This Week: Addicted...

I am addicted.
Yes, I really AM! I AM SO damn addicted.
I am more than addicted to my computer, and to the web. Yesterday, once I had started up my computer, I was not able to log on to the net. What time of the day was it? Before 6 AM.
I had “local connection only”, and therefore no internet. I felt my heart beat faster, and I felt stress rush thru my veins. Indeed, pure stress.
What the heck! I can NOT log on!!??? What on earth am I going to DO!!!??? My whole cyber-world is out there. It is out there, but without my REACH!! I cannot log onto my blog, I cannot read my dear blogging-friend’s blogs, I cannot read the newspapers, I cannot get mail, I cannot connect to Facebook. The stress got the best of me, and I could hardly think straight while I was making Karolina’s lunch. I felt like a true addict, nothing more or less.
However, I tried to log on from Karolina’s computer, and that worked. But my dearest Vaio would not budge. It would not connect to the net. Peter had had the same problem with his work-computer the night before.
GAAAH!!!
CALL Comcast! Have someone come out NOW. NOW!! NOW before I go totally nuts.
Yes, then we tried to re-boot the system, we un-plugged the wireless from the modem, and once that was done I could connect to the net from my own, dear computer! And, all I felt was PURE relief.
Actually, it is quite scary what relief I felt. Am I that crazy?
But, aren’t we all?
Are we all victims of the drug called the web?




It is strange to think back to the days before we had the net at our finger tips. Peter and I got our first home PC in 1998. Before that I had only logged onto the net from Peter’s desk at work.
But, in 98 we got our own PC and I fell in love--deeply in love.
I thought it was one fantastic thing to log on to AOL, to hear the dial up work, to see it work. And, to hear the magic words: You’ve got mail. Pow! And I was connected.
E-mail was god sent. No more snail-mails. And, what a JOY to read Swedish newspapers online every day!! I played Slingo on AOL, and I chatted with friends via AOL and so on and so forth. It was the best. I had fallen in love. Love at first sight. It does exist, people.
My obsession started right away. I did not care if I occupied the phone line for HOURS; I was online, for god’s sake!




Then we got a 56 K modem speed, dial up, and I thought THAT was to die for. THAT and a brand new Gateway PC. The joy and WOW how fast it WORKED.

OH, and then came broadband. What a fantastic thing. NO more dial-up, faster than anything. And, broadband it is, to this day.
I am still in love. This love will last forever. I know that, with all my heart. But, I do hate when you act up, dearest Comcast. It is SO not good for me nerves.

It is from the Vaio that I connect to the world, to my friends, to my cyber-friends and to my family. This is where I watch Swedish television (what a damn joy), this is where I listen to Swedish radio stations. This is where I get stuff done.
What on earth would I be without my computer and the net?

Hi, I am Annika and I am an addict…