information overload

isn't it crazy how you can become attached to inanimate objects as though they were living breathing things? this past weekend i finally got around to building my new computer...well, actually, i bought the parts and my friend from work built it for me, i just handed him stuff.

the new computer is so much faster, sleeker and quieter...and, empty. after he built it, i looked in the case and said "is that all?" what had happened to all of the extra crap? the cables, the sound card, the "guts" of the computer? consolidated on the motherboard. remember back in the day when people had to take a stack of punched cards to a room where the computer was (and it literally took up the entire room) and load them (in sequence) then wait for hours while it executed? well, neither do i, but that's how it used to be.

these days, you get more bang for your buck. more space, more memory, faster processor, and while it would seem that those things should buy you more time, they only serve to ciphon away what little that you do. mobile devices and the need for constant information stimulus keep us coming back for more. i think my attention span has been cut in half in the last year or so. i am the queen of multi-tasking. i cannot recall the last time i actually did ONE thing at a time. i think it actually makes me uncomfortable. i am usually talking on my lan line while texting on my cell, blogging on my computer, youtubing videos, and a host of other things. when will the insanity end??

it is an actual prerequisite that whenever i stay in a hotel, there must be internet access. i do not travel without my laptop. it is fair to say, i am addicted. my "quiet" time is when i am flying. this is when i read, journal...think. it isn't that i don't do those things when i am at home, it's just that it takes me much longer to get around to doing them. my scrapbooking projects lay haphazardly strewn about my living room floor, and the beep of my text message alert is a constant source of interruption while writing.

i think i will resolve to schedule weekly quiet time, no phone, no internet, just me and my thoughts, a good book, my journal...then, maybe i'll slow down long enough to catch up with myself.