 2009
This ended abruptly. I should explain that Internet withdrawal made me very cranky, very stressed out, unable to relax for days. I didn't feel liberated; I felt like my nerves were frayed and my patience was gone. I need to cultivate more offline hobbies, and by extension I mean hobbies that don't require sitting in front of any kind of screen.

Justin Conner | November 21, 2009
I have had the same feeling when disconnected from my video games. I think it is because I use them as an escapism technique to destress myself. After using this escapism for a long time I came to depend on it. It got to the point where I was addicted to video games and didn't know how to destress without them.

Amy Austin | November 21, 2009
Internet addiction... it's no joke!!!

Jackie Mason | November 21, 2009
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Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Solitaire

Right now, I don't think I could write emotionally about my feelings from last night as well as I could have in the moment, but I haven't finished considering them and this is a part of that process. Long story short, I found myself passing on friends who really wanted to spend time with me in order to sit here and write code for Celebrity Goo Game, and I came to question what the hell I was doing. As in, my whole lifestyle. Go »

2012

What a great year. Kelly and I got engaged. Kelly gained permanent employment and health benefits. Go »

Buying a Printer

I bet if you work in a grocery store, you spend part of the time rearranging food that you know is going to get thrown away after it doesn't sell, so you feel like you're going to a lot of trouble for nothing. That's what buying a printer feels like. I hate buying printers because I'm highly skeptical that I can find one that will still work after six months, after Kelly and I have gone through a long series of them for the last ten years that all broke down like flimsy pieces of crap. Go »

I Miss My Site

Things I would rather have done than work until 2am on a Sunday: - Fix the Obsessions page. - Fix the sidebar on my blog. - Review Spider-Man 3. Go »

Give Me a Little Credit Here

Today's junk-mail pitch from Visa: "Most credit card companies know you as a number. Sean, we know you by name." Go »

Gigantism

Thanks to a friend who couldn't use them, I scored They Might Be Giants tickets to replace the broken Valentines gift that I originally bought for Kelly. We took in the show last night with two other friends who happened to be going, Nathan and Raquel, and it was a great time. Most of my concerts have been metal, so I'm used to screaming and head-banging, and I didn't exactly know how to get into the music, especially since I was the least familiar with the TMBG catalog. Go »