Well, I guess that explains the lack of Bleatage this morning.

I'll occasionally be offline for a couple of days at a time, most notably when I go visit my parents. They've got a computer and a dial-up connection, but my niece has so clogged their computer with spyware and other detritus that it takes forever to just take a look at my e-mail on that machine, so I tend to avoid it. And, I find that, by the time I get back home, I'm vibrating like a caffeine junkie, waiting to get online. :-)

LOL. And how many of us kept banging the reload button like a crack-addled monkey this morning muttering 'Where's Lileks, I need my Bleat?'

i teach communication studies, but i teach part-time which means that, along with my other adjunct colleagues, i'm relegated to sharing a very small windowless workroom with six computers, 3 of which work, with 24 other people on undecipherable schedules.

we do, however, have schedules for our "office hours" in recently remodeled meeting rooms just for that purpose. last week, the first week of term, i dutifully showed up for my two-hour stint -- in a room with NO COMPUTER.

i was so disappointed with myself. 56 years old and i had trouble sitting for two hours without email or the internet. i had to read a book! of course, only one student showed up (who wanted to transfer into one of my wednesday tutorials since it wasn't convenient to have to go to school friday afternoon...).

another hour and i have to do it again: two more hours in a room with no computer. if they only paid part-timers enough that i could afford a laptop with wireless.

at least i'm old enough to say "what's this world coming to..."

OMG LOL, its totally ZOMG LAWL now. Get with it Lil' X

Ich spreche nicht Jugendsmsen (I don't speak teen-text messaging).

As for stepping away from the machine, the only time I really do is when there's no wifi signal; I guess I'm hooked.

I wonder if modern philologists will be able to keep up with text-based languages as quickly as they are evolving.

(Or, devolve as those of us who like correct spelling might see it. Even the acronyms are getting sloppy. But I'm a fuddy-duddy and happily accept the title when it comes to grammar and spelling.)

On the other hand, it appears to be an effective form of communication for the teen set. I find it fascinating, pet peeves about correctness aside, how technology has driven the changes in the way people communicate rather than the other way around.

As to the original question, I like to go off-grid and read quite often. I'm apparently a closet luddite, though, as I've managed a decent white collar IT career sans cell phone. My peers don't know why I do it, but the ability to be unreachable is a highly valuable thing.

I have been reading Thunderstruck by Erik Larson which chronicles Marconi's early days in developing wireless telegraph. There are examples of early telegraph messages and for some reason I expected them to have abbreviations like "LOL" :

"OMG the Prince of Wales tripped down the stairs and broke his leg! FOFL"

"I wonder if modern philologists will be able to keep up with text-based languages as quickly as they are evolving."

I hope I'm not the only one who wondered, just for a second, what stamp collectors had to do with it.

Yes, I know. I'm an idiot.

A couple of years ago I lost my phone and Internet service because I had been behind on paying the bill. I lost the phone service first. When you called my number, you got a recording stating it was "temporarily disconnected."

I had DSL Internet service at the time, so I was able to still surf for a while. Then a month after the phone went out, the DSL signal got cut off. The first week or two was horrible. I felt like a sheep looking for a tomacco crop. I used my parents' computer about a week or two later, and it took me hours to wade through all of my e-mail. Most of it was subscriptions to various comic strips and other newsletters. I just purged those, and went for the ones from my friends, asking me where the heck I was. I shot a note to all of them, as well in our pet group, stating I was OK, that I was without the Internets, and don't know how long I'll be.

We have high-speed Internet (T1) at work, so during lunch I was able to keep up with all message boards I am signed up with, at least those I could get to through our filters.

During the Time of No Internets, I finally found stuff I could do around the house. I got the wallpaper in all three bedrooms and half the bathroom stripped. I got two bedrooms and the hallway all painted with Kilz. I took down some chain link fencing that was in the front yard. I did a lot of work.

Finally towards the end of that year, I got the old phone bill paid off, and got service through one of those third-party companies that offers service to people who have poor or no credit. I couldn't get DSL through them, so I had to go with nasty dial-up. About a year later I finally went back to the real phone company, moving my number to them, and signing up for DSL again.

Now I live with my parents, and my computer is hooked up to their DSL network. Life is good.

When we go on vacation, I try to avoid all Internet-related activity. On the first day, I'll check all my emails but only respond to the non-work ones. By the second day, I'm not reading the work ones and not replying to anything. By the third day, I don't even check.

Ditto with web sites. On the first day, I'll go to everything but not read any of it. By the second day I don't even look at any websites at all. The world could end in a meteor-fueled zombie plague and I wouldn't even know about it.

It usually takes me a week to get back up to my full online-enabled self following a vacation. When I retire, I'm going off the 'net. My grandkids can call me on the phone and mail me pictures, and I'll probably get a newspaper subscription again. T minus 30 years.

We've only got one computer in the house (crazy, I know--it's almost as bad as the fact that we've only got two TVs!). So, since I've got two boys, ages 11 and 13, I face one question when I'm "on," which is "When do you think you'll be off?"

I've been glad to have the opportunity to read books while my boys are online. I just re-read "I Am Legend," and now I'm re-reading "Earth Abides." Waiting for the library to get me "The World Without Us." Guess I'm on a post-apocalyptic kick these days.

>A couple of years ago I lost my phone and Internet [ . . .] When you called my number, you got a recording stating it was "temporarily disconnected."

Lileks called your number? That is so cool. Too bad he couldn't get through to you.

Claims to "teach communications studies" but can't seem to find the shift key or understand rudimentary punctuation.

My MacBookPro is attached physically to my hip. Between my blog, the blog carnival I run, my Lileks fix(es) and my full time online college courses I LIVE on this computer.

And on weekends, I don't get the Cleveland Browns game so I listen on the computer. Saturdays mean Notre Dame on the TV and NASCAR on the computer!

Oh yeah, I have a real job - I'm an RN. I was off the internet for two days at a time over the summer when I'd go down and stay with my sister who had been in an accident. It actually felt....good. I do take breaks to read now and then - nothing beats a good book (Hint to James - it's coming out WHEN?)

Luckily I only have one teenager left at home. She has HER laptop and my husband has HIS laptop and you should see us IMming each other when we are ten feet apart!

Apple should give us a discount between three laptops and two iPods.

And I nearly called Comcast when I didn't have my Bleat this morning. Surely it's their fault. I am reading the Buzz with my coffee but it ain't the same!

For a while that's how my Toshiba laptop was. I used to take it to work to listen to online radio, since our building blocks out almost every AM and FM signal. I used it to surf the Internet outside the home. Once or twice I used it when I did paranormal investigations a year or so ago. I used it more often to surf the 'Net at home than my desktop, since I could plug in an extra phone wire I had into an extra phone jack, and surf the Internet while watching TV. I did that mainly because of a chat room I'm in. Sometimes we're all watching the same thing, and I want to be able to actually watch it, and talk about it, instead of jumping up and down to see what's going on.

With your three laptops, two iPods, all you're missing is an iPhone or three. Then you can maybe buy stock in some fruit company.

I've posted a few thoughts on this subject over at my own Blog. Every once in a while it's good to just go offline for a while and catch up on reality (and no, reading political Blogs does not substitute for this, in case you're wondering.) I just have a really bad habit of dragging around everything but the kitchen sink when I travel.

Well, I actually do teach communication studies. In fact, I teach communication theory and media history, not journalism, though in the past, I have taught English composition and technical writing.

Not only that, while I teach part-time, I am also employed half-time in our university Research Office as a grants editor and communications officer. My primary job is writing, editing and proofreading.

Sorry. I'm getting defensive. Nasty trait.

I know all about shift keys and more than rudimentary punctuation (for example, not putting a period at the end of a sentence fragment).

but at about the age of 13, i fell for e.e. cummings and archie and mehitabel as well, and that was that -- most of which had to do with having a name that started with an E which i found clumsy and boxy as a capital and elegant as a small letter.

there you go.

have a good evening, everyone.

(P.S. Mr. Real John Galt, we live about 20 miles north of the former Galt, Ontario, now part of the amalgamated Cambridge -- home of another Real John Galt, though a much older one.)

1. Your statement does not form an actual sentence, no matter how you read it, with or without the subject line as part of it.

2. You might have missed the memo sent around a few years ago. That's fine, it's easy to summarize. Communication on the internet, particularly in a setting such is this, is hardly the same as formal communication as taught in a comm. studies course. Obviously, the internet is much closer to conversational speech. Also, on that note, 100% correct punctuation and capitalization might be nice things, but the lack of them in eedwards' post didn't at all detract from his meaning or the ability of readers to comprehend what he meant.

Having survived two separate incarnations as an actual, business card-carrying proofreader, I've adopted this credo: if I'm not being paid to make sure everything is perfect...then I don't care if it's not. Deal with it. (Not that I don't still notice the glaring errors of others, but I let my own slide.)

Not caring whether something is correct or not seems to be the credo of today's secondary school student. They will do well in the real world.

Were probably typing out about half the words to this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEWgs6YQR9A

Not a spam, I promise! You might even enjoy it-- Oxhorn, the fellow who makes these, puts amazing skill into it.

I love that video. It's a parody of the famous "Mahna-Mahna" video that was from The Muppets.

I don't know much about World of Warcraft, nor do I care to get involved in the hype. But that guy's songs are very funny, especially "12 Days of Winter's Veil."

Seeing all the comments about having no Internet or other services reminded me of this cartoon.

I should do that more often.

"Once or twice I used it when I did paranormal investigations a year or so ago."

I have to say, that one stopped me in my tracks! Delish! Patrick, r u a ghost? :-)

Not trying to give you a hard time ... I just loved the way that so casually noted that! Perelman once noted that Groucho Marx had a similar talent.

No, I'm not a ghost. I use the nic in other message boards to indicate my fascination with the paranormal.

I used to do paranormal investigations (ghost hunts) early last year and two to three years ago. The laptop I had came with Windows 2000, but I upgraded to XP, and installed an audio recording and editing program so I could use it at sites to record electronic voice phenomena, or EVPs. I also had dictation software installed on it, which I was going to use to transcribe the recordings. It did pretty well on a trial run, but it was so bulky to try to hold in one hand, a micrphone in another, and at the same time trying to walk through a cemetary or other outdoor site at night, trying not to step on a grave or trip over something. I had decided on its trial run to either use it indoors from now on, preferably where I can plug it in (save battery life), and set it on a table or the floor, and keep it in one room. I also intended to buy a wireless microphone, so I could actually set it up in one room of the building, and walk through the rest of the building. I'd need a wireless mic that would be very good, thus very expensive. If I had the wireless mic, I would have been able to set the laptop up in my car or whatever vehicle I was in, then walk around the outdoor site. Again, it would have to be one that could transmit up to 1,000 feet or so. I found one once that I almost ordered online that would have been able to transmit about the distance of a football field, shy a few yards from a touchdown.

Unfortunately I sold the laptop last year, and money has been very tight for me lately. Maybe next year I will get back into paranormal investigating, and buy a brand new laptop, put all the software I need on it, including the audio editing and dictation softwares, get the wireless microphone, and get back in the game.