wireless internet

…especially the free kind.

 

Okay, so I might be fairly biased on this subject, considering I’m writing this post from a table in a bookstore/cafe that boasts said subject line (with the qualification, too).  My original intent at this institution was to buy a glass of iced tea (check!), research the ABC plan (check-check!) and get writing on my big Writing Sample of Glory (um…er…).  Naturally, after a couple of hours of research, I realized that there wasn’t even a slight chance I’d be getting words-on-paper (or, as it is, words-on-word-processor) before the night ended.  This was not helped by the fact that I have imminent plans to be drinking $1.75 beers before much longer.

So, I thought I’d sing some praises instead.  Don’t worry, mom, I’ll write tomorrow.  Promise.  But for serious, who’d-a thought ten years ago that I’d be able to take my laptop, of considerably smaller size than can be compared to a Zack Morris phone (an honor unable to bestow upon my previous laptop, a circa 1975 Dell whose fans would scream at me if I kept it turned on longer than five hours — a particular problem considering I would be at work upwards of ten many days), to a location where there were no — forget Ethernet — modems into which I could plug and still yet access the entire interwebs.  But here I sit, ten years in the making, at my delightfully lightweight MacBook and NOT at my desk!  When I think about it only slightly, I don’t have much of an opinion.  But!  When I consider the effect it has had on my productivity, I’m considerably more impressed than I otherwise would be.

See, I get the cabin fever pretty heavily.  Too much time in one location tends to make me slightly crazy.  This can manifest itself in a number of ways; sometimes it’s humorous, but more often it’s just cranky.  Which translates into potential rudeness.  Which is often inappropriate.  And anyone who knows me can attest that inappropriateness makes me itch.  This was a problem in college, as I had to shuffle back and forth between whatever on-campus residence I inhabited to the computer lab around back of the library to maintain my location-related sanity; and it was a problem when I worked, since my thicky-thicky-thick laptop certainly didn’t boast a wireless card and rarely recognized the USB adapter on which I spent fifty of my own dollars.  Yeah, I’m bitter.  Fifty dollars is hard to come by when you’re twenty-threeish.

Enter the phenomenon that is wireless internet.  The free kind, specifically.  I’ll add, for context, that I was really, really late in the game of WiFi.  Really late.  I acquired my first wireless-enabled computer approximately five months ago, and I’ve been thrilled about it.  As I was working on my graduate applications, I was able to take my computer to PJ’s for delicious tea and academic productivity.  While previously I would have been bound to my desk, I was able to make the process far more enjoyable and thus exciting.  And hurrah!  Though I certainly don’t credit my admission into certain glorious Peace and Conflict Resolution programs to the advent of free wireless, it certainly made me less likely to throw my hands in the air and give up before the applications were completed.  And for that, I thank the floating internet-related particles that have found their way from the World Wide Spiderweb into my computer.

Okay, I’m pretty sure I just gave away the fact that I know absolutely nothing about how the internet works.  And I’m cool with that.

It also is worth noting that wireless internet is delightfully helpful when one is on their day off.  After a long, long weekend.  Filled with field day-, dance- and term book-related stress.  (For those of you who aren’t familiar with what I mean, you should probably be aware that I’ve spent my summer working with teenagers.)  Also financial aid-related stress.  When that specific someone, who may or may not be me, has the opportunity to disappear with her glorious little computer and feel like she’s getting something done while being away from everything stressful, that specific someone leaps at the chance.

Of course, blogging about this subject has taken away about twenty minutes of productivity-related time.  But I’m cool with that, too.