I'm back from Hangzhou a few days earlier than I expected because somebody rescheduled the oral English classes I was teaching to span two days instead of four. Which meant some scrambling and improvising on my part, but leaves me relieved to be back home tonight.
If I had a penny for every time over the course of my adult life that I've wanted to throw my computer away, I'd be a significantly richer man. I mean, I like the convenience of an internet connection and being able to communicate through e-mail at home, but the amount of time I spend/waste alone on this thing is amazing. Jodi really doesn't use the internet (doesn't have a computer) and so I'm wondering how I'd get by if I made the switch. These past couple of weeks I've been living in and out of a hotel where I had a TV in my room and I hardly touched the books that I brought to read thanks to Hangzhou TV's nightly James Bond flicks, and that made me realize how not having a TV in my house has been such a blessing. Also, I think back to the time between moving into my house and bringing back the computer when I visited the US over Chinese New Year, and now that the memory of the smoke-filled net cafes is growing faint I find myself getting nostalgic for the time when I used a computer at most a couple of times a week, and kept the house a lot cleaner, and found myself calling up my friends for dinner together instead of spending the evening trawling the net and going out for a quick dinner of friend rice at 2am.
Still, I'll reply to those e-mails. Just give me a little time.
Life first, filing second, Miss Lemmon!
I'm addicted to filing.
posted by Micah Sittig at 21:50,
2 comments
2 Comments:
...i still find it odd how educated people can make such sweeping generalizations about forms of media. now, i'm glad to be relieved of anything even remotely tempting on the tv, and i miss having more books to enjoy, but it just seems silly to glamorize book-reading as if it is by definition a comparatively worthwhile task. You'll say it yourself, here, in a week -- you feel well-enough rooted in theology, yet you feel as if you lack the ability to communicate those ideas effectively. i'm of course not claiming superiority ;) just saying that intake of media is intake of media. choose good stuff, in any format, or make your own...?
My blog is extremely personal. Stuff that I write on here applies to me and myself alone.
For example, I was raised on books and I don't understand TV. So when I watch television, my mind disengages and goes into entertainment mode. But when I read a book, I've trained myself to tackle the ideas inside, testing them against my own experience and being shaped by them at the same time. So for me, reading a book is worthwhile, and watching TV is "empty" time.
Also, we're still in the age where the great thinkers write books. I can see why a lot of people would anticipate a time when that is not so, but I don't think we're there yet.
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