Rustic Cyberpunk

A new year!

I'm slowly starting to appreciate these milestones again and I think it's directly correlated with a semi-disconnected lifestyle I've adopted over the last few months. Emoticons mean so much more when they're on my actual face. Outside of work, I've disengaged from the Internet and my phone as much as possible. I miss talking to some of the lovely people I've met online, particularly on Twitter and Mastodon, but I think it's for the best in the longer run. I hope they understand too.

Apologies for any misspellings. I'm quite tired after the New Year rush at work, making sure the customers had no hiccups while trying to buy their shiny trinkets online; Which they will throw away next year.

I was eating pistachios today when it occured to me that this is the most focused I've been on any activity for more than a minute for a long time. The ritual of shelling, by necessity, requires both hands and that's somwhat of an active filter on reaching for the phone.

The Internet has given me access to vast swaths of information while robbing me of the focus to retain any of it to any meaningful degree. When I first got access to real "information" on a computer as a kid, in the form of Encarta '99, the amount of time I spent watching tiny video clips and text excerpts on grave topics seemed like an endless voyage on an ocean of clarity. Now, I have far fewer such moments of clarity.

Or rather, I have moments of clarity measured in Planck time.

I'm back in New York and I'll be in my apartment soon. I can't wait to sleep on my own lumpy mattress after enjoying the sterile comforts of the service industry.