By Melanie Neer
This article of mine has appeared on Yahoo.voices and in one of my notes over at Facebook.
The link to my Yahoo.Voices article is here
Life Without a Computer Article
Before I begin my article here, please bow your heads and join me in a few moments of silence in memory for all computers that have met an untimely death and have left our lives. (Bows head and remains silent).
Thank you all for joining me in silence. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there, where somewhere along in your life, you too have had the demise of your beloved computer. First, I would like to give a bit of a background about myself and my introduction to computers in the first place.
Nowadays children are learning computers as part of the school curriculum at a very young age and are taught how to use them. This wasn't the case in my childhood as I'm a "Woodstock Generation" baby boomer. Personal computers didn't exist, cellphones didn't exist, not even calculators. It wasn't until around 2002 that I finally introduced myself to a computer. Having always been something of a geek I knew eventually I wanted to learn how to use a computer but plain didn't know how to go about it, and just didn't have the funds to take expensive classes, so I at first did the next best thing. I would go to the library and would take out books about computers: PCs For Dummies, Computer For Dummies, Internet For Dummies; well, you get the idea. If there was a "Dummies" book about computers I was reading it. And by the way, I highly recommend the Dummies series of books in general for any topic as they are written in a no frills tech talk and often sprinkled with a lot of humor.
Somewhere long the line I realized that I had to go beyond just reading about computers, that I had to actually make the attempt and put myself in front of one. Two things inspired me to go ahead and make the plunge to use a computer. The first was the library itself: I would often pass by the children's section of the library and see children as young as four pounding away like maniacs in front of the public usage computers. My thought was, gee, if they can do it, so can I. The second reason was believe it or not, the Lord Of The Rings movies. I was a fanatic about the movies and yearned to join the official Lord of The Rings fan club, and one could only do that by joining on-line. So one day at the library I got bold and I went up to the desk to sign up to use a computer.
When my time came and I was called I went to the next available computer and stood in front of it, staring at it like, well, like a dummy. It's one thing to read about computers but another thing to actually use one. Somehow though I managed to putter around with the computer to get the feel of it and found I liked it. For the next few days, I would go to the library and sign up to use a computer, getting a little more daring and bold, however, sometimes when I would get stuck on something and just plain didn't know what to do, I would ask the poor victim person next to me, "How do you do this?" "How do you do that?" I'm pretty sure there were times the person wanted to strangle me with my constant questions. Oh, don't worry folks, with the passage of time tables turned and I became the victim person since someone would ask me questions too about how to do something. And yes, perhaps I myself could have gotten annoyed, but I didn't since I reflected back on those times when I was the nuisance questioner. Also truth be told, I felt happy with myself that I could do a pay it forward type thing and could help a person out.
Well as time passed, I not only liked computers, I loved them and was quickly becoming addicted to them. I found that the term world wide web was so on the spot, for the internet truly does allow a person to connect in a way like nothing else, and if one starts joining forums, discussion groups or networking sites, one can meet people of all walks of life from all over the world. Great bonds and friendships can occur with on-line people; sometimes these friendships can be better and closer than those people we have in our "real" life.
Alas, a frustrating dilemma occurred for me. I now yearned for my own computer; it wasn't enough to go to the library and use their computers for only an hour, or the occasional use of a computer at an internet café when I needed more time. But how? I was on disability benefits (and still am) and there was no way I could afford one. So from 2002 until 2007 I remained stuck using public computers, then something happened in 2006. My mother who had been terminally ill with cancer passed away on August 27, 2006. She had no checking, savings or life insurance, however there were funds I was able to claim, not a vast fortune by any means, yet with that money I was able to pay her funeral costs and other bills and what I had left over I managed to get my own computer. Hallelujah!
So from 2007 when I finally got my own computer system and for the next five years I was a real happy camper. Instead of waiting hours to use a computer for only an hour at the library, I could putter around my computer any time I wanted to for hours on end. Did I want to use my computer after I ate breakfast? I could. Did I want to use my computer until the wee small hours of the morning? I could. Did I want to use my computer when I got up for a bathroom break when I had been sleeping? I could. Come on folks, admit it, don't you do the same thing? Perhaps you even zoom over to your computer to check emails or to quickly find out what's new over at Facebook as soon as you wake up and before you have breakfast? And confess folks, how many of you schlep around in front of your computer in your PJs or any raggedy tag clothes and barefoot? Thank goodness people can't see us when we're in front of the computer!
Then a catastrophe occurred. On June 22nd my computer died. I had decided to shut down my computer for awhile with the intent to reboot later; it was something I had done on and off all along ever since I got my computer. When I decided to reboot, I turned the computer back on expecting it to start up again as always, but nothing happened. I was still looking at a black, lifeless monitor. I thought, oh, maybe it's just an odd glitch, so I shut it off again and waited awhile, then turned it back on. Still nothing, nada, zilch. To say I freaked out would be putting it mildly. My computer had truly became my "world". Being disabled, the computer was my gateway to the world, to feel connected, and while not housebound I do stay home a lot, and had counted on my computer in so many ways, including writing my articles, but now I felt lost, unconnected. I might as well have been on a deserted island.
As I mentioned, the only way I was able to afford my computer at all was with the passing of my mother. I just didn't have the financial means to get the computer repaired if it was at all repairable, and certainly didn't have the means to get a new one. My life without a computer was to begin.
For the next three months I was without my computer. You might be thinking, gee, three months isn't all that bad, but for me it might have well have been three years. Yes, I did on occasion go to the nearby internet café near me, but it was not a pleasant experience for me. Number one, I had totally forgotten how to use PC type computers, mine was a iMac and while I had learned on a PC, it had been five years ago that I had used one. Two, I was tangling with using Windows instead of my familiar Safari and Firefox browsers. Don't ask how many times I had to stifle using "expressive" language. One of the posted rules of the internet café was "No Cussing" and I've been known to spew out language that would make a truck driver blush. Three, NYC at the time was having it series of heat waves, and guess what? Ninety percent of the time the internet café didn't have the air-conditioning on. This didn't go too well for me, since most of the summer I was to experience heat exhaustion related illnesses, and I don't "do" hot weather well to begin with. And four, I just plain wasn't used to being "formally" dressed and wearing shoes while in front of a computer. So bottom line, I didn't go to the internet café all that often.
So how did I fill those hours upon hours without a computer? Anyway I could to keep my sanity.
Now, first of all, please understand, I'm a very clean, neat, organized person. If you were to come into my home you would see everything clean, nicely arranged and organized, yet I'm not exactly a Felix Unger of the Odd Couple Show OCD type either. Without my computer however, I was finding "chores" to do to keep me busy. What chores you may ask? Oh, you know the kind, the kind that are as exciting to do as watching water boil, or paint dry. Oh, and there's something I must add. I have a cat named Kissy who has a tendency to hide whenever I clean to begin with. Smart cat! Now that I was doing all this rather maniacal cleaning I could swear she was rolling her eyes up and thinking, "Oh, yeah, my mom's gone nuts." Only a pet person will understand this.
Here's my top ten list of things I did to keep my sanity while without a computer:
10). Organizing Papers: I think a lot of us are guilty of having piles and piles of papers around, and I'm no exception, so I decided to go through my massive piles of papers I had to see what I could finally throw out and for the papers I decided to keep I re-organized them into labeled folders. I didn't do this just once or twice, but several times, you know, just to make sure they were totally organized. I could hardly contain myself with the joy and excitement I had while doing this. Sure, right. Picking lint out of my belly button would have been more thrilling.
9). Dusting: I have always found the chore of dusting to be one of the most futile of all household chores going. One gets everything nicely dusted, but before you know it, one has to do it all over again, therefore, I have to admit I don't do it that often. Mind you however, just to make it clear, I would dust before I could write my name in the dust. Now with all this extra time on my hands I was doing more dusting and on a much more regular basis. For the first time in my life, I could have proudly passed any white glove test.
8). Laundry: I was also doing a lot more laundry than needed to be done. I was washing everything and everything I could think of, even washing my numerous stuffed animal toys or clothes in my closet that while not dirty by any means, my rationale was that they needed "freshening" up.
7). Cleaning and Reorganizing Kitchen Cabinets: This wasn't exactly a chore that needed to be done either as all my kitchen cabinets have always been organized, but yes, I was going through all of them, little by little at at time, taking everything out to reorganize.
6). Reorganizing Storage Containers: I live in a very small apartment which of course means I lack storage space. Over the years I've gotten those plastic-type storage containers, from the rather small to store my jewelry making supplies, to the very large tub-sized containers where I keep my numerous archival files of my 35mm slides and negatives. Well of course! I just had to reorganize them too, don't you know?
5). Closets: Ah yes! I decided to completely reorganize my closets, not that they really needed to be done either.
4). Computer Desk: I have an enormous computer desk, complete with a little filing cabinet and a hutch with nooks and crannies to store stuff, and again, like everything else, it wasn't exactly disorganized, but I decided to go through the filing cabinet and nooks and crannies to reorganize everything. Actually this was a beneficial chore as I came across a lot of things that I was able to throw out. Have you ever come across something that you were obviously saving for some reason, but then years later when you came across again you scratched your head and wondered why the heck you were saving it?
3). Bureau Drawer: Yes I decided to clean out and reorganize my bureau drawer too.
2). Windows: Egad! I must have been really desparate as I actually was washing my windows! But hey, at least my windows were now wonderfully clean; all the more for nosy neighbors in the apartment building across the street to spy on and see me better. And it works both ways for now I can spy on and see THEM better as well.
AND..DRUMROLL PLEASE. THE NUMBER ONE MEANS TO KEEP MY SANITY WITHOUT A COMPUTER IS:
As you can surmise, by the mere fact that I'm writing this, I'm back on-line again as I now have a new computer. I'm still hoping to repair my old one, if anything to retrieve my data, especially my document and photo files, but at least I'm up and running again. And how did I get my new computer? Well that is nothing more than a miracle, and maybe the topic of another article.
