A Writer's dream: Friday and a three-day weekend

Friday at last and followed by a three-day weekend: what more could a writer want? How about a 10-cup coffee maker, a box of 40 new coffee filters and a peanut butter sandwich, everything to keep me happy until I go back to work at my "other job" on Tuesday morning.

I would, also, like an Internet connection that holds and does not disconnect when I am in the middle of a blog entry. All right, considering that my connection to the Internet is through a phone line, maybe I am asking too much. The advantage to having a telephone line hook-up, is that no one can get me when I am online. The disadvantage is that the connection periodically tiptoes into cyberspace.

All right, I admit that part of the problem is my use of tabbed browsing. I like to tab brows; it is helpful when doing research and writing poetry. I can have a rhyming dictionary on one tab and a regular dictionary or thesaurus on other tabs. I do not use more then three tabs at a time. Normally I only use two, but there are times when I need three tabs each with a different websites.

I definitely need DSL; there is no way around it. As much as I like the one main advantage of having a phone line connection, i.e. the phone is busy when I am online. That advantage does not compensate for the disadvantage of periodic disconnection at the most critical time, specifically, when I am in the middle of a thought and composing a sentence or line. My train of thought gets derailed and I forget what I was going to write.

The secret to tabbed browsing with a dial-up connection

I think I have finally figured out the secret to successful tabbed browsing with a dial-up connection. The secret is patience. I get the number of tabs I want, usually only two, but sometimes I work with three. Then I wait for the first website to load before putting in the address in the next tab. Do not attempt to load both websites at the same time, the connection cannot handle two websites loading at the same time.

I can work with two or three different website, as long as I am patient. If I get impatient and attempt to load both web pages at the same time my connection disconnects. Normally I do not attempt to work with more then three tabs at once. When you do not have DSL, you have to learn patience.

Patience is a Virtue

‘Idál (Justice), 2 Rahmat (Mercy), 165 BE – Wednesday, June 25, 2008 about 5:45 PM PDT

Patience is a virtue and extremely necessary when you are a writer with a dial-up connection. My connection has been a bit touchy lately. I am not sure why, but it is frustrating when I am working online and am suddenly disconnected. All right, perhaps part of it is my own fault because I use tab browsing and the dial-up connection does not seem to like that.

Another thing that is frustrating is when I am reviewing on writing.com and suddenly get disconnected in the middle of a review. Fortunately, I can store the review (if I think about it) and go back to it after reconnecting. My problem is, I never think about storing the review until I am disconnected and then it is too late. I get so involved in the story or the poem I am reviewing, that I forget about anything else.

I have not been patient person lately. I am not sure of the reason. I used to be patient or I used to think I was patient, but my patience seems to be wearing thin or non-existent. I recently got back on my thyroid meds, I thought for a while that was the problem. However, I am back on my meds and I am still encountering the problem with patience.

Perhaps getting DSL or a cable modem would solve the problem. It would solve the problem of slow download and upload time. It would solve the disconnection problem, but I am not sure it would solve the patience problem. I think I am just going to have to work on my patience and find a way to be more patient with technology.