arbi  
stripcreator donor

arbi says:

yesterday when the internet was down i wrote a journal, so i'm putting it here. same info as above, less succinct. i probably wont make this a habit? Tuesday night notes, adventures of an arbitrary aardvark. July 19 2011. my car is broken down, parked a mile away. The phone is disconnected over a matter of a $1500 past due bill. I live in the part of town where you dont go out at night, although that doesn't stop me. Not having money stops me, but mostly it's too hot. Today, as an experiment, we are runing an air conditioner, seeing if the one-rom unit will cool his room, the hall, and my room. I dont think it's going to work. Air conditions are for rich people, sissies,and people who live places like florida. I'm in indiana. So all this is fine, no problem so far. Then yesterday morning the internet goes out. And stays out. Catastrophe. We can't call to get it fixed because our only phone works off the internet. The pay phone at the corner is broken,and th eother pay phone doesnt let you beep the buttons to work the automated answering thingy at the internet company. I'm usually online all day. Checking the blogs I read, checking redditt and 4chan and slashdot, updating my own blogs, looking to see how many hundred hits i'm getting at my one popular blog. It's popular because it's mostly porn; the traffic at my more serious blogs is much lower. My computer is such that I have to wiggle the screen back and forth to get it just right to display, otherwise it scrolls endlessly. But I know how to wiggle it, just a little bit. I was on track to have my third busiest day at the blog, because I was using redditt to send some traffic my way. My best day, back in march, was when my blog got linked at tommy ander's facebook. I had gotten 700 hits less than 12 hours in, so I thought I might have a shot at beating the 1200 I got last week on my second-best day. But then the internet went down, and hasn't come back up. I finished reading Isaac Asimov's biography. His third one, “I, Asimov.” He was a golden age science fiction writer of some 600 books, who I started reading when I was 12 or 13. He dies at the end,so there might not be a sequel. Now I'm reading Fonda, My life. It's a semiautobiagraphy, as as-told-to. Reminds me of one of my favorite riddles. Q: Who wrote the autobiography of Malcolm X? A: Alex Haley. Did I mention my internet is down? I remember now why I grew up with my nose in a book. It was before the internet. Take away the computer, the TV, the book, and I would have to face real life,and that's just way too dull, depressing, and sensorily deprived. Even without being online, I can play solitaire and write up these notes. I spent today doing a first draft of a memo I have needed to write for months, a reply brief that should have been filed long ago. But I'm an internet junkie, and there's always been something more interesting to work on/play at. Until today. So I put in about 6 hours at that, made soup and a salad, and looked around my bookshelves for something readable. When my car works, I occasionally stop by the dumpster of a place that buys books by the ton and throws many of them away, so I have lots of books, more books than shelves ot hold them. I'm a pack rat, a hoarder. Food, books, clothes, broken computers, cheap furniture, I have two houses to store stuff in. I rent out one of the houses which in theory provides me an income to live this life of genteel leisure. Or gentile leisure anyway. Today I got a possible tenant for the spare room here in the one I live in, which makes it possible to keep the utilities paid. If that works out I could be bringing in as much as 1600 a month without even working. I've been unemployed for a long time, aside from when I rent myself out as a guinea pig to Big Pharma. But last week I went on a job interview,and generally I'm getting ready to give the working world another try. I had retired ten years ago after my father died and I was for awhile independently wealthy. Then I had a nervous breakdown and lost all my money. I haven't been able to hold a regular job during that time, but as I said I'm getting ready to give it another try – I'll probably get hired somewhere for something before the end of the year. And odds are I'll be fired about as quickly. But I'll just need to keep trying. This town has been deep in recession for several years, but it is beginning to ease, and there are a few jobs now in the warehouse districts out by the airport. I think I'm noticing that this is getting too rambly, so i'm going to stop here for now.Just wanted to jot some quick notes in a folder so when I next get online I have material for my next comic. www.stripcreator.com/comics/arbi, the adventures of an arbitrary aardvark. Now I'll go and do some laundry and or take a bath, and then maybe I'll have a second go at trying to get a bit further with the memo,or more likely I'll read the Fonda book in the bathtub. Even when it's 90 out,and in, I enjoy a hot bath with a good book. Then,maybe I'll make a to do list, and putter about the house a bit. I could move that rolltop desk up to the spare room,and bring the mattress onto the front porch, and even duck my head intoi the toolroom to see what tasks lie ahead. It's too hot to do much. It's not that I'm notlazy, I am, but mostly it's a matter of distraction. I may or may not have ADD, but normally I pay very little attention to the outside world because 90% of my focus is on what's going on on the internet. Did I mention my internet is down? One time I spent 3 weeks offline while I was in jail. That resulted in nervous breakdown number 2. I'm not sure what I'm allergic to, but suddenly I'm sneezing and congested. Wasn't 5 minutes ago. Could be the air conditioner. If I had unlimited funds, I would go see an allergist. I'm 50 and never been. My sister loved horses and was allergic to them, and got weekly shots growing up. I'm greatful I didn't get weekly shots, but it's possibly I was a bit neglected. I suspect that I have allergies as bad as the other family members; I'm maybe just a bit more stoic about it. Ah, but I can go take a pill now. For the past 4 years I've bene on a regimen of never taking medicine for anything, because I did drug studies for a living, and only ever took the drugs they paid me to take. But that has tapered off to nothing, and I have no current prospects, so if I feel like taking an allergy pill I might as well. I mentioned that I'm a hoarder, so I'm well stocked up with pills even though I usually dont take anything myself.. So the plan is, pill, laundry, bath, book, then maybe memo again, or maybe I'll add to this later. I think what I'm going to do with it is put it in the comment field under the next comic I do. Did pill, laundry, bath. The internet came back up after we reset it again. 1600 hits the other day, second best day yet.
posted Jul 20th, 2011 ( permalink )