5/21/09

RURAL LIFE and hitting the bandwidth wall


Ever have one of those days when you hit the bandwidth wall and then it turns into the next day and the next? No? Then you don't live in a rural area where you're lucky to get bandwidth and if you do you have to constantly keep watching it because if you go over the 75 percentile you realize if a client sends a big file you're pretty much screwed. Not wanting to go sit at the coffee house with my laptop for a few hours waiting for a large file to download I've kept myself in a net Siberia. Minimal access and only to collect email. This has proven to be somewhat successful in that I'm now down to 73%, but I'm sure I have another week before it drops to a place where I feel comfortable, especially since I have large jobs to send in the coming week.

It's been good and bad. The good is that you really can live without blogs and there are other places to get news than online. It's been a bit like camping except I'm in my house each day and the view out my window is the same each day and...okay, it's nothing like camping. A person can easily live without the net. 

The bad...I'm rolling my eyes and thinking...I miss the self-absorption. Yeah, that's it. I missed "hearing" my own voice in front of me on the screen and seeing what others were doing on their screens. Hmmmmm...I guess that wouldn't really qualify as bad, would it? A break from self-absorption is good, right? Oh bother...

I needed to post this photo which was bought at an estate sale. It somehow seems fitting for this post. I always wondered in what context I would use this shot. A lovely woman who was actually a model from what I've been able to determine from the scraps of her life I bought. Let her thumbing her nose at a friend in a good natured way be me thumbing my nose at technology and the hold it has on my life. It is my last and only word for the night. And now I must go check the blasted bandwidth again.

thumbing_tatteredandlost

2 comments:

  1. I'm here via Willow at Willow Manor. I love your blog and am enjoying scrolling through your pages of interesting photos and words.

    I lived with limited bandwidth for nearly six years. It was a constant challenge because I worked from home. To be without the internet was a work issue.

    Still, there are days when an enforce break would mean time to do other things that fall to the bottom of the priority list when the siren song of blogs, etc. calls.

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  2. Thank you Lisa. Fellow bandwidth traveller. I had dial-up until around a year and a half ago. Finally went with satellite because that was my only other option. What a difference, but still not as fast as my clients so they have to be patient with me when I need to send in big jobs. And yes, sometimes when it slows to a crawl I remind myself that maybe that's a good thing. I can find something useful to do without a computer. Thanks for stopping in.

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