Rooftop Internet

I think we'll be giving the announcement that we're going Amish any day now. This will be going on week 6 or maybe 7 without a hot water heater. A new alternative is using the gross and usually cold showers at the pool. We are also still stuck without a car although this week, amusingly, we have three. Many of my friends family's are out of town and offered up their cars for us to use.

One other luxury I do not have is internet. How did this get published? You might ask. I like to call it Rooftop internet. I am outside, in the dark, on the roof, looking like a creeper and sitting in a very specific spot in order to get the neighbor's web waves. Cool huh? It's a relatively new discovery. Only problem is, it only works during the wee hours because I'm not about to go sitting on the roof in broad daylight. The next door neighbors (who's internet I am actually not using) would probably freak. Some pluses to R.I. are being out under the stars, and learning people's night schedules. Bad part is it only gets one bar or two at most so it's not that reliable. Now for today's focus:

Surviving 6th year.....
Without internet!

I have made it through what many call the hardest year of school. Add no internet at home and the hardness level automatically doubles. So much is done on the computer. So many papers, so many videos, so much research. Now being on the other end of it, I would like to share my wealth of knowledge.

When I say no internet, I am not being entirely truthful. That is, no internet at home. If the goal were no access at all, which would never have worked, then I've cheated. But I still feel deserving of extra credit for every typed thing I turned in. My teachers didn't know it, but every assignment requiring printing or researching became a game of where can I get connection the easiest and who has the cheapest printers?

I'm getting ahead of myself though. To begin with, the public library was my only option for typing and printing. Which was fine, except documents don't save, printing is 10¢ per page, there are closing hours, and there are a bunch of weirdos who make it hard to concentrate. Then a month or so in I discovered that with a course I was taking, I had a name and password I could use to access the college library. This was better, more private, open longer into the night, and printing cost a mere 4¢ per page.

Things got even better after that. None of this would be possible without my dear brother who gave me his old tablet, thus doubling my technology. Without internet though, you might say it's useless and at the library why not use the computers? Well, to a certain extent that's true. I still took late night pilgrimages or frantic early trips to the library in order to print forgotten or last minute papers, but emails and class blogs were much easier to get at.

Throughout the year I formed a list of "checkpoints" or spots I could connect to the Internet. There were the two libraries, so even when they were closed I could stand outside in emergency and connect. Then there was the whole campus internet which I randomly had a guess at while I was babysitting and found that it worked. That brought connection to within five minutes of the house and was a huge help as I spent so much time on campus anyway. Finally, my last check point became brother's house and computers which I fell into the rhythm of hogging every Sunday after lunch in order to have a marathon of homework and hopefully finish assignments requiring web access.

I had my school WiFi password but for some reason it didn't work. Although it wouldn't have been useful anyways because everything would have to be completed already. Half way through the year I made the joyful discovery of coming across passwords in the library at the school I work at. That was nice to have a full hour at the mid point of the week while I waited for kids to show up or for my ride home.

Other random places I occasionally connected to were restaurants or stores with guest WiFi. Panera was a frequent on my list. I love to study there. God really showed me he was taking care of me with all the ways I was able to keep up with school. Sure, it took a little creativity, and definitely stress, but who else can say they made it through 6th year without internet? Honestly I think I kept more on top of those assignments than other students with 24/7 access. Yes, I may have spent one winter night outside watching an hour long documentary I forgot to watch. Yes, I definitely typed a whole paper with my thumbs and printed it half an hour before class. And I definitely submitted multiple blog comments at 11:59 p.m., a minute before their deadline.

I am not sure what to expect with 7th year approaching. Hopefully there is less need, but at least I know I can do what must be done. God will provide. In fact, In recent weeks since school let out, internet has traveled as close as possible without entering the house. A kind neighbor down the street got a new internet provider and thus a new password. As she set it up, she happily remembered me and wrote the code down. Now I can get internet at the bottom of my stairs, and on the roof.

So how exactly can you survive 6th year without internet? Well, start with a tech savvy brother who has his own fast computer he let's you take over once a week. Then in pursuit of bigger and better, you might inherit his tablet, and then you simply have to find all the places in town that have free internet connection. I don't know what I would have done without this magical device. My blog posts are only able to continue through it.

Take a moment to be thankful for your 3G, at&t, or whatever provides your home internet. It doesn't seem to be something teachers question in today's society. Thankfully, at Hogwarts, books have not yet been totally replaced and much of my homework is still doable without it.

I am off to bed now, my feet are getting scratched by the shingles and Lily might be trying to come out. Goodnight.