I started making the links. Of course, I still took breaks to walk aimlessly down Keller's halls. I think the computer desk wondered if I was having a Cyberblock.
The Topical Index is moving along. Actually, it was moving along much faster about 2 weeks ago. It is now crunch time, ladies and gentlemen, and I am experiencing more crunch than a Krispies box. Woe to the student who attempts statistics in a semester full of 300 and 400 level classes. My academic career knows no mercy, and something had to give: unfortunately, it was my topical index and keeping up with my weekly reports. My time on the Net is the same...it's strange. I don't really understand why I'm not producing the same quantity of work. But hey, as always, I've got a hunch.
It's not the same as wandering time-sucker week, but it's somethin', alright. I'm constantly stopped by people sending me things over the uhunix system.
- Do I want to talk?
- Heck, yes.
- Do I want to know about this address, etc?
- Definitely.
- Have I heard about this program?
- Tell me, tell me, I'm all fingers.
(The devil makes me do it. It's not me; remember guys, as The Man says, "It's never your fault.")
My friends have become CyberBuddies, and they are a vigilant group. Something new? Something to use? Something to make me laugh till the lab monitor looks up like a dilapidated and disgruntled librarian? They know where I am, all the time. And because this particular aspect of the net is so new to me, I engage them whenever they ring me. Some of it is just talk, but a lot of it is information that goes beyond whatever I can use for my 409 class. Information about my files, information about jobs, information about things I never dreamt of asking for; they send it to me.
The personalities on the Net are different than any I experience in real-talk, which is the day-to-day, face-to-face interaction. We can talk as quickly as we type, and my word selection is becoming more precise (although you really can't tell from this document, eh?). People don't have the luxury of body language over the screen, and communication, if it is to be communication at all, cannot have arbitrary and fuzzy meanings in this medium. This seems inhuman to some, perhaps, but I still believe we aren't all going to disintegrate into so many electric impulses (bio majors, I can hear you laughing) over the screen, never to be touched again. Yeah, I'm still on that particular Electric Soapbox.
And so, that's probably why I'm not getting as much on the screen as usual.
Now it's time for a surf break.
Welcome to my emotion rating:
7
. Why? Because the assignment is my reason for being on the UH computers in the first place, and I can't get the bloody thing done because I'm at the computers at UH and everybody is there. It was difficult to get anything done not only because it was tedious, watch-making work, but also because it involved so much time.Something of note: my satisfaction level with the Internet and computer systems is going down. I attribute this to not being able to access the system as much or as quickly as I'd like, although I'm really not sure what the reason is. It is a general feeling of dissatisfaction, and as of yet, I can't put my finger on the exact emotion. More on this in following weeks, because this may become an issue for me.
Anyhoo, I was feeling down, and so I decided to my Mythical Origins according to Mr. LSD himself. It helped.
http://www-survey.cc.gatech.edu/cgi-bin/survey_entry