A Short Note on Living Without the Internet

Hello Internet people. As I am typing this, it's dark outside. I'm at my boss's office, after work. I am off the clock and using this spare time here to check out my notifications and maybe add a blog post.

Usually I do most of my online communications at home, on my own computer, using my own internet connection. But I am internet-free for two weeks, because the wiring in the pedestal out in the corner of my property is all effed up, and it's going to take the provider at least another week or so to get a repair person out there to fix it.

It's not the first time this has happened, although in previous years there wasn't an internet connection to speak of, unless dial-up is considered internet.

But, as it stands, it's an interesting foray into a world that is similar to the way things were before 2000, when the internet still was not common in most households. Right now, I'm getting a dose of pre-21st Century living, thanks to the shortcomings of the wiring in the telco pedestal out by the street.

Hopefully, by the first week of August, all will be well again.

I'm still working on a couple new blog articles, about four of them, actually. Two of them on radios, and a third one on my Shortwave loggings from the first half of this year. The fourth one is about the 4th Of July, a post which just needs some photos uploaded.

Until then, here are a couple music vids to make up for the lack of blog activity. In the first one, famous blues singer Skip James is singing his Depression-era classic, Hard Times Killing Floor Blues. The MC who introduces the performance is a (then) West German TV presenter, and I understand just enough German to make out at least half of what he says.

Skip James influenced Eric Clapton and Cream, who did at least one of his tracks on their Fresh Cream album, I'm So Glad. Here, Skip is playing fingerpicked acoustic guitar, with his guitar tuned to E Minor, which is a somewhat rare tuning but one that Skip James apparently used a lot. I've tried playing in E Minor. It's a cool tuning, but not useful for my own style of playing.

Here is Skip playing another of his classics, Devil Got My Woman. I think it may be in the E Minor tuning also, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

And I will close this post with a YT clip of a very good blues player and blues historian Edward Phillips. He has a lot of videos where he is playing old, 1930s, acoustic folk blues classics, and his video channel is well worth checking out. Here he is playing Robert Johnson's Crossroads on an old parlor guitar.

Until next time my friends,

Peace.

C.C., July 25th, 2023

ADDENDUM, 7-28: a new wrinkle appeared in my recent, internet-free journey: disappearing data thanks to the the automatic cell phone OS update.

I am on a budget cell plan. It's one of those services where you buy time when needed -- $20 US gets you 120 minutes of talk time, a couple thousand texts or so, and maybe 150-200 MB of data. Being that I don't talk a lot on my phone, don't text a lot of people, and I only use my cell phone on Wi-fi for internet, it works for me. 

The data limit isn't that big a deal, because usually I use the Wi-fi. The cell system internet is just a backup for me. But when you have no useful Wi-fi, all you have is the cell system, and if you're on a budget plan, you use your data sparingly.

So, last Wednesday I got an extra $20 phone card, because my data was low, and I wanted to add some. That night I added my 120 extra minutes, my 2000 texts, and around 180 MB of data, and thought 'hey, at least I can check some internet messages from home on my cell phone if I need to."

The next day my data was ZERO. I was floored. I did some searching on my phone, and found out that the phone's OS Automatic Update wiped out all my data.

Lesson learned: Use developer mode to turn off Automatic Updates when you don't want them eating up all your data. Just a few hours ago, I had no idea what developer mode even was.

I know now.

Peace.

C.C. 7-28-2023 (my late mother's birthday).