Sorry, folks. Here at Chez Rossetti, our telephone and Net access has been going up and down like a yo-yo. We’ve had wild storms - high winds, lightning, hail. Flash flooding too. Pretty scary. Before you ask, we’re fine here, no damage, though others haven’t been so lucky.
It’s the strangest thing, though, every time we’ve been cut off, I’ve felt like I lost a limb. Or that I’m blind, deaf and dumb, like Tommy the pinball wizard in the rock opera by The Who.
What I especially missed was the Net and email. I had NO idea I was so dependent on it for communication and it’s a bit sobering. I’ve said before, in a joking way, that I need a 12-step program for email addiction. I’m beginning to think it’s not quite so funny. Of course, in self-defence, I can point out that I do business by email with my agent and editor, who are both in New York, but still…
What about you? Are you addicted to email? What about blogs? How much of your time is spent on email or evenjust surfing the Net?
I feel I miss something if I do not get online at least once a day but its real purpose is to be a distractor. I do not have to focus on all the things I want to avoid doing or thinking about when there is so much information to explore on the net.
I want to say I just finished your novella for the Unlaced anthology and it’s smashing!!!
Now…onto what you asked. I’m a seriously addicted to the internet. We celebrated Thanksgiving here last Thursday in the US and I was jonesing all day for it! Sometimes I wonder if I’m missing something!! I don’t know how I’ll be able to live without it if I go to RT next year. I bet I’ll suffer internet withdrawl for sure!
I am always online checking email, doing my mod duties at CTR or chatting with my friends here in the US and in the UK and OZ, so when my internet connection isn’t working I feel lost. I really do need a 12-step program. I’ve been sick for the past month (or just about) and I’ve learned to limit my time online due to this, so I’m not as bad as I’d normally be, but It’s still frustrating. I have made it a point to read more when my internet’s down, so I’m being productive some way and at the same time reducing my TBR mountain. LOL!
I am the same I do not cope well without the internet I am on checking emails and blogging as much as I can I have to start getting ready for work now and I really miss it while I am at work not allowed to have it at work they must now me well LOL
Have Fun
Helen
I’m definitely addicted to email. I check it first thing in the morning. It gives me time to wake up a bit so I don’t fall down the stairs (I’m not a morning person). During the day and evening it’s a time filler while I’m deciding what needs to be done next - or avoiding something I don’t want to do (ie housework). Email is so easy for that type of thing. It’s taken over from all the other time-fillers I used to have. When it’s not available I have to think of other things I can do so I don’t have to do the housework.
I would have to say I don’t think
I’m ADDICTED (isn’t that the first sign??? 
)
Loved Flower and the Flame 
Thank-you…..
because I found that between job, family and time to write paint etc, the E-mail and it’s ajoined accessories, (facebook, chat rooms, internet) eat dreadfully into my spare time. The hours simply fly…..
HST, I do like to keep in touch every few days though, when I can.
Mary
No of course not I am not addicted; I only feel mild anxiety when I know I can’t get a connection.
Really I can go for a week or so without checking home e-mail (work’s a different story) but let me know I *can’t* check e-mail and it bugs me. My first indication I was hooked on machines, was 8+ years ago when I was on a trip out of the country and a hotel I stayed in had a fax machine in the room and I just had to send a fax to work!!!
There have been times when I was forced to go without my computer due to my cable modem taking hours to reboot. Once (over my birthday)it spent 36 hours going off and on. Me going through internet withdrawel….not a pretty sight.
Hello. My name is Lyn and I’m addicted to the internet
It’s no joke. I get seriously grumpy if I can’t get my computer fix. Facebook is killing me at the moment and really pushing my bandwidth. Oops, actually that would be me watching 8 episodes of Tarzan endlessly this week LOL! Um. Yeah. I need a life LOL!
Lindsey, I’m just the same. It’s such a magnificent way to procrastinate, isn’t it? In fact, guess what I should be doing right this very minute?
Yep, writing…
Gosh, Laura, you’ve read it already? So glad you enjoyed it. Three exclamation marks - wow!
I became very fond of John and Meg… Look out for excerpts in the countdown to Tuesday, when it’s officially released. Also a blog contest between the four authors - Jaci Burton, Jasmine Haynes, Joey W. Hill and myself.
And you know, “jonesing” for it is EXACTLY the right word. It drives me nuts when I can’t check my email on a regular basis. BTW, I bet there’ll be Net access at RT. Take a laptop or one of those little netbooks. They look so good, I’m incredibly tempted…
Dani, so sorry to hear you haven’t been well. Sending positive thoughts for a speedy recovery. At least you’ve managed to reduce the size of the TBR pile, so that time hasn’t been wasted. Get well soon!
Helen, I can access the Net at work - it’s part of the job. but I’m always VERY careful about what I look at, I can tell you.
Hi Denise,
here’s another one addicted… We recently spent a week in Finnish Lapland to see snow, it’s beginning to become very rare here in southern Finland and I had to be a week without the internet!! I didn’t like it! Perhaps I need a 12-step too….
Great cover for Unlaced, can’t wait to read the book!
I know what you mean, Elaine. I check my email first thing in the morning too. That’s because the Northern Hemisphere is awake while I’m asleep and there are sometimes nice surprises waiting for me, like emails or blog comments from readers. That always makes my day!
Mary, I hate to think of the hours I’ve “wasted” on the Net when I should be writing. But it’s only courteous to reply to emails, surely?
And I’m delighted you enjoyed the book. You did mean THE FLAME AND THE SHADOW, right? LOL
A whole week, Jenny? Gosh, you’re a stronger woman than I am. I start fretting after a couple of hours. *sigh* And yes, especially if there’s a reason I know I can’t
Don’t know what your withdrawal symptoms are, Meg. I tend to play a lot of Solitaire…
Lyn, I LOVE the way the Net allows you to connect with all sorts of people and make friends you might otherwise never have had. It’s such fun! I adore networking. Without email, I wouldn’t have Joey as my friend and critique partner. For that alone, I’m so grateful
Good heavens, Eva! I find it hard to separate the two concepts in my mind - Finland and snow. I’ve always imagined that’s why the Finns are so good at computer stuff, being snowed in for months over winter. Ah well, there goes another illusion. *sigh*
But see, that’s what the Net does so well, brings us all closer together over our common interests. I think that is simply fantastic.
Thanks for dropping by.
And BTW, talking about the UNLACED cover, have a look at the next post…
LOL! I tend to get grumpy, weepy, staring at my computer…. I do lots of pacing, don’t want to talk to anyone and I get headaches! LOL!
Yeah I spend most of my life on various message boards, where I’ve met some great people and my day just isn’t complete without checking in with my friends.
I have had a terrible time with my computer of late. First Hurricane Ike put us without electricity for two weeks. When we finally got our electricity back, my computer worked fine for about four days. Then we had an electrical storm and lightning hit the transformer outside our kitchen window. After that when I tried my computer, I couldn’t get on the internet or to my email. I paid a tech $55 to repair my computer and he insisted that my computer was repaired, but I still couldn’t get on the internet or to my email. It seems that my computer and my modem “weren’t speaking to each other.” My daughter, who knows more about computers that I do, spent three weekends trying to get me on the internet with no luck. I then spent days talking on the phone with my server’s tech crew with them trying every way to get my modem and computer in sync. No luck. They sent me a new modem by mail and that took several days to arrive. It didn’t work and they finally decided they had sent me a modem that was a “lemon.” I had to wait days for them to mail me another new modem. I started using a computer at a local church and met two men who ran the church’s two computer labs. The first of these fellows came to my house and tried to get me on the net. He, too, contacted my server’s techs, but had no better luck than I had. The next week the other guy from church came and worked on my computer. He contacted my server’s tech help and this time the two of them finally got me on the internet. But the tech insisted that my password had to be changed and gave me a gosh-awful password I would never have been able to remember and which I was planning to write down all over the place including in my billfold. The next time I got on my computer, it worked fine with the password I had always used, that is for one week. Then one day I tried to get on my computer and it wouldn’t accept any password I tried. I had to contact the server’s helpline again and finally got online. But guess what? By this time I had been offline for about two months..and pulling my hair out…and when I finally got online, I had over 2100 emails waiting for me.
Meg, wherever the clinic is for Net addiction, I think we’d better check in together!
Gosh, GladysMP, what an incredible saga.
Talk about frustration,you poor thing! Much sympathy. {{hugs}}
But are you sure we need help?
As long as I have internet access I function perfectly well 
……*looks innocently at Denise* 
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