How I Spent My Week Away From the Internet
Posted on September 22, 2019 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
Here’s what I did!
1. Wrote more in The Last Emperox. It was good, you’re going to like it, I think. Still have more to do, expect me to keep focusing on that until it’s done.
2. Went out and saw friends on several different occasions. This involved a lot of driving, so I drove rather more than I usually do.
3. Hung out with Krissy, who is my wife, and who is pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself.
4. Avoided most news, but not all of it, and what I saw: Oy. However, feel free not to try to catch me up in the comments. I can handle that one on my own, thanks.
5. Did some business. Nothing I can tell you about yet, but most of it good.
6. Petted the cats quite a bit, and also my mother-in-law’s dogs as well.
7. Ate a turkey leg at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. This is an annual thing. I need not eat another turkey leg until around this time next year.
8. Had a number of weirdly vivid dreams.
9. Took some naps. Naps are good.
10. Didn’t actually miss the Internet all that much. I think that’s a good sign.
Hope your last week was similarly groovy.
Naps are, in fact, quite underrated. I may have one now.
A turkey drumstick will pretty much last you a year, or your money back.
Hung put with someome, or Hanged out with someone? This is one of the word choices that keep me up at night.
Naps are always good.
Pics, or it didn’t happen.
(I’m kidding, I’m kidding.)
Just curious, has turkey already been exported to Europe during the Renaissance?
Very glad to hear that your break was so restorative! Sometimes we all need to step back from all the crap going on and just be inside our own heads, and it is reassuring that you found a way to do that. Good luck moving forward with your next objectives – really looking forward to the book!
My week was fairly average, thanks for asking. I wouldn’t describe it as “groovy,” but it didn’t suck, so there’s that.
Last summer my husband and I spent a few days at a lodge near Lake Clark National Park in Alaska. No internet, no TV, no pesky national news. Just long days, bears, foxes, seabirds, really good food, and more bears. It was glorious.
“7. Ate a turkey leg at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. This is an annual thing. I need not eat another turkey leg until around this time next year.”
Don’t you do Thanksgiving, or are you a white-meat kind of guy?
Theophylact:
We eat turkey for holidays and I enjoy dark meat then but usually we take a meat off the bone before serving so a) I don’t know where the dark meat is coming from specifically, b) I don’t eat an entire leg of it.
I love this. I am on Day 2 (yes only day 2) of no Facebook. I’m going to try and keep this. Oh my the struggle though. Missing all of the memories, the invites, the stuff I marked interested that reminds me and I go … this is my third attempt and it feels like a sick addiction. I already don’t do the news … I’m trying to decide if my life is fuller because of this disconnect. I’m pretty sure it will be. I also found myself petting my dogs extra. Wish me luck
Nice thing about working in a SCIF in Chantilly. No cell phones, no facebook. Very little other internet.
Alex Y, Kwan, here ya go:
https://web.extension.illinois.edu/turkey/history.cfm
Specifically:
“Which came first—the Pilgrim or the turkey?
“Wild turkeys were probably first domesticated by native Mexicans. Spaniards brought tame Mexican turkeys to Europe in 1519, and they reached England by 1524. The Pilgrims actually brought several turkeys to America on the voyage in 1620.”
I am a bit intrigued that that a man who grew up in southern California is very happy to live in rural Ohio. It’s clear that you have integrated into the local culture and that you like it. I myself grew up about thirty miles away from where you live and I do love Ohio and its’ people although I haven’t been back in a while. I now live in the western suburbs of Paris (long story, found a good job and a wonderful french wife many years ago) in France and when people hear that they say “Wow” but I don’t see that as something exceptional. In my interactions with those from Southern California is that they could not imagine living in such a place as Ohio yet you do and are happy there. What is the attraction? Is it the lifestyle, family, friends and work that you love? Are you one of those who can be happy anywhere as long as you have those inputs?
About 3 decades ago, I survived eating a BBQ turkey leg at Disney World in July, about 98 degrees in direct sunlight. I may be ready for another in another 30 years.
One can’t help but wonder if the turkey leg eating and the napping are at all related to one another.
Everytime i eat a tutkey leg, i wonder if it doesnt have extra bones in it.
The internet chugged along, politics chugged along, and I’m not sure we’re quite past what used to be called ‘silly season’. Glad your week went well. (And I did peek in here to see if your resolve had weakened. ;-) )