I’m poking my head up like Punxsutawney Phil after a week of troubled connectivity due to travel, power supply and video card problems, office relocation, and general chaos following a trip out of town. I’m still about 400 some messages behind on email, most of which aren’t spam per se, and the to-do list appears to be miles long.
Virtual Worlds 2008 was interesting – not fantastic, not exciting – but interesting, and I have pictures and notes and all sorts of things I keep thinking I’ll post about when I catch my breath, and I don’t have time at the moment so I’ll leave it for now. But the last week has me thinking about how absolutely overwhelming all of this digital connection can be. I’m definitely not the first to post about this by a long shot, I know, but I think it’s been a while since I let so much pile up without attending to the daily maintenance and now that I’m trying to dive back in.. good heavens.
Beyond the sheer volume of things I need to click and type and drag and drop and upload and convert and format, I’m also reminded of the sometime tenuous nature of all of this technology. Travel for a few days and be stuck with really flaky and intermittent net access and it’s like being crippled. Power supply fan and video card fan both die on your main box and poof, that’s more like having a limb severed, or at least a chunk of your brain out commission.
After 9 days of limited access, I suddenly came face to face with how much maintenance work all these sites, services, networks, and worlds really are – and though it mostly feels like good, honest work that engages me and enriches my life, I wonder if it’s really sustainable? Is it reasonable? Balanced?
It’s like a treadmill, you’re fine until you miss a step and then, buddy, look out.
This is me stumbling to catch up. Mass apologies if I haven’t responded or replied to something yet, I’m getting there. =)
That’s how I’ve been feeling for a while, as you know, which is why I resist your second life entreaties.
And you didn’t even get to the _ecological_ meaning of ‘sustainable’, which is what I first assumed when I saw your title.