Recuperation mode

In the end, I slept reasonably well, I suppose. Abandoned by Mrs. Ottawacker, I alternated between shivers and sweats, but awoke without stomach cramps and feeling undeniably better. I lay in bed for a while, thinking about the “Brain” documentary I had seen last night (in between winces and runs to the toilet) and decided to make a few changes in my life. First and foremost, there has to be a massive reduction in screen time. It’s hard for me to push Ottawacker Jr. into less screen time when I am no better than he.
 
The brain documentary essentially provided me with four digital horsemen of the apocalypse, and argued that brains are being physically reshaped by a constant intake of multitasking, social media, and competing demands. It is causing a reduction in understanding, a reduction in productivity, and an increase in dementia. It is the old “less is more” concept. I am constantly on edge about the number of things I have to do, and seem to reach a stage of inertia quite frequently. While lying in bed feeling shite, I resolved to change. And so today, I took the first steps. I’ve deleted a couple of social media accounts, cancelled all alerts, and am planning a radical rethink in how I engage with the world. This is, I realize, quite a knee-jerk reaction to a programme I haven’t even fact checked, but it ties in what I know from my work in government research with what I know from my own life. Time to switch off, and time to focus. That novel is as good as written.
 
Anyway, it being a bank/stat holiday, I allowed myself to switch off from the Internet. The rest of the family was less keen to get rid of screen time, however, as they were binge-watching the Olympics. So, in the end, I decided to do something about the frustrating One Drive cloud saving. I had a whole two-year-stock of photos backed up, which was the cause of constant “you are exceeding your 100GB limit”. I’d recently purchased an external hard drive – so I spent several hours copying the photos, and then copying all the other backed up photos I have since 19-whenever, until I had a consistent repository of photographic history. If anyone steals that external hard drive, I am screwed.
 
It was worth me noting that while I was backing up the photos, I was listening to iTunes and checking email. I was also trying to ascertain if it would be a good idea to get rid of Twitter, as the new rebranding has led to its being hijacked by far-right tosspots and wannabe porn stars. In the end, I decided against it, as the effort it would take to tell all my contacts I was leaving would be too great. Multitasking is one of the four digital horsemen of the apocalypse: apparently nobody can do it; it just leads to doing several things individually and badly. I still have a way to go.
 
A quick Skype to friends out in Victoria (who were quite put out by Ottawacker Jr.’s not popping in to say hello when he was flying by yesterday), and we watched some more Olympics. Next, I helped relocate from our furnace room possibly the largest spider this side of Australia. If only one of us had been brave enough to put a ruler next to it, you’d have a better idea of size. Then, after some more Olympics, Mrs. Ottawacker went to bed, so I watched the first part of an excellent documentary on Frida Kahlo, called Becoming Frida Kahlo. In this, I learned, among many interesting facts, that she lost her virginity to a bus. So, there you are.