I've been thinking about the internet lately. And, you know, life and stuff.

I'm going to try to cut back on this internet stuff. Yeah, just as I'm starting a job where I'm in charge of five or six websites. I know.

I don't know what I want from this website anymore. I think I'm going to leave it as is until I figure that out. What is a personal website for, other than blogging? What was it for? Is blogging going to last? Where do we go from here?

Christopher and I don't own a TV, and I love that. We don't listen to the radio either, and I love that. I love a life free from commercials and over-produced Top 40 crap, free from yet another crime drama bringing rape and murder into my living room five or six times a night. I am not entertained by that. I am increasingly horrified by the stories we tell. I find my music and my TV from recommendations from friends. I am not limited to the Thursday night schedule.

But we've replaced it with the internet. I've replaced commercials and crappy sitcoms with MSN, Facebook, Gmail, Ask MetaFilter, Apartment Therapy, Political Theory Daily Review, web comics, RSS feeds, Dooce, Flickr, del.icio.us, more links, more more more. And is my life richer for it? Sure, I have a lot more trivia to offer and I can talk to my friends without paying for long-distance. There are some great sites out there. But there is so much filler. So many Ask MetaFilter discussions that I don't really need to read. So many articles, so much wandering from link to link to link. My attention span is dying because I'm constantly scanning, constantly multi-tasking, constantly looking for the next good article because there's always more more more. Never stopping to let it sink in. Monitoring my Flickr, my email, my Facebook.

I get frustrated with books now because they take so much time, because they aren't built for skimming. I catch myself looking for the search function! I fidget, I get restless, I put the book down and check my email.

I need some quiet. Some going outside. Some more time teaching Christopher to play rummy and helping him learn not to be such a poor loser. (It's not my fault that I kick his ass. If he really wanted to win, he would have spent all of high school playing it obsessively like I did.)

We always talk about how much we love Toronto, but we rarely take advantage of it. What do we do here that's any different than what we did where we came from? We go to work, we come home, we have dinner with friends, we sit and read the internet all evening. Sitting on the couch, each with our laptops. Sometimes we download TV. Ridiculous.

We live down the road from the Mediathèque and we have memberships, and we never go. We walk through Grange Park on our way somewhere else. I want picnics and dog-watching. I want to buy harnesses for the cats and let them stalk the pigeons they're always monitoring. I want poetry slams and free improv at Second City. I want to take a cooking class, to read a book from start to finish, to learn Javascript and do something interesting with it. I want my hands to heal enough that I can crochet again. I want to go to more of the film festivals—Reel World, Cinéfranco, there's so many great ones. I'd like to actually go to Trampoline Hall more often; we keep missing it! I want to take my bike to the Toronto Islands this summer.

I want to unplug, to take more walks, to slow down. I want to write in my journal instead of blogging. I want to reflect, not link. I want to write more letters and fewer emails. I want to grow herbs and vegetables on our balcony. I want to investigate vermicomposting. I want to learn to draw. I want to photograph more. I want French classes.

I'm not doing any of that right now, I'm blogging. Et tu?