10.7.08

Will work for internet

The internet has been down at our apartment the last few days.  They might has well just turned off our electricity. I feel like I'm living on the Little House on the Prairie. We have to walk 2 whole blocks everyday just to check our facebooks and emails.  It's terrible. It's amazing how internet-dependent I've become. Especially google.  I probably google three new things a day. Now I'm reduced to writing them down on scraps of paper till I can get near a computer.  
I've also recently become addicted to watching tv shows online. Had you told me two years ago I would be not only using a computer to watch tv, but wouldn't even own a set, I'd call you crazy. As a staunch television advocate, I was one of the last people in the world to believe that computers could ever replace a tv. But now I'm not so sure.  Luckily there's still one thing that computers have yet to replicate; the joy of finding a mediocre movie when there's nothing better on.  It's late at night, you're bored and ready to shut off your brain for a few hours, and what do you happen to come across? Clueless. Or The Eraser. Or Big Daddy. Until computers can reproduce the joy of channel surfing, I think tv is going to be ok.  
One upside is that without the computer around to distract me, I've spent more time reading. One of the obvious perks about working at a library is you get to be around books all day.  Combine that with a measly 4 hour workday, and you have a recipe for reading. 
Books I've Read this Summer
Widow for a Year by John Irving 
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy 
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin 
When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn 
Books I am Currently Reading
How to be Funny by Steve Allen
Rise of the Creative Class by Dr. Richard Florida
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
Crimes Against Nature by RFK, Jr. 
Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Earth First- Story of the Earth Liberation Front by Dave Foreman

Of these, I highly recommend Perfume, Born Standing Up, and Crimes Against Nature.  All 3 are fantastic. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The equivalent of channel-surfing but for the internet:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

It's a little button that you click that takes you to a random site. I've burned hours of time surfing the internet with that button. You might check it out!

Also, this is a summer of reading for me too! I just finished the Hobbit and I'm working through the Chronicles of Narnia right now.

jenn said...

how dare you call clueless a mediocre movie!

recommend me some books...i need to find a more productive use for my loads of summer free time.

p.s. hi harrison!

This lady said...

Harrison!
I love your blog. I wish Mike and I could've had the time to come see you in NO, and gone to a freegan potluck dinner with you. That sounds incredible (I may have been too germaphobic to partake)! I'm glad you're having a good time there.

-Amanda

P.S. I've been dying to read 'Born Standing Up'. It's on my Amazon wishlist.