My laptop’s name is Fergus MacBook (yes, I name inanimate objects). But, the name has to be pronounced correctly, like a drunk pirate doing a crappy Scottish accent. Or just a drunk.
Like this:
Feerrrrrrgus MacBooooook!
John shakes his head and cries a little every time I say it like that. I’ve been saying it like that for five years. That’s a lot of tears (I savor them all).
The other night, Fergus MacBook’s power adapter conked out, leaving me with about three and a half hours of battery life to see me through twenty-four hours. No laptop (so no internet, either. Or writing, because I do that on Fergus), no cable (so no catching a movie or seeing what nonsense is on Syfy), and no music (yeah, my iPod battery was dead, too).
So, I sat down with a book (a real book, with pages and everything) and read in silence like it was the 1990s. I was even wearing a plaid flannel shirt.
It occurred to me then that I may be a little too dependent on all this stuff.
I get nostalgic now and then for mix tapes and used books with underlined passages and notes in the margins, but this is the first time I realized just how far from those things I’ve moved. A lot of what I do and own is digital.
It makes me want to do more in the context of the real world, even if it’s just making a CD (which is silly considering I don’t own a CD player anymore) or sewing another dress.
Just to re-affirm that I’m still here and have things to share. Oddly, it feels like it’s getting harder to do that.
Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
Yeah, it’s important to me to remember that I have a CHOICE.
And to remember how to do things WITHOUT the benefit of certain technologies. I will never be a luddite, because I LIKE progress, but I also don’t pooh-pooh things like writing letters and sending them snail mail, or reading hard copies of books, because tangible things are important and special and provide a closeness between people that the digital life never can. It’s all about balance.
The only thing that keeps me from writing proper letters these days is my crappy handwriting. Which has always been terrible, rather than being a result of access to keyboards (it’s really bad, as in, I use to make my own pencil grips in elementary school with chewing gum). Also, stamps, which I never have. I still love getting real mail. There’s such an air of seriousness to it.