Still without!

They lied! I am still without any broadband service and I am totally pissed off! In fact I am feeling quite depressed about the whole thing. The inability to send emails is so annoying. I didn't realise how much I relied on the internet for so many everyday things. In the last week I have used the phone constantly where in former, happier days I'd have sent an email and this small thing has wasted me so much time. With an email I reply on the whole immediately I read the email and it takes me no more than two minutes on average. Using the telephone it can take me a darn sight longer as there is all the general chitchat before one actually gets to the meat of the call and that is supposing that one can connect the first time one dials. And also unlike an email where I can see what I am saying, make it succinct and include everything I want to say, with the telephone the party the other end often interrupts to clarify a point or add something they want to say and the message I'm putting across becomes disjointed and bitty! Often I forget to say something important as the conversation has veered off track. These aren't chatty phone calls I'm talking about, these are business or semi-business calls.

Also not being able to send emails means I'm not able to make enquiries about things. I'm not able to get prices on stuff and I'm not able to get at the damn broadband provider! In short I am not a happy camper. And it is beginning to infect the way I operate on a daily basis as I'm wasting too much time checking out the service status!

So are we too dependent on the internet? Does it rule our lives? Has it taken over the world? I am dependant on it to the extent that it has enabled me to access a world that would otherwise have been out of my orbit. I am able to see what artists and craftspeople are doing all over the world not just locally. If I need to check on something, be it a dye recipe or a recipe for bread, then it is a simple click and choices for research unfold before me. I can keep in touch with friends quickly whereas in the past a letter would take weeks to arrive and the reply might be even more weeks in coming back. I can sell my work via the web as I can reach far more people. I can be inspired, motivated, rejuvinated by the things I read and see on the internet. I can also be depressed, sad and disheartened but that is the ying and yang of life, and for every negative moment there will be hundreds of positive things. Yes it rules my life to the point that I need to read my emails everyday and I choose to read other people's blogs, to stay in touch with what is going on and generally access stuff. But I don't let it take over so that I have no other life apart from computing. It has it's place in my day as does having breakfast but it isn't the be all and end all of everything. However in the same way that I would miss breakfast so I am missing the opportunity to take part in the world. It is all one sided.

I am back teaching this week so I have been dyeing like mad this weekend. I've been dyeing the wool that I bought at Allie Pallie and it looks lovely though not quite as dark a colour as I would have liked. But then I used Procion dyes as I was also dyeing fabric whereas for deep colours I should have used acid dyes. Perhaps tomorrow I might overdye some of them. I was feeling particularly lazy and so I have dyed several metres in plain colours and then tomorrow I will cut them up and overdye them. This should give me a really wide range of colours and patterns. I don't know how many students I will have this term but I'd better be prepared. I have several observations to do and some workshops so I am going to be busy for the next few months.