This week has made me realize how much of my life is invested in the internet. Being without access except when I can get to the public library, and 10 minutes on an old modem at work, has left me really out of touch with things. And I'm noticing it more than in the last hiatus I had -- the two weeks I was on the intersession trip in Australia, with zero internet. Much of that is probably because I do so much more online now. I didn't have a blog then, and I was just an ordinary SMU on the Brunching Board (and I had taken a Brunching hiatus for the duration of the semester abroad, so the trip didn't affect that).

It's left me out of touch with the news as well, since there is no convenient place to pick up a paper copy of a newspaper (I prefer to read the paper version, but for blogging and for being able to check a range of sources, not to mention price, the internet wins). Assuming this continues, I wonder what it will do to me by the end of my 10 weeks in Dayton. I'll have only a general idea what the issues of note are, and so much could happen in blogtopia in that time. It will be a little like starting over, though without the newcomer boost that you can claim when you're genuinely starting from scratch. I wonder how long it will take to get my commentary muse back, since it needs to be fed with information for a while before it's strong enough to bring out anything interesting.

We'll see. If all goes according to plan I won't be completely cut off, and I'll be able to post here a few times a week. But it will still be a big reduction from how much time I spent online during the past couple years.