Edged in Blue

I’ve heard more than a few NaNoWriMo participants come up with this little nugget of wisdom:

When writing, turn off the Internet.

Lynn Viehl mentions she has one machine not allowed onto the Internet (and hence is not bogged down with virus scan or constant patching or – the bane even of Mac and Linux users – every damn software app on the system phoning home for updates.

Laura Lippman allows herself one hour a day on the Internet.  That’s it.  (Still hasn’t mastered the distraction of the laundry room.  My wife wishes I’d be more distracted by ours.)

For me, this is difficult.  All my machines automatically jump online.  I write on the fly.  I need that instant access to Wikipedia and teh intrawebs for research.  Or do I?

Typically, and this has gotten me into trouble with work, with academic efforts, with just paying the bills, I will sit down, blow through my email, check this blog’s stats and spam filter, and – oh, what the hell.  Let’s check the RSS reader, too.  And Facebook.  And Twitter.  (Surprise!  Resistance was futile.  I’ve been assimilated.  Tweeeet!)

But my laptop, which has served me well for the past four years, is showing its age.  It’s slow to boot and chokes occasionally on Firefox.  The battery barely lasts an hour.  As soon as AJ’s monster tower is paid off, I’ll probably turn around and replace the laptop.

Or rather suppliment it.  Yes, there’s a lot to be said for being able to write in a hotel room, on a plane, and in a coffee shop.  But I may keep the current old faithful and simply disable the wireless card.  Why not?  Put it on the big behemoth of a desk in my office with my back to the equally venerable (yet more nimble) Compaq tower.  Leave the tower hooked up to the Internet.  Let it run iTunes.  My attention would be focused on an isolated standalone machine whose only outside access is the thumb drive.

Sounds like an ideal arrangement.  Now if I could find a way to do academics offline.

I’d definitely get a lot more done without email beckoning.