Signs that the Internet is Taking Over Your Life

This list is a non-exhaustive list, which will be added to and reposted from time to time for the enjoyment of internet addicts and non-addicts alike, of signs that the internet may (or may not) be taking over your (or someone else's) life. Any statements made in this blog have not been medically or psychologically evaluated and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease (or possible addictions).

• You check your email the instant you wake up, especially if you have it on your phone- in that case, it's on your nightstand, and you don't even get out of bed to check your email.
• You have more tabs open in Firefox/Safari/Chrome/Opera/whatever browser you can count, because they're all too tiny to count. Sometimes you have more than one window to accommodate all the tabs...(guilty- current count 40 tabs)
• If you have internet on your phone, which you most likely do, you complain because you can't open enough windows at a time to contain all of your business that you need to complete; therefore, you download multiple apps to help with your dilemma.
• You get frustrated when the internet is down, and you keep reloading your pages waiting for the internet to come back up...you need your internet. 
• You have arguments with your friends over which browser is better and the most efficient...and over Apple vs. other brands. (Totally not Apple, here. See picture of Droid eating Apple)

• You spend more time with your internet friends than you do with your real friends...conversely, if you spend time with your real friends, you do it online. 
• You are nodding along with this list (and possibly adding to it as I go along)
• You have more than one wireless capable device, and if your wireless goes out, you also have a 3G/4G capable device.
• You start avoiding and neglecting outside activities because you're online "doing one more thing" before you go to your outside activities
• You start forgetting that there is such a thing as an "outside activity"
• You start speaking in online terms and calling people by their online names (I once called a friend by their online name over the phone...)
• You forget to eat (just look at the Android. Eat Apples...)
• Your friends start coming to you for computer advice....then they stop coming to you for computer advice because you're too busy with the internet stuff
• You cry at the thought when your family threatens to take away your internet (oh dear) then try to plot ways of obtaining interwebz outside the home...even if you have to stay out all hours of the night. 
• You can compile lists like this and be completely unashamed.

Feel free to add anything you want in the comments below! 

Day 3- Pet Peeves

Day 3- Your Top 5 Pet Peeves

Being the overachiever that I am (and the person with a lot of pet peeves) I'll go ahead and list....10.

1) Ice. Why do places always have to fill your drinks with expanded chunks of water, and furthermore, why do people like them so much that they ask for extra and/or chew on them? I'll never understand it. I have to ask for easy ice so I can actually get a substantial amount to drink, instead of a lot of expanded frozen water, and that annoys the heck out of me. Irk.

2) People who think they own the parking lot (and swoop in and grab the parking space you've been waiting for). Assholes...I'm sitting here with my blinker on, obviously waiting for the spot...and you take it? What's your problem? No, I don't have road rage, I'm Texan....

3) When the radio plays new things (particularly Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, or Justin Bieber) ad nauseum. I get the point, they have a new song. Please stop stabbing my eardrums and actually play music, like you were meant to do. Really, it gets old, and it gets old fast.

4) When things break and the wait time for them to fix is longer than a week. Really, do you have to outsource it that far? Do you not have anyone in the state that knows how to fix a problem? What happened to all these technicians that are going to college?

5) Jobs making you go online to apply and not accepting applications any other way, or even phone calls. I mean, I know this makes it easier for them, and it even helps when looking for a place that has openings, but it really makes it difficult to find out what their first impression is of you other than what they see on a screen, and it makes it really makes it difficult to give a first impression other than your application- in fact, you have to make it to the interview to really make any sort of impression aside from having the qualifications.

6) Speaking of jobs and their processes- the character interviews. They don't really tell you much about a person's character anyway. Did you know there are books out there about how to answer those, and people that "leak" how the answers work? Your character interviews are an ineffective and tedious part of the process.

7) People who claim to know things they really don't know (I won't name names here). There are things that don't happen for the reason that you claim they happen. You have backwards thinking. There are things that don't operate the way you say they do. Things have changed a little. Your beliefs are flawed.

8) Speaking of beliefs, voting- people who vote for someone because of the way they look, or because of where they're from- and I know people who do this. "I don't want to vote for someone from the north" or "I don't want to vote for someone white" or "I don't want to vote for someone black" (I've seen it both ways). "I don't want to vote for a woman" or "I don't want to vote for that person because they have a messed up nose"...people, really, is this what matters? I know, I'm not into politics, and I don't vote, because in the end...it's these kind of people that win out, and in my county/locality, my vote doesn't make any difference. If you have a very large group of Republicans, and add in one person who votes (any other way) (I don't have a party), their vote isn't going to make any waves no matter what it is. They aren't going to change the people who are stubborn in their ways, which number many. Stop trying to convince me! And stop voting in stupid ways, and maybe I'll consider it!!

9) Food touching. I don't see how people can just mix all their food together. I must separate them and eat them one at a time. I don't know why, I just must. My parents say when I was young I would "scream bloody murder" when my foods touch. I would still do this, if it was acceptable. However, I know acceptable table (couch?) behavior, and I don't scream, I just try to separate them.

10) Judgmental people. I know it sounds like I'm judgmental sometimes, but I'm not going to love or hate a person based on any of these things. In fact, I can't think of anyone I love or hate. There are some people that grind my gears, but I have a feeling that if I had some time away, it would be less stressful. Even if I dislike someone, most of the time I don't know why, and I tolerate them- they rarely know. There has been one person that I've expressed my dislike to- that I'd rather jump a cliff than see her again- and yet I tolerated seeing her. She stated that I was a very tolerant person, and had I not told her, she probably would not have known that I had such a dislike. Bottom line? Don't judge people, and even if you do, you don't have to make it known to the world, you should still treat them like humans. Better to not judge them at all though. I'm human, I admit I've done it, but it's not a practice I participate in regularly.



I think I could add more, but people might start thinking I'm bitter and have too many pet peeves. They might even start avoiding me. I don't want that to happen! It's actually really difficult to get onto my bad side (oh, spammers aren't on my list, and they should be way up there too....). I'm fairly easy to get along with and accepting. There are people who annoy me >.> They usually know who they are and why, because they instigate it, or they don't know because they really haven't done anything wrong and it's just a quirk of mine, in which case, there's no reason for them to think they've done anything wrong.

1,000!!

Someone from Farmville (yes, there is a city named that), North Carolina is my 1,000th viewer....if you know who you are...congratulations! (and yay! 1,000! Yes, I posted a whole blog for this occasion!)

Econ exam sucked. I asked when I can find out how badly I failed....he said tomorrow. So I'll know by then.

That's all I've got for now! ;)

Ok, I lied, I want to talk more. So I made my first attempt at French braiding (with my own hair) after I got home tonight. This was the outcome:

Not bad for my first attempt, right? (and I only spent a few minutes on it, too)

So I guess I'll be trying that more often. Oh, and I realized it's really difficult to take a photograph of the back of your head. Especially when your camera is kind of broken and the shutters keep wanting to stay shut. It actually took me longer to get a picture than it did to get my hair that way. I have to laugh at that. :P

Okay, now I'm out of content, although I'll probably come up with more to say in a few minutes. Oh, and my 1,000th viewer, I've discovered, is my newest follower, Shar! You can hop on over to her site here and show her some blog love too :)

Deuces!

Innovation & deterioration

I can remember a time when our house only had one computer, and (gasp) one television, and we used landlines. I can even remember my first email account...I don't even know if the site still exists! My sister, on the other hand, 8 years my junior, probably can't remember Oregon Trail, floppy disks, and VHS tapes or cassettes. Such a huge change in our innovation- I wouldn't have been able to write this blog when I was her age, and I'm not even that old!

In this age of innovation, where I can post a blog from my iPod, I can't help but wonder what else will come along before I hit the generation age where I fear I will begin to lose my tech savvy. I mean, it's one thing to grow up with these innovations...it's another to have to learn them when everything inevitably upgrades. What's going to happen to me when they integrate Windows 2020 and I don't know how to use it. More specifically, for whom is all this 'innovation' beneficial? I mean, are they intending to phase out generations earlier and earlier? Am I going to be part of that trend?

Some of my colleagues (not all, though) don't even know how to use the current version of Microsoft Word. You know, since they change it so often. Will that be me soon? Was I born late enough in the trend to be able to adapt to the next innovations successfully? I certainly hope that with the number of changes they've made, I've learnt adaptability enough to adapt.

One thing I've noticed more, though, and I'm sure others have noticed too, is that with all this innovation...we're losing all the ties that make us human. Who goes out to chat anymore, or even talks on a phone? No, people these days text, write blogs (guilty), update their facebook, but so many more aren't. Want a pizza for dinner? When I was younger, you could get out the yellow pages before dinner, and order a delivery or pickup, and you'd use cash to pay usually. Now, you get online and design your pizza, tell em when you want it ready, and even pay online...in some cases, you can just use the Internet on your cell phone, and you can even pay online! Forget all the trouble of seeing people or talking to them or (Shock! Horror!) waiting. Are these kids gonna have any patience at all?what is going to happen to their communication skills when they don't really have to communicate face-to-face much? Will they miss it, even? I mean, after all, they did grow up with such innovations. I have trouble with friends, though, so it's a bit disheartening that going out isn't done much anymore...unless
you go to the bar for a drink or something. I'm not that type, though. And I'm not fond of the principle of online dating and/or friendships. It's just...less real to me. Will these kids ever have the same kind of relationships shared in past generations? Unfortunately, probably not. They'll facebook each other, but I doubt it will ever have the same meaning- even in my generation, with all the changes that have been made.

No longer do you have to speak to order a pizza. You can complete degrees and certifications online, conduct interviews, shop, play games, just about anything, even work from home, with your handheld devices these days. I'm actually reliant on mine, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sure I'm not alone. I feel lost if I don't have a mobile contact with someone...how will I contact them? I don't have to wait until we're both by a landline, usually. And a lot of places are keeping their doors open later- I can completely avoid people and shop at 2am!! Or just shop online.

Will we see a decline in communication, human interaction, and ultimately in population? Will
Future generations even know the difference, besides from what they see on wikipedia? Now for some important research...I've been asked about the proper grammatical use of 'computer mouse' in the plural form, and my curious mind has to wonder...why is it a mouse? What's the history behind it? I can only hope that future gens will have the patience and curiosity to at least learn about things online, if that's how we have to do it. I just kind of wonder, though, if eventually technology will backfire and ultimately consume or obliterate the human race as we know it....

Sincerely, my strange new nickname Ashley Elle. :)