As many of you know, I’m on the computer all the time. That’s partially because I’m a workaholic of sorts, but hey…I’m funemployed! Less computer time for me this week and change, and I haven’t missed it terribly.
But here’s what I noticed — I’m on that bad boy a whole lot more than when I had a desktop computer.
Right now, I’m on my mother’s desktop. What’s striking is how few other things I can do while I use it. It’s in the second room of her place, and all that’s in here are a few bins she’s using to store things, a bed, and a hodgepodge of stuff. Can’t watch TV in here, nor is eating really convenient. If you’re on the computer, that’s all you’re doing.  That’s a great way to keep your posture good.
When I get home, the first thing I do is turn on the lapper.  Either I’m cueing up music, or I’m checking what e-mail I missed on the way home, checking scores or, the most common answer, getting right back to work.  If you think I’m lying, come rub my shoulders and feel the effects.  Or, hell, even if you don’t think I am, come rub my shoulders.  I’d appreciate that greatly.
Once I got the lapper and wireless, I could do work whenever and wherever.  I take my computer to friends’ houses, and I don’t like it when they don’t have wireless themselves.  Between the hundreds of people on various buddy lists, the lapper doubles as social outlet (over the years, I’ve come to loathe the phone because there are myriad ways to get in touch with me that are less cumbersome and don’t interrupt what I’m doing).
I’m not sure any of those are good things.  Sure, it made me better at my gigs, but I doubt it made me a better person.  I hate using other people’s computers — I need everything where I want it, down to how the clicks on the keyboard sound — but this has made me less social and leaves me plopped on my couch a lot more.
Shakespeare said all the world’s a stage.  When you’ve got the lapper, the whole world’s an office.  That’s cool when you love what you do.  But no matter what you love, it can become a job.  Hell, even pR0NN stars don’t wanna go in some mornings.
Productivity is so much easier now.  But am I the only one that questions whether that’s made life a whole lot less fun?
How much less fun?  I hate not having the immediate option of getting something done or looking something up.  Life was o-bee-kay-bee before that was an option, but I can’t imagine it now.  And as simplistic as this sounds, it would not be like this if I didn’t have a laptop.
And now, I can’t imagine living without it.  Welcome to 2009, for better or worse.