A Technology-Free Weekend

I spent the entire weekend at a horse show. I'm the type of person who is married to my cell phone and laptop so, of course, I brought them along.

Here's the amazing part. I didn't use either of them once in three days and never missed them.

Guess what I did? I socialized with real people and horses. No My Space, no Facebook, no email, no blogging. Just me, my horse, my husband, and good friends.

I had a lousy show, but I had a good time. As I was driving home, camper on the back of my truck, horse trailer in tow with my 1500-pound horse tucked inside, I resisted the urge to pick up that cell phone. Instead, I reflected on the weekend, and how I managed to go technology-free. Not an easy feat for a technology obsessed person.

Our society has become so attached to our techno-stuff, that I wonder if we're heading down the wrong path and losing touch with the important things in life, the simple things, like the sound of a horse munching on hay in the early morning or conversation with good friends or the evening sunset. Technology is a poor replacement for the good things in life, the simple things.

Tonight try turning off that laptop and cell phone and sit on the porch with people important to you and watch a sunset. You might be surprised how much you've been missing and how much you truly enjoy it.

Computers and News Updates

I've been fighting for the last two weeks with my wireless PC card and Outlook Express. I want my ISP's email to sync with Outlook Express. Well, it works fine if I dial-in to the ISP, and I do mean dial-in. We're talking speeds of somewhere between a slug on the sidewalk watching a tree grow. So now I have this wireless card, and I'm off to the races, except Outlook won't sync. After a couple weeks of fighting with the thing, I have it receiving mail but not sending. I know what's wrong, it's finding the right answer that's sending me off the deep end.

That makes me wonder--how the heck does the average person off the street manage to troubleshoot PCs when those of us in IT often struggle with the things? I've spent countless hours on this one problem, which should be easy to fix, but I find the easiest things are often the hardest.

On another note, I have some news:

I sold The Dance, the first manuscript (and the subject of a previous post, "That Special Manuscript") I ever completed, to Siren Publishing. It'll be out in late 2008. I'm very excited to see this manuscript in print.

Equestrian Ink debuts on Monday. This is a collaborative effort of several authors who write equestrian fiction. We have tons of fun things planned so drop in every couple days to check us out!!!