The Internet. The series of tubes. I have a complex relationship with the Internet. This isn't surprising; I have a complex relationship with almost everything. (Except cheeseburgers. Actually, scratch that; even cheeseburgers.) A lot of people - both the technerati and your average folks - have ambivalent feelings about the Internet. It's this amazing way to keep in touch with people, but it's also deeply distracting and can be a serious pain in the butt. I have this really terrible cell phone service plan, a pre-paid plan from Verizon - by the way, don't ever buy the pre-paid plan from Verizon - and the data part of the plan got all screwed up a few days ago. So I just sorta didn't fix it, just to see what would happen. I'm on day 5 and so far the universe hasn't ended. But it is really annoying.
A lot of things about the internet and my reaction to it confuse me, but one thing has become really really clear: crappy Internet service is deeply irritating. I can't begin to describe how much stress I experience using a crappy internet connection. The apartment I'm living in here in Bend, just because of the way it's physically set up and the service my roommates picked, is incredibly terrible. It fades in and out, sometimes not working at all. And I'm over it. If I am going to use the Internet - I want it to be top notch. It's like driving; I'd rather not drive at all, but if I'm going to, I do not want to wait in traffic. I will structure my life willingly to avoid traffic if at all possible. Add to that list lousy Internet. I want fiber directly into my brain, or I'm just going to curl up with a DVD or a book.
Of course it occurs to me that I used to use a 1200 baud modem to connect to BBSes. Which is true. But there's two things about that: one, it annoyed me even back then. Two, I knew it was going to be slow and terrible, so I didn't use it for anything all that important. Nobody used the internet to look up phone numbers and addresses, or how to get someplace, or apply for a job, or sign up for classes. Now we do all those things - and, dammit, I want it to work. Like, right now. After all, phone books never had to load; you just opened them up and there you go. And that kind of Internet exists; I've used a quality connection, for example at work, and I know what that feels like. (Hint: really good).
So bring on that fiber, set up that 802.11n, let's do this thing. Fatten up those tubes.