Hello, I'm an addict.
You’ve heard of all sorts of addictions, from the more “common” ones of alcohol and drugs, to stranger ones such as adrenaline, sex, body alteration…well, I have just been confronted with the demon of my own addiction.
Beginning last month, as some of you may know, the county retirement system has had a slew of computer related problems. The first being an apparent hacking into our system, and the possible reaping of all county employees information. The second being a nasty virus/worm that attacked our systems last week. Well, after this second computer mishap, our IT team decided to pull us offline. Completely. Indefinitely. No internet, no email. Cold turkey.
The first couple days, I was ok. It didn’t seem like too much of a loss to me; after all, I had a lot of work to do. This allowed me time to really buckle down and finish my work, without wasting any time surfing websites, trying to come up with articles for blogs, etc. As my workload diminished, though, my thoughts started turning once more towards the internet and my email. And the lack of both. There was this huge, gaping void left behind that was once filled with my time spent writing emails, blogs, and surfing the web. This void was time itself.
Could time possibly have crept along any more slowly? I tried to amuse myself by talking to coworkers…but it’s hard to have conversations over cubicle walls. I tried drawing, writing, making lists of things to do, and, what used to be a favorite pastime of mine…I tried daydreaming. The constant visits from IT personnel helped alleviate the boredom a bit. Alas, it was all in vain. My eyes constantly drifted to the little Outlook and IE icons on my taskbar, while my hand surreptiously guided the mouse towards them.
Just when I had despaired completely, and started turning into a mindless drone doing repetitive work because I had finished everything else I normally do, I heard the magical whisper: “we’re back online”. Unbelieving, I had to check for myself. I clicked on the blue ‘e’…and the page loaded. Heaven surely smiles on me.
My name is Sidemena. And I’m an addict…
Beginning last month, as some of you may know, the county retirement system has had a slew of computer related problems. The first being an apparent hacking into our system, and the possible reaping of all county employees information. The second being a nasty virus/worm that attacked our systems last week. Well, after this second computer mishap, our IT team decided to pull us offline. Completely. Indefinitely. No internet, no email. Cold turkey.
The first couple days, I was ok. It didn’t seem like too much of a loss to me; after all, I had a lot of work to do. This allowed me time to really buckle down and finish my work, without wasting any time surfing websites, trying to come up with articles for blogs, etc. As my workload diminished, though, my thoughts started turning once more towards the internet and my email. And the lack of both. There was this huge, gaping void left behind that was once filled with my time spent writing emails, blogs, and surfing the web. This void was time itself.
Could time possibly have crept along any more slowly? I tried to amuse myself by talking to coworkers…but it’s hard to have conversations over cubicle walls. I tried drawing, writing, making lists of things to do, and, what used to be a favorite pastime of mine…I tried daydreaming. The constant visits from IT personnel helped alleviate the boredom a bit. Alas, it was all in vain. My eyes constantly drifted to the little Outlook and IE icons on my taskbar, while my hand surreptiously guided the mouse towards them.
Just when I had despaired completely, and started turning into a mindless drone doing repetitive work because I had finished everything else I normally do, I heard the magical whisper: “we’re back online”. Unbelieving, I had to check for myself. I clicked on the blue ‘e’…and the page loaded. Heaven surely smiles on me.
My name is Sidemena. And I’m an addict…
posted by sasha at 10:00 AM
2 Comments:
I know what you mean. I usually keep Yahoo or Signonsd minimized so I can pull up stuff to read faster when it's slow. I have no idea what I'd do if our internet was down. I hope I don't have to find out!
I'm an addict, too...
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