New Beginnings

It's odd to begin a day that will be unplugged by plugging in and telling "the world" about it, but that's what I'm doing. It's almost 6 AM here in Louisiana, my kids are sleeping soundly, I'm doing laundry and about to do dishes, and I'm here to say that today will be a "NO NET" day. There's really no special occasion for this decision, though there is a reason. It's been dawning on me, little by little, that the more time I spend in front of a computer screen, Facebooking, surfing, etc. the less time I have with my kids, my friends, and my family. Duh! Right? Maybe, but it's so subversive, "I'll only go check this one little fact," "I'm just looking up the news," "Just 5 minutes." The problem is that it's the world wide web (and there are a lot of interesting things in this wide world of ours). I love learning new things about how to improve the world, but it seems the more time I devote to "studying" on the net, the less time I have for implimenting any of these changes into reality. The clock now reads 5:54, I'm going to try and wrap this up before 6, and I'll be on my way.

This isn't about the internet being bad. It's an incredibly useful and good tool. I love the internet. This is about putting priorities in line. I'm not one to neglect my children because I'm "farmvilling," in fact, months back I've put a virtual stop to my online gaming (earlier this week, I decided to give it a go after the sabbatical, but found it was no longer appealing). And that's what I'm hoping happens here. I don't want the internet to be were I spend most of my social time. I want to connect with people in reality, and to use the internet only as the tool it was meant to be.

My idea for this is not new at all. I will alot myself 30 minutes a day on the computer (this morning I've used 15 of those writing this). After that 30 minutes are up, I turn the modem off. If I need to know something, I'll call someone, I'll look it up in a book, or maybe I'll just wait for the next day.

So today, rather than watching Hulu movies about social change or reading some article about how to be a good mom, I'm going to take my one little step into that direction. Hopefully that little step will be the start of more and more of them. I hope you all have a great day. Peace.

Again

So here I am again. It's been a while since I've blogged, and whild I've been away I've: gotten divorced, changed my major, moved back to my family farm, watched my kids blossom, fallen in and out of love, and changed my major back again. While all that was going on, I discovered the intiguing (and addicting) world of Facebook (with a very brief dabbling into Twitter). I've got to say, there's something infinately appealing about being able to jot down one or two sentences (or somethings fragments) and get feedback. Yes, I'm that shallow. Why am I back here? Do I honestly think anyone will follow this (often mindless) drabble, intterupted by entirely too many parenthesis? Probably not. But the writer in my longed for something a bit deeper, even if sometimes I'm sure the things I'll write about will be far from deep.



For those that don't know me (which, I'm sure, includes most who've stumbled upon here) I'm Charlie, Mama to Abby (5), Raph (3), and my angel in heaven, Aaron. I've lived almost my whole life in south Louisiana. I'm mostly Cajun (about 3/5ths, by my closest estimate), the rest is Scottish, British, Native American, German, and a questionable amount of Russian. I'm an English major; for those wondering what I'd switched it to for a while, it was Nursing (English, Nursing, English... a nursing sandwich on lit bread). Have I mentioned I tend to be corny? I love to paint, write poetry and short stories, and spending time with my kids. I love music, sports, and movies, but don't count on me to know the names of bands, players, or actors. I love being outside. More than anything else in the world, though, I love my children. Without them, I have nothing. There aren't a whole lot of things I dislike, generally speaking, minor annoyances pass fairly quickly. This is probably because I have the attention span of a gnat. I'm Roman Catholic, but I love studying other religions, particualarly Buddhism. I'm both pro-life and pro-environment, which some find contradictory, but I find are very much in harmony with each other. For me, being pro-life means that I am a pacifist; against the death penalty and abortion; a supporter of groups that promote acceptance, peace, and equality. I'm not a fan of big government or big business. I'm an idealist. Anything else about me that's important, I'm sure you'll find out eventually.