Sometimes, you have to shut the outer world off for a bit.  I wrote almost nothing during the month of December, even after another successful completion of NaNoWriMo in November. Much of that was due to too much input combined with too many tasks.

I was broke, I love my family and wanted to give them thoughtful prezzies, so I turned to crafts.  All of my creative energy was turned away from my writing and toward designing things they’d like and executing those designs.

To that end (and in planning on selling some of my crafts on etsy for a few extra dollars), I spent nearly the whole month obsessively pouring over crafting and foodie websites and working on finalizing some of my own designs.

And now I need to shut all of that obsessive browsing down. To that end, I’ve added all of those sites, my feed reader, and everything else digital that took up so much space in my mind over the last month onto the most restrictive time-block on LeechBlock. I can only visit those sites for 15 minutes a day total before they’re all blocked.

My brain is running low on RAM and had too many applications open at once. It’s time to shift that focus onto what’s really important and get back to writing, but I know that focus is a difficult thing for me so I turn to ways I’ve found to force it. Disconnect, Block sites, Avoid Information Overload.

Write.

So if I’m less active over the next little while in various online communities of which I am a part (Tumblr, Twitter, Forums) you can consider it part of my digital detox.  I’ll be back, once I get my writing back on schedule (including my poor near-abandoned blog). I just need a bit of time to refocus.

I’ve written at length about the software I use to help my writing productivity. I’ve written odes to Scrivener and distraction free writing environments like Q10 and FocusWriter and discussed how Dropbox has ensured that my work is not lost due to technical glitches.  I’m always willing to try out  new software geared toward helping writing productivity.

I haven’t talked much about the hardware that I use.  I am very much an anywhere-I-am writer. I write on the go and generally in spare moments between doing other things, rather than having a set period of time each day to sit down and do nothing but write. Part of that comes from having a full time job as well as a freelance writing career. I have to fit in bursts of writing where I can. I have to be able to carry my writing with me, wherever I go.

Tool One: Pen and Paper

This should be obvious, right? Pen and paper are the most basic “hardware” tools any writer has at their disposal. However, in practice, and with these nice things called computers around to spoil us, writing longhand can be difficult. In my case, my handwriting becomes an obstacle. It’s horrendous. It’s not unusual for me to write something down, only to come back to it later and be completely unable to read what I’ve written. But, though I’ll rarely write whole stories longhand, I still find pen and paper useful.

I keep a small journal in my purse and several more at my bedside, most of which are used to take notes in. Sometimes it’s ideas for a new story, sometimes some problem with a current story that I have magically managed to figure out how to fix in my sleep.  It’s often too bothersome to go find a computer to jot down that spur-of-the-moment burst of inspiration. By the time you get to a computer and get it booted up, it may even be completely gone.  I also use stream-of-consciousness journalling to put my own thoughts and emotions in order. It’s the last thing I do each night. I’ve tried and do use notetaking software, but when you need to jot something down fast, you just can’t beat pen-and-paper.

Tool Two: Flash Drive

I take my work to multiple computers, and not all of those computers have the software I need. The easy solution, of course, is to run these programs from a flash drive, usually one of somewhere around 4-8 gigabytes, which is more than enough to carry portable versions of Firefox, Dropbox, Scrivener, and FocusWriter, as well as copies of my current writing projects. I have no product preference here, as long as it is relatively cheap and reliable.  Of course, the downside is that you do have to have access to a computer to use your flash drive, and not all public computers will let you plug in.  This is typically what I use when I am writing during my downtime on my work computer.

Tool Three: Smartphone

I’ll be the first to admit that my ancient Blackberry Curve isn’t the smartest of the smartphones out there, but it is wonderful for what I need it to do. With the Evernote and Dropbox apps installed, it provides me with another always-with-me note-taking and storage option. I can post directly to WordPress with it, do research and access my Google Reader on it to scour for blogging ideas and read the news. I can, if necessary, use it for a secondary flash drive, and if I’m somewhere without WiFi, I can tether it to my netbook for internet access.  I think the fact that it is relatively low-powered compared to other smartphones actually works to my benefit. If I had a smartphone that I could fill with distraction-causing games and time-wasters, I would have so much trouble getting anything done. The last thing I need is a portable gaming device if I want to be productive.

Tool Four: Netbook

I’m a gamer. I enjoy an existence that takes place as much in cyberspace as it does in meatspace.  When I sit down at my home computer, I have universes  at my fingertips. Video games. Netflix. Hulu.  And I am very easily distracted. Like a ferret or a squirrel.

The solution to this, for me, was a secondary computer, a netbook.  One that doesn’t have the power to run my favorite video games. It can run Netflix and Hulu, but only if I’m willing to watch it very tiny and blurry. It has no mouse, so playing even the handful of games it can run is a pain in the wrist. At home, my internet is entirely wired, so all I have to do is not plug it in to cut out the web. Though I have read complaints that netbooks don’t have enough power, it was the lack of power that attracted me to it.  Without the power, it also comes without distractions.

I did choose a larger netbook, a 10 inch Acer One, rather than one of the ultraportable 6 or 7 inch netbooks, because I did need it to have a comfortable keyboard for typing. The 10 inch netbook’s keyboard is smaller than full-size, but large enough that typing for long periods on it does not hurt my hands.

Related articles

• The Post-NaNo Reflections Post (intellectualblathering.com)
• How to make simple manuscript comments in Scrivener (davidhewson.com)
• Set Up a Writing System that Stays Out of Your Way [Writing] (lifehacker.com)

Once upon a time, when the internet was just beginning to be available to the masses, the internet was fenced in. If you dialed into the internet with AOL, you could only visit AOL hosted sites. The same with CompuServe and any number of other major providers.  Eventually, thanks to the demands of the customers, those walls were torn down. Now, they’re in danger of being put back up.

Many of the current ubiquitous features of the internet – websites that millions of people visit multiple times every day – could not exist in that fenced in world.  Facebook was created by a college student. Twitter by a few folks with a simple idea. The end of net neutrality would destroy that sort of invention. It would take innovation out of the hands of the individual and ensure that only mega-corporations could afford a place on the internet. Only they would be able to avoid the fees necessary to ensure that their content was accessible by the end-user, because the end-user would only be able to visit websites inside the fence that their ISP puts around the internet.

Now, this wouldn’t just affect internet startups and entrepreneurs.  There are real implications for creative professionals.  Independent musicians, artists, and writers would lose their ability to get their creative work out to the masses, without the benefit of having a major publisher backing them to pay those fees.  Likewise, the ISPs could potentially block websites they simply didn’t agree with – effectively applying censors to anyone with differing opinions or working with controversial subjects. They would be kicked outside the fence, their work left in the black hole of an internet unreachable by anyone.

This, along with certain legislation directed toward the Wikileaks scandal but with wide-ranging implications for freedom of speech for everyone, means that our first amendment rights are being beset on all sides. On one side, we have the greed of the internet providers looking for another way to make money, on the other we have politicians looking to destroy safe political dissent by removing the anonymity of the internet.

More and more, the internet is a place where even those from countries where freedom of speech is not guaranteed can have a voice.  The two things that make this possible are anonymity and the ability for almost anyone, regardless of the money in their pocket, to make a website. Take those two things away, and not only is the internet destroyed, but it will take one of our most fundamental rights with it. And let’s face it, that right is already tattered enough.

Let’s not go building those fences again.

Related articles

• Most don’t want the FCC to regulate the Internet (news.cnet.com)
• Apple the No. 1 Danger To Net Freedom (apple.slashdot.org)
• Net Neutrality Explained for Writers and Artists (craphound.com)

I had a couple of things I want to address today, so I’m going to be jumping around in topic just a bit.

First of all, I’d like to thank Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary Robert Gates for their recommendations regarding the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It is a heartening sign of progress when it comes to the acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality. Unfortunately, I don’t think the repeal process will be easy, and will likely take longer than the gay rights community would like, even with the support of high-ranking officers.  Even so, hope given is a wonderful thing.

On the new budget, I keep hearing all over the mainstream media about how NASA’s budget was cut. What they don’t say is that the NASA programs that were cut (specifically NASA’s Constellation program) were backwards-looking cost-hogs. Instead, that money has been put toward more innovative R&D, education, and the privatizing of space exploration. Already, we have seen private corporations doing much more effective work with much less money.  Rather than the new budget striking against science and research, it shifts the focus toward the sort of innovation and creativity in which good science can thrive.

Also, there’s been a great victory for fact over celebrity-fads this week, as the medical journal Lancet has retracted the faulty research  linking autism with the MMR vaccine, apparently finally realizing the fact that scientists and logically thinking people the world over have always known: Correlation Does Not Equal Causation.  At the same time, Meryl Dorey has stepped down as leader of the Australian ["anti"] Vaccination Network in the wake of the blame placed on her shoulders for the death of a 4 week old child infected with pertussis because there was no blanket immunity in her community thanks to the anti-vax movement. It looks like she may even be prosecuted for dispensing medical advice without any medical training. (Because, apparently, a lot of people don’t realize that taking medical advice from celebrities who have no medical training is a bad idea.)

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• Military brass takes a stand against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (boingboing.net)
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Two of the first sci-fi fandoms I grew up with and embraced with fervor early in life were Star Trek and Dr. Who – primarily because they were the two that I had the easiest access to via network television.  Cable was unavailable in our rural area, and satellites were, at that time, prohibitively expensive.

As I grew up, I moved on to other fandoms and other shows – particularly the ones springing from the mind of Joss Whedon – and while I didn’t forget about those shows I’d grown up with, I wasn’t so excited about them anymore, beyond the usual haze of nostalgia.

The new Star Trek reboot brought the excitement back in a big way.  It was almost like returning to the embrace of an old friend.  Shortly after the movie, I discovered that the entire Star Trek Original Series was available streaming direct from the CBS website, and took the opportunity to watch it all over again – this time in order. I’d never seen it in order – the shows were reruns shown in syndication by the time I watched them as a child.

The magic of the internet has enabled me to reawaken my interest in Dr. Who as well – watching the new BBC production on  Netflix. It took me a bit longer to warm to the new Doctor than it took me to embrace the new Kirk and Spock, but after a few episodes I was firmly hooked.

I’ve rediscovered the fandoms of my childhood and found them new and fresh.  The reboots of each helped this, of course, but it occurred to me that it couldn’t have happened in such a way without the internet. The web gave me both the old and the new versions and ways to compare the two almost side by side through streaming media, websites and communities to renew my participation in, wikis to research, fanfiction to read and write, and of course, the inevitable visits to TV-Tropes.

You know, I kinda like living in the future.

But it left me wondering: Is there some fandom that you’ve had a reunion with thanks to the internet? Something that you’d almost forgotten existed and then suddenly became excited about again upon finding something in some hidden corner of the web?