I'm baaaack!
It's been a frustrating past couple of weeks, connection-wise. Verizon in Maine did some padding upgrades on their lines, which made it difficult to get online during that time. If I managed to make a connection, I couldn't keep it for more than a few seconds before getting bumped offline. It seems to be working better now; proof that I'm actually able to post again, answer emails, etc.
Funny how we depend so much on the internet, isn't it? I'm a real johnny-come-lately to new technology; bought my first computer with a modem in 1999. I remember staying up until the wee hours of morning, surfing around, amazed--no, transfixed, literally--by all the information and sites I could find, both good and bad, some well-constructed and some not. I found writers/artists/publishers/BB sites and made like-minded friends (many still keep in touch). My horizons expanded; I've done much more traveling online than I could ever do in a lifetime offline, in person.
It's so good to have the internet back up and running...but the time without it made me wonder what we'd do if the World Wide Web (God forbid!) ever shut down. I'm talking total blackout everywhere. Could it happen? I dunno, but just in case, I'm going to create an address book (one I can hold in my hands) of all my pals so we can keep in touch by snail mail. Am I being paranoid? Maybe, but having something to fall back on can't hurt, can it?
Of course, if the internet goes belly-up for any reason, it would probably stand to reason our phones wouldn't work either, so we couldn't depend on those. Would the post offices face problems, too? Who knows. Our world might go from being quite small and compressed to being the huge planet our ancestors were familiar with, at least in terms of communication.
I remember a time when postage stamps were 7-cents each. I think if there were a communications blackout, the 37-cents we're paying now isn't anything compared to what stamps could cost. It would be unreal, wouldn't it?
This is just a fragment of what could be affected if we lost the internet. What about banking? The media? The economy in general? Scary thoughts there.
While we're thinking scary thoughts, I just found out one of my few non-fic pieces, Slippery Little Devil, has been accepted for the next issue of print mag, Morbid Curiosity. Yes, I'm going to share with MC subscribers a real life horror I experienced in 1995. This is something only my closest friends know about, but I really feel the need to make others aware. If it can save just one person from going through the same thing, it'll be well worth it. (It's something totally unexpected, something that should never happen, and there are ways to avoid it.)
Well, I'm off to catch up on some email, read posts at a couple of my favorite hangouts, then work some more on Devil's Dream, the novel I'm currently writing. Hallow House has gone out to my first readers, then goes off to market. I'm listening to Now-Is-Now's new CD, Days of Summer. Excellent songs, fantastic lyrics (hi to Mitch, and a big thank you to Dave!).
Friends in Florida, take good care of yourselves out there; looks like a rough one coming.
Keep in touch,
~T. M.
Funny how we depend so much on the internet, isn't it? I'm a real johnny-come-lately to new technology; bought my first computer with a modem in 1999. I remember staying up until the wee hours of morning, surfing around, amazed--no, transfixed, literally--by all the information and sites I could find, both good and bad, some well-constructed and some not. I found writers/artists/publishers/BB sites and made like-minded friends (many still keep in touch). My horizons expanded; I've done much more traveling online than I could ever do in a lifetime offline, in person.
It's so good to have the internet back up and running...but the time without it made me wonder what we'd do if the World Wide Web (God forbid!) ever shut down. I'm talking total blackout everywhere. Could it happen? I dunno, but just in case, I'm going to create an address book (one I can hold in my hands) of all my pals so we can keep in touch by snail mail. Am I being paranoid? Maybe, but having something to fall back on can't hurt, can it?
Of course, if the internet goes belly-up for any reason, it would probably stand to reason our phones wouldn't work either, so we couldn't depend on those. Would the post offices face problems, too? Who knows. Our world might go from being quite small and compressed to being the huge planet our ancestors were familiar with, at least in terms of communication.
I remember a time when postage stamps were 7-cents each. I think if there were a communications blackout, the 37-cents we're paying now isn't anything compared to what stamps could cost. It would be unreal, wouldn't it?
This is just a fragment of what could be affected if we lost the internet. What about banking? The media? The economy in general? Scary thoughts there.
While we're thinking scary thoughts, I just found out one of my few non-fic pieces, Slippery Little Devil, has been accepted for the next issue of print mag, Morbid Curiosity. Yes, I'm going to share with MC subscribers a real life horror I experienced in 1995. This is something only my closest friends know about, but I really feel the need to make others aware. If it can save just one person from going through the same thing, it'll be well worth it. (It's something totally unexpected, something that should never happen, and there are ways to avoid it.)
Well, I'm off to catch up on some email, read posts at a couple of my favorite hangouts, then work some more on Devil's Dream, the novel I'm currently writing. Hallow House has gone out to my first readers, then goes off to market. I'm listening to Now-Is-Now's new CD, Days of Summer. Excellent songs, fantastic lyrics (hi to Mitch, and a big thank you to Dave!).
Friends in Florida, take good care of yourselves out there; looks like a rough one coming.
Keep in touch,
~T. M.