This Blog Post is Late

Through a series of non sequiturs and occasionally incoherent rambling, my Hello World post posed the question, “What does it mean when our social interactions move online?” Well, here we are a little over a week later, and I have learned one fact: this blog post is late. That’s right, a whole two days late. This post should have been released by 5:00 PM on Friday, but here I am in the early afternoon on Sunday submitting this post. Not on time, no, late. Tardy, if you will. If I read the syllabus with the thoroughness that I should have, I would probably know that I am only going to receive half-credit for this post. But alas, I started this sentence with a conjunction. Also, I think this is a great time to make a movie recommendation: The Money Pit starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, but I digress.

Two Weeks.

 This post is late because of a popular dung heap I like to call Time Warner. I sat down at my laptop Friday afternoon, and I opened my World Wide Web browser and I received the wonderful “Connection Error” screen. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “it appears that I have a full connection to the wireless network, but I do not have any internet.” It was just about that moment that I heard screams of agony from the neighboring room. Apparently one of my housemates was 2% away from successfully downloading the entire fourth season of the critically acclaimed television series The Twilight Zone when the internet decided to die. I know we’ve all been there. (I think it’s for the best anyway, the fourth season is where Rod Serling really started losing his marbles) So, I started another sentence with a conjunction. Right around that moment, I chuckled to myself. By virtue of losing the internet, I could not do my homework. Yes, there were alternative ways for me to find some internet and turn in the assignment, but that is not the point. Here I am, blogging about the implications of our social interactions moving online, and I am presented with the perfect predicament. Where we would once have to turn in a hard copy of our work to an actual professor or TA, maybe even exchange a glance or a few words, we are instead entering our work into an unforgiving, regimented box and clicking a button that we really have no basis to even trust. “Submit!”

Before & After: Rod Serling

Time Warner said they would come that evening to fix our internet problem, so I was excited because I now knew exactly what I wanted to blog about, albeit it a little late. The truck never showed. The next day they sent us what I will refer to as the Time Warner “B Team”. They didn’t have the right part in the truck. “The right part?” I wondered, “You drive around in a utility vehicle specifically equipped to fix cable and internet problems, but today you decided to not bring the whole tool kit?” It made me feel like I hired a plumber who doesn’t own a wrench. To make matters worse, we were out of Lemon Pledge. So here we are, Sunday, and the internet is back, and my post is late. Two days late. But it was strangely kind of cool not having internet. Don’t get me wrong, I love browsing the internet tubes as much as the next guy, but I had a nice long conversation with my roommate last night. It wasn’t anything emotional or deep, but it was an enjoyable conversation. One we haven’t had in a while. One that we probably wouldn’t have had if we had the wonder of the internet immediately at our fingertips.

I’m glad the internet is back; if for no other reason, I can finally do my homework. But I have to start another sentence with a conjunction. It was a two day vacation, and I’m not saying it was all great. The lackluster Verizon 3G on my phone let me know how many emails I was missing; there is a certain anxiety about turning in assignments late; I couldn’t watch “Gangnam Style” by PSY. All serious problems. When the internet came back, however, the world was still spinning. We survived. My housemate downloaded the final 2%, and I now get to submit this post as I listen to the foreboding opening theme of The Twilight Zone while Mr. Serling warns me that “I am traveling to another dimension”. More than you know Rod, more than you know.

Another Dimension Indeed...