All Cozy and Connected

If you could see me much of the time, you'd find me right here in the trusty computer chair. For the past dozen or so years that I've been connected to the world via the internet I've been, for the most part, a chair (as opposed to couch) potato. Joe Scooter Rider is a relatively new persona of mine, and even the scooter riding comes right back to this very spot in which I sit at the moment because it wasn't long after I got my butt on the Fly50 that I started writing here about my scootering adventures which aren't, actually, very adventuresome except that my being on a two wheeled, motorized means of conveyance at all remains out of character for my overall personality.

On the rare and far between instances of network outages that I've experienced, I've felt horribly disassociated from the world. I'll bet the Germans have a word for that feeling. Those crafty wordsmiths seem to have a great word for everything, like "arschgeweih," which I learned recently from my daughter's German III college course, and "schadenfreude" which has been around for a while now. When I'm not able to get on the 'net for while I experience a withdrawal of sorts whether it's because of an ISP problem or simply that I'm a scooter ride away from a computer.

Those of you who've been here for a long time might recall two summers ago when I discovered the joy of writing an occasional blog entry from a public park while out scootering. There might be another German word for that too, but if there is, I don't know it. There's a sense of freedom about it. A sense of naughtiness too, somehow - maybe just from "borrowing" the bandwidth on somebody's WLAN. I was out of this chair, but I was still connected to the rest of the world, and I liked it! The trouble, though, was that I'm lazy, and packing up the laptop and then setting it up on a table in the park wasn't worth the hassle. The joy was short lived.

I'm off my tether again now, with the iPod Touch, and I've been having an absolute blast with it. I did a few e-mails from the toilet at work this morning and I enjoyed that unusual sense of freedom to the max. (Hmmmm. I might feel a new German word coming on... "Poopinmailen!") There are those folks who feel somehow insulted if you talk to them on your cell while you're pinching a loaf. Why? It's not like you're pushing the goop into your phone and extruding it into their ears. If there's anybody who's going to feel slighted if I write him an e-mail from the hopper, he'll just have to get over it. And for that matter, that goes just as well should I happen to tend to a mail between the shower and getting dressed.

Okay, I'm not going to write any major posts on the virtual keyboard; I know that already. I will, however, be able to check mails, get directions, keep an eye on the weather, and even peek in on my own webcam while I'm on the scooter this summer. I won't have to dismount, get the laptop out of the back pack, and go through all the rigmarole just to feel the connectedness that I can barely live without. On the occasion that I do feel like setting up the full shop on a picnic table to work on something more substantial, the iPod will serve as a handy wifi finder, and I won't be more than the nearest McDonald's away from all of you. Now doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

The internet! It's not just for your computer chair any more! I was going to write, "It's not just for when you're fully clothed any more," but I hear there are lots of folks who aren't necessarily dressed to the nines when they're web surfing as it is so I'll quit while I'm ahead - or at least think that I am.