Rivendell, WIS

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Time is relative

After years of experience on the Internet, I've come to the conclusion that the theory of relativity holds true when it relates to time. Time online is not at all the same as time offline. I think it's because when online, our environment is so foreign to the real-life environment in which we've grown up. We're missing all the natural perimeters by which we usually measure our time.

For example, how long it takes to make coffee is a "known" to me. How long it takes to do a Google search and find the right website is an unknown, so perhaps I cannot evaluate beforehand whether or not the time spent is worthwhile. ? Going for a daily walk typically takes me 40 minutes. Sometimes, I look at all the other tasks I need to accomplish and decide that I don't have the time to take the walk. However, on the same day, I may decide to check my email, totally blind to the fact that this activity might eat up my walking time and then some.

Anyway... I'm off to call the bank to find out if they have a copy of the one checking statement out of the last twelve which I'm missing. That's right... It's been 12 months since I reconciled our account!!! I need someone around who will lock the computer each month unless I've balanced the checking account...

This post was inspired, btw, by a comment from Mother Auma about my post titled, "Help!" She said, " I have finally realized that when I know I have been on long enough I need to actually turn the computer *off* otherwise I keep popping back in when I have a minute.. which turns into an hour very quickly."

And I said, "I know exactly what you mean. In fact, I think I'll jot off a quick post about it. It shouldn't take more than... let's see... five minutes? Ha!"

The Curious ask: "How long did it take to write this post?" Eighteen minutes as of this second. More than triple what I estimated. I can see Albert Einstein looking over my shoulder, nodding his head...

2 Comments:

  • At 5:42 PM, Blogger Katie said…

    Ha ha! LOL!

    BTW, my turning off the computer trick did not work. The Internet is too insidiously useful for things such as looking-up-a-brief-bio-on-that-guy-who-wrote-the-book and figuring-out-what-all-the-fuss-is-over-Lebanon. And the list goes on. I wish I lived in the 1800s. Maybe. :o)

    (Economics wasn't so complex then either, you know. Consumption had not yet become the national pastime. But hey, at least we have electricity and indoor plumbing.)

    Love,
    Katie

     
  • At 9:50 PM, Blogger Amy Witt said…

    Here is to indoor plumbing and electricity!!!!!!

    I try the turn off the computer trick somedays and it works but then the next day I spend more time online. Oh well.

     

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