Assignment Numero Uno –

 

 Howdy fellow classmates. Welcome to my Comm 385 class blog. Over the course of eight intense weeks I understand we’re going to be yakking back and forth and looking at each other’s blogs. That should be fun. Like most of you guys, I do a lot of work on the internet, so for sanity’s sake I’ve decided it’s best to address all the assignments on this fresh new page. That way everything is organized into a neat little compartment.

Big WARNING: I am an avid hyper-linker and I love posting information on a variety of topics on a variety of things. (Hyperlinks are those annoying  little weird underlined blue areas of text that will open new pages leading to articles or what-not) You certainly don’t have to click any of the links I provide within the text. Some lead to things I think are funny or interesting, some reference articles I considered and some are just shameless self-promotion to drive up my search optimization rankings.

 

So to kick off this week’s official assignment (by the way you didn’t really have to start reading until just now, I did say that above didn’t I???) I recently went on a purposeful 24 hiatus from the internet. I say purposeful because leaving it behind for a day is usually not a problem. I am the father of a 3 year old and have a full time jobby-job with the State of Oregon. I’m not really bragging about being busy, I only mention it in passing because I rely completely on the internet as the critical tool it’s become for almost every line of work. As someone who has to delicately balance the nuances and daily chaos of life,

I normally prepare ahead of time and get the information I need for whatever endeavor I’m undertaking. I think the best reason for living in Oregon, and Salem in particular, is that you can go from technological wizardry to primitive campsites is less than an hour. An hour to the beach or an hour to the mountains. I love to hike and often use Google Earth to map out trails in and around the Willamette Valley.

 So to prepare for having no internet all weekend, I grabbed some maps and we packed up the Subaru and hit the forest, leaving the stress of the connected populace behind us.

 Except for the price of gas, there were no boogie monsters, and the lack of a phone signal and internet didn’t cause withdrawals or rash decisions. I sat on a cool rock by the riverside and just let my imagination wander. My son, saw a program on the Sprout channel that talked about cloud watching and he wanted to know if we could try that. So after we played some soccer and chased rabbits around the park with his dog, we spread out a scratchy, weathered blanket and watched clouds.

(cloud watching)

It was a lot of fun and nice relaxing way to end a pleasant weekend. Later that day we ate pizza. yum.

 Now, if you had asked me to put down my mouse for more than 5 seconds back in the mid-‘90s when the internet was taking off and I was cutting my teeth on a dial-up with the first batch of HTML programming, I doubt I could have done it. People grow, and these days life has mellowed to an active and healthy routine. All in all, it was a nice weekend of fun. Society should do more of it.  

Shout out to the Sprout Channel! Haha...thanks so much for your post. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about your 24 hour abstinence from the internet. That was such a great idea to get away from technology to avoid it. I had to have my husband keep me accountable. It didn't seem to be to difficult for you to pick up and go. Do you do that a lot? Was there any particular issues you ran into in preparing for the trip without the internet? Thanks again for your perspective. - Amanda Colonia