Not a relaxing coffee.
I am on the train to a customer this morning and bought a coffee, since I didn't have time to brew one at home before leaving. Once on the train, I had a sip, grabbed my laptop out and started reading a few random things before settling into write, as I booked a seat with a table in the middle, as normal - if I can. There are several on each train that don't require extra payment and since I am heading into the middle of nowhere, there is space. I took another sip and noticed a wet coffee ring. That's weird - I don't remember slurping it and I always triple check the lid to ensure it is secure.
Bloody cup was leaking.
The seal at the bottom was rapidly giving way and with it full and nowhere close by to pour it out, I had to scull it down like a frat boy losing at beer pong. Suffice to say, it wasn't the relaxing coffee I had in mind when I bought it. I guess the caffeine still works the same though.
And I think I will need it, as I only scraped in at five hours of sleep last night, since I can't sleep too early, and had to be up again at five in the morning to get to the train on time. That is okay - five hours is only an hour or so less than what I normally get, but, it does make a difference. I think that while I sleep quite little in comparison to many, I reckon I am a pretty efficient sleeper, mostly falling asleep within 10-20 minutes, and not waking up too often throughout the night, especially now that I have the CPAP machine for my sleep apnoea. So, this means that losing an hour or so has more of an effect on me, as it really makes an impact on the quality. However, I also have plenty of experience living life on too little sleep, so the noticeable effect to others is probably pretty low.
I decided to write a post rather than answer comments first, because the connection is cutting in and out. This way, I can write and it will save occasionally, without me losing it. However, I think I will have a break for lunch (not always guaranteed) that I can get to some comments.
While it is frustrating to lose connection on the train, I am not one of those people who complain too hard about it, considering that we are travelling 200 kilometres an hour through the middle of nowhere, and I am sharing my phone connection to the laptop. I could connect to the train wifi, which would likely work fine, but you know - public networks and me are not the greatest of friends. So, given all this, I can understand a few connection issues and going offline.
I think we get spoiled too quickly.
Once we have access to something, we seem to expect we are entitled to always have access to it. A new technology advances and we rapidly forget what it was like not too long earlier. Dial up 28.8k modems was where I started on the internet, with pictures loading visibly a pixel at a time. Downloading even relatively small warez programmes took up to a week. And internet porn was only images.
We are now living in the lap of digital luxury (in much of the world) yet forget that we are actually not entitled to anything in this life at all. It doesn't matter what we think we deserve, or even what the norms are, the universe just doesn't care. So while we feel we should get something, it doesn't mean we will. And being a good person or a bad person, doesn't really affect some of our outcomes. The "good die young" is far from the whole truth, but what it represents is that no matter what one does, randomisation doesn't care about just desserts.
Justice is a human concept.
And when it comes to being "online" I think that we should probably spend more time at least partially offline, as the view from the digital landscape warps the perspective of reality. Just like becoming accustomed to technological advancement, we start to expect certain outcomes based on what we consume digitally, which shifts our own behaviours and expectations of others. We create personal filters and heuristics on our consumption, and they don't always align well with the reality we face, so we end up in situations we are unprepared for, and unable to cope with well.
Disconnecting for a while and actually living in reality with some level of awareness, will very quickly uncover many of our various biases that we have created and allow us to reprogramme our conditioning. And it is conditioning, which yes, is largely engineered by corporations to control and milk us, but we have to be a willing partner in the crime, choosing to keep on consuming blindly.
Like many, I have been limiting my own connection to the digital world for some time, and spend very little of my screen time on pure entertainment. Instead, I see screen time as an opportunity to do something useful, not as an escape from doing something useful. Not always of course, but probably ninety percent of the time.
I guess I am not an outlier.
But I do think that on average, most people use digital spaces as an escape and avoidance tool a lot of the time, but justify their activity under various reasons, like relaxation. Yet, I wonder if it really is a good way to relax in front of a screen, or if it is like smoking where the relaxation comes from the easing of the desire, the addiction. I suspect a lot of the latter.
Maybe I am justifying also.
Taraz
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