Life Does This Sometimes

[amberfocus]

I lost internet access for 4 hours last night.  I was less than happy about it.  My phone went with it.  I'm surprised it didn't go for the trifecta and take out my cable TV as well, which I don't actually watch anymore, just have it for the kids and DH.  But the TV signal was fine.  Now since they all come into the house on the same cable, I don't really get why I still had telly but I did.  This is the first time since we've been with them that we've lost service due to anything other than a power failure so that's not too bad.  No, the point is I realized how bloody hard it is for me to go without internet access for that long. 

It's not that I'm addicted.  Well, yes, it is, but that's not my point.  My point is I use the internet for everything.  The kids' school is online and so are half of their assignments.  I don't keep a standard phone book anymore because I just look everything up on www.dexonline.com or do a google search for whatever I'm looking for, be it my dentist's number or the kids' doctor or the number of the dance studio so I can look up the times for Nutcracker rehearsal for the week.  I use it to check the grocery ads at our local stores since we don't get a newspaper.  I use it to look up an actor or actress I see somewhere who looks familiar but I can't place on IMDB.  I use it to download the little TV I do watch.  I use it to read about show synopses at www.epguides.com.  I use it to look up recipes for things my son can't eat processed anymore due to his chemical food allergies.  I use it to check www.nwcn.com for whether or not our river is on flood watch, or if any of our local roads are closed due to snowfall or when the ski season starts or if the slopes are open (since that means our roads will be very busy at certain times of the day).

When I write I am constantly looking stuff up on www.dictionary.com, usually for the thesaurus feature, since for the most part I can spell.  There are just so many times you can use the same turn of phrase in one chapter before you drive yourself, let alone your readers, crazy.  And I particularly like to find different ways of saying the same thing when I'm writing smut because there are only so many times you can refer to the Doctor's penis as an actual penis before it begins to grate on you.  Although some of you might like the Doctor's penis to grate on you but that is a whole other issue.  So, yes, the thesaurus feature for words like shaft, manhood, length, and how he uses it like sheathes himself, encases himself, buries himself, etc. within Rose.  He plunges and thrusts and parries and dances and glides and moves rhythmically  and jerks erratically, spasmodically, wildly, crazily...  And Rose, for her part, clamps and clenches and spasms and contracts and is overcome and has waves of bliss and on and on.  *laughs*

I also use it for research.  I want horselike names in Latin or Greek?  I look it up.  Oh, look there's Hipparion and Phillopos.  Let's give the merpeople names that have to do with water.  And play with light and dark with Lumos and Caligo.  So what if few people ever put it together and are just here for the smut and/or the storytelling...I still know what it means and that the background is there and it makes me happy.

Say I want evil villains from Orion?  He was a hunter.  Let's have pack hunters.  Let's name them after the Orion of legends' hunting dogs and let's make them actually have canine DNA while we're at it, then look up the Latin names for the animals they have DNA from and name the planets that and find a virus that was common amongst hyenas and give it to Rose and Ten's daughter Cassi.  Let's pull in the whole Andromeda myth while we're at it.  Let's weave in the fact that mythology took place in a place called Boeotia and weave that in with Jack's actual origin of the Boeshane penninsula, by placing it on the planet Boetia (not the city).  Hmm...can't do that without internet access.

Need to look up some interesting mineral or gemstone (star sapphire anyone?), it's there at my fingertips.  Want to add a photo so people can see what I'm talking about?  Oh, look, there's a good one, let's copy it and upload it to photobucket.  Need to research something on encyclopedia Brittanica like violent mating habits in animals that might provide good background information to explain an extremely primative first mating ritual of Gallifreyans like in Wolf Moon?  Oh, look, it's at my fingertips.

My point is for four hours last night I had none of that.  Weird how dependent I've become on being able to just jump over to wiki to see if there really is such a thing as a trinary star system (there is).  And I really, really don't like it.  I can go months without using my cell phone, but take away my internet and I feel authorially crippled.  It's so good to have it back.

Comments

[apurplepatch.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I've been considering my own addiction to technology today as we recieved a letter yesterday telling us that our power is being turned off for 8 hours in a little over a week on a SUNDAY.

I'm having to plan ahead for the enforced lack of technology by printing out things and making sure my ipod is fully charged and loaded - I might even have to resort to pen and paper and REAL BOOKS!

LOL. I'm glad you have your internet back - the internet is kinda like a TARDIS and everyone should have a TARDIS.

[solarflar3.livejournal.com]

Fook, now THAT is scary!

No tech, I think I would be a candidate for the psych hospital....!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well, I hope you make it through it. It seems crazy that it should be so hard for us.

[solarflar3.livejournal.com]

You live my life...

Living in a sort of rural area, and being the rather addictive/techie/nerd/aspie that I am, no internet makes Solar a rather stressed and floundering flappy, stimmy, stressed out person that she is..

Ah ignore me, it's been a BITCH of a week...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

It is hard though when you don't live around a lot of people and you then get cut off from the thing that keeps you connected to a lot of people. I'm sorry you are having such a hard week.

[electrictoes.livejournal.com]

I have severe issues whenever I am without internet, not just from a writing stand point; but in general.
Although, if I am writing I like to be specific so that if I have no internet access I get quite annoyed. I don't really write fanfiction atm, I've no idea why, but I just have issues with characterisation for Doctor Who characters and have fallen out of other fandoms. But I remember writing a Harry Potter fandom and making a point of looking up when the full moon was in October 1981. Nobody would know if it was wrong except me, but it bothers me, lol.
Also, I have both a dictionary and thesaurus in actual book form, but do I ever use them? No.

Anyway, glad you got it back!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've got the same things about wanting to get stuff right. And yeah, I have a dictionary and a thesaurus around here somewhere, but it's just so much easier to find the one on the internet most of the time! *laughs* It doesn't wander off like the books tend to.

[yummytimelord.livejournal.com]

I'm only a recent technology addict I've managed to avoid nearly everything with wires in it for quite a while now (telly, e-mail, last of my friends to join bebo etc) but I can count on one hand the days I haven't been on the net since I got my laptop 5 months ago. I was on the phone complaining instantly when my net wouldn't work yesterday (turns out was my own fault, meh I'm a newbie who's only figuring out half of this stuff as I go on), didn't know what to do with myself without my net!
I caught the references with the names of the centaurs and mermaids but didn't catch the Boetia reference, I love that kind of well thought out detailed background, gives your stories a nice depth.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And yeah, it's hard to know what to do with ourselves without the web. Just crazy that we can't get by happily without it.

[ravenclaw-devil.livejournal.com]

Glad you have your internet back!

This is the universe's way of laughing at us. Believe me, I know you're pain! My family has a cottage that is beautiful to visit, but has begun to drive me insane as it has no internet access. This was particularly difficult when we went up over 4th of July weekend this past summer...the same weekend JE aired. I cried. No really, I almost considered not going because of Doctor Who, but ended up going because my grandparents would have disowned me if I had not gone due to a TV show (I know, sacrilege!)

The point is, we are all of us addicted (and that became a bad thing when?) and removing the ability to feed that addiction is something the universe (or ones family) does when it (they) needs a cheap laugh.

My father, a complete technophobe loves to laugh at me when I'm stranded without internet as I start to climb the walls within hours out of deprivation and constantly remarks that thirty years ago there was no internet. This always makes me wonder what people did back then...I can't imagine a world with no internet...no wait that's that dark and scary place from whence there is no return. ^shivers^ Thank god we don't live then now!

Glad normal service has been resumed and you have your internet back. I hope the universe doesn't need any cheap laughs again soon!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yes, it really is. I don't think I would have been able to stand that...my favorite TV show or a family trip. Of course, I download everything anyway, so I would have coped same as usual, but still. I remember back when I was a kid, VCR's had just come out but we didn't have one. I was going away to a spring break camp (I was fourteen) and it was really hard for me to decide to go to it because the season finale of my absolute favorite show was on. I actually felt stressed the hour it was on while I was at camp because I was missing it. I am glad I went, but it drove me nuts. And then my mother surprised me by having had one of her friends tape it on their VCR and we went over there the next weekend to watch it. I was so thrilled. Even more thrilled when we finally got a VCR! Silly how much technology and these silly TV shows mean to us.

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Time Warner Cable does that to me all the frickin' time. My internet will be out, my phone won't work...but the cable is fine. WTF??? I don't get it.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I don't get it either. I've never had problems with Comcast before in over a year.

[ageless-aislynn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know the feeling SO well! Last year we went on vacation to see my grandma who doesn't have a computer and there was no handy access at a library or anything, so I was without the Internet for 3 and some weeks. I tried to keep the whole thing in perspective and have a good time with my family and all that but man, it was tough!

Earlier that year we had to have repairs done on our house and they would randomly shut our power off for 6 - 7 hours at a time. *twitch* o_O It's a wonder I didn't spend 2007 with a permanent twitch, lol! ;)

Then of course I've had my famous computer problems for this past couple of months, though at least I haven't been completely cut off, thank goodness! So I definitely feel your pain. There's just so much information at your finger tips, it's just wonderful! (I actually have picked up my remote, intending to look something up that I've just thought of... on the TV. Lol! ;) ) It's an addiction, that's for sure, but it's a wonderful one all the same. Not only for all the ready information but for the people from all over the world that we can interact with!

Although some of you might like the Doctor's penis to grate on you but that is a whole other issue.

I have no idea who you might could be referring to. *whistles innocently and adjusts halo* ;) :D ♥♥♥!!!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

3 weeks? Yowch! I shouldn't grumble about my four hours!

You know exactly who I'm referring to, dear! I see those horns beneath your halo. *grins*

[wiggiemomsi.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that long ago that any research meant a trip to the library, piles of books on the table, and much searching/copying.

*Gurgle*

HOW did we manage to live in those archaic times, anyway? (Although to this day I AM very fond of libraries ... and book stores!)

Thanks for the reference sites, by the way!

*Hugs*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

We didn't know any better?

[tardisblue.livejournal.com]

I totally know you felt when your internet went down. I'm quite dependent on the internet as well. Like you, with writing, I use the internet to research certain things, like terms or myths or symbolism; I also use the handy dandy dictionary.com thesaurus feature as well. My fiancee is living/going to school in the States, while I'm in Canada, so the main thing that we use to communicate is msn, otherwise, our phone bills would be absolutely monstrous. I use it to keep in touch with my friends, check the weather, watch Doctor Who episodes (as the dvds are soo expensive and we don't have cable!), look up random things that I'm curious about, etc, etc.

It's amazing that we don't realize how dependent on the internet we are until it goes out on us!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

It really is. It just really, really is.

[amyo67.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so glad you have your internet back. I know I often ponder how very reliant I have become on technology. I fear I may fall apart if the "Big One" hits in my lifetime leaving me without my gadgets and internet. And I think I will have to be on antidepressents if I don't get to keep up to date on all of you and everything here.
Sometimes I am in the grocery store and I see people, including me, using cel phones to check with someone at home about what they should pick up and I think, Oh my people used to just make a list and go with it.

ANyway, I am glad to hear you got your 'net back.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yeah, we really do rely on it, don't we?

[salimali.livejournal.com]

Oh my you do put a lot of research into your fics don't you? It makes them a fascinating and addictive read.

Thank you for putting all the effort into your fab fics x

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most of them I do. I like to give them that depth. You're welcome.

[captain91.livejournal.com]

poor you with no net *hug*

i've gone over to most things on the computer if not internet (downloaded dictionary because our net's slow etc) and on the odd occasion i don't have a pc i go spare. i have a real dictionary, thesaurus, set of encyclopaedias etc but i rarely use them.

i love that you put so much research into your fics. we might not pick it up from the story alone, but i always go through the comments and can guarantee finding extra information in there

glad your net's back, but i have a feeling i read on my scroll down that you're not going to be about anyway?

[captain91.livejournal.com]

that was dameruth going awol - i've got you 2 with the same colouring so it confuses me
*is glad there will still be someone about*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have encyclopedias, too, but I just don't find them as easy to use at 2 a.m. because I might wake someone up going out to find them. Grabbing my laptop and turning it on is much less likely to wake up the kids.

[kholly.livejournal.com]

My gut reaction to this was, oh come on people 4 hours shouldn't kill us. But how hypocritical would that be as I sit on the recliner with the dog and the laptop vying for space in front of a TV that hasn't been turned on in months because I too get everything on line.

It does sort of remind me of Sally's line in Blink with the guys being the internet and we're all supposed to have a chuckle at his expense.

But as I think about it I'm not so worried. After all, what makes an addiction to one technology better or worse than any other? When I was a kid I was constantly holed up in my room reading books and my dad thought that was great. But who cares what the delivery mechanism is - apart from the reliance on the cable companies - as longs as the stories are good ones.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, it shouldn't be so ridiculously hard at all. But that's the whole addiction part of it, isn't it? *laughs*