OVERconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet is done; now to move on to the next book, or, perhaps better yet, actually finish that painting I’ve been sitting on for two years now.

I still need to clean up my apartment; everything that I’ve brought home from the office (and it turns out; I had brought a lot) still needs to be put away. For example, the Vornado fan… Dietz’s wives (don’t ask). The extra tea that I bought; other miscellaneous office supplies and items to make office work easier and more efficient. I now have an excess of smartphone stand-chargers, and I probably need to buy shelves for Dietz’s wives to sit on. This isn’t a problem I anticipated having.

July’s goth picnic was cancelled again, due to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. I’m getting increasingly antsy about getting my GoSwag flask back. Yes, I have a spare, but it’s not yellow, and I am unhappy that my flask is possibly occupying valuable space in Alice’s abode (whatever that may be).

I REALLY want my flask back.

I’ve read OVERconnected, Derek Thompson’s “The Anti-Social Century”, and I’ve now just finished a horrifying New York Times article on people genuinely believing they’re part of The Matrix because ChatGPT told them so. Look, aren’t we adults? Aren’t you supposed to stop believing in Santa Claus? Get a fucking life. And one of these cooks was actually a married psychologist? Look, if you feel your marriage is hitting a rocky patch, maybe get a licensed marriage and family therapist to help you do couples’ counselling? Who the fuck are these people? What about their social situations makes them psychotic? You know, at least with a physical cult, you’ve got a group, all dressed in neat garb, all doing fancy rituals, there’s typically a charismatic leader—how do you get sucked up into cult shit by a chatbot? I’m not sorry when I say, you know what, we’re better off with those people cutting themselves off from society, at least a child’s imaginary friends don’t tell them to be dickwads and take ketamine.

I’m trying to keep my mind clear and unbogged by too much information. (My girl is doing the same, too.) So I’m reading this non-fiction material at a slow, steady pace… I admit that I am far more distracted these days, than I was pre-COVID, pre-smartphone. I’m trying to dig myself out of that. And I believe I’ve been making steady progress…

I can’t believe one of the problems I’m having with my smartphone is now I have too much to read. You’d think having unbridled access to a digital library might be good and convenient, but… …I find myself ignoring my apartment and spending more time and focus on reading than I should. It’s not the ebooks that are giving me problems. It’s all the online articles I have access to, too. I have to limit that. No more big Atlantic or NYT features on my phone. Strange having to block a news site on my mobile device, but…

I can’t wait for my fiancee to finally emigrate here. I don’t want to be stuck on a screen just to communicate with her.