Over a week ago, I lose track quickly, maybe two or three weeks ago, after a thunderstorm, I found that I could not get or stay online. I get to my blog through "googlechrome" and found it impossible to use. My MSN through my cable company also was giving me trouble. I really was cut off from the internet! It was bad! Over time I found that other family members were getting on their computer on the same cable system.... I messed with cords and routers and that other piece of electronics where the cable comes in and goes to the computer. The weirdest things kept happening. The cable company said I must have a virus but I have programs for that.
But I also remember Steven Colbert announcing that Google had been hacked, that very day or maybe within a few days of my problems. I managed to get on MSN for a minute though it kept bumping me but it also sometimes said I could run diagnostics and sometimes it wanted me to send error reports. Sometimes it indicated that it had updated.... My virus protection managed to down load some stuff. I would try at least once a day or so and slowly I was able to stay online longer and longer. At first I was unable to email replies or go to other websites from my email. Such actions would cause my computer to drop out of the internet. Sometimes I could delete email but then it wouldn't show new ones. (I was bumped again.) I really don't know much about how all this stuff works. I rely on the kindness of anyone who will help me, friends, relatives, strangers, whoever. Today I got on Googlechrome and then went to my blog. So far so good. I am taking the opportunity to let everyone know that I haven't deserted my blog. I am able to read articles and other material again and will soon be up to my neck in information and opinions I want to share, some of which I will pass on.
I would like to add that more and more people are starting to understand the things I am posting about here in Oklahoma. I actually find I am not as scared to open my mouth in public. Something I tended to avoid because the weird looks and sudden quiet were a bit hard to put myself through. I would like to suggest that if you are having the same problem, try to find some like minded people to hang out with. It helps. I joined the Tulsa Master Recyclers. These people, from all ages and backgrounds, share a distaste for wasting resources and range in type and interest from teachers, hospital workers, house wives from comfortable neighborhoods, back-to-the-landers, old hippies, entrepreneurs with green businesses, a motorcycle loving ex-military person, artists to activists of various concerns. They have connections with the local sustainable group, Master Gardeners, urban farming, community gardens, campaigning for local government positions, volunteering in local non-profits, saving our water, transition culture etc. I also went to a meeting of Anarchists with strong interests in International Labor Unions. I just met a few but again, they were computer savy, interested in the "maker" movement and our local FabLab, growing food, community and co-ops, transition culture, organizing and linking with other like minded individuals. You can say almost anything around these people except maybe that you DON'T believe in Climate Change. Some I found through the City, on facebook, and other websites oriented to concern for what is happening in the world today.
Another important insight I got from my "disconnection" to the internet was how dependent I had become for information and social connection coming through my computer. What if, we were cut off from this method of finding each other, networking, passing on new ideas and important facts that the regular media don't cover? All the more reason to connect face to face. Because I know the people and the groups I am involved with, I am never completely cut off. Through these amazing and varied individuals, I am able to connect to all the local groups that I mentioned and they in turn often are affiliated with larger versions of themselves. I can go from Sustainable Tulsa to Sustainable Oklahoma to the National organization and then back to other states and towns. Within any local group there are connections to just about any other type of organization you might be interested in. These are all real people with telephones and snail mail. It has only been a couple of decades since many of us functioned the "old" way.
You can't beat our newer electronic social connections. I communicate often with like minded people across the world. However, I would advise everyone to keep your fleshy contacts handy. Meet real people. Write down names, locations and phone numbers of people and organizations you share connections with. Don't rely only on information that is stored digitally. The time may come when our internet is commandeered or our electric grid wavers. So far, paper can still travel from place to place through various routes. Humans, being the way they are, may even in the worst case scenario, still be within six degrees of anyone. This could be true even if messages are bicycled from neighborhood to neighborhood. Hard to imagine, but when our country began they were using horses. So keep track of networks and pathways of communication. Write stuff down and disseminate copies of your networks as well as important facts. Do I sound over cautious? I'm just saying...... Better safe than sorry. Even if being cut off turns out to be temporary as it was in my case, there can always be information you are used to having at your fingertips that suddenly can disappear. Our connections should not be taken for granted.
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