We've been traveling. That's how I've had the extra brain ergs to actually start writing this blog, which I've been pondering doing for quite a while.
Yes, I take a computer with me on vacation. We actually sometimes take 2 or 3. Don't ask - I'm a nerd.
Although my dear wife might disagree, I don't really have this undying devotion to my work which means that I must check in constantly for fear that the entire operation is going to fall apart without me. Quite the contrary. First of all, my employer (Lenovo) is an organization with some 10,000 employees worldwide and enough revenue for it to be well up the Fortune 500 list (although not sure if they actually are on the list since we're not listed on a US stock exchange). They do quite fine without me there.
Bringing the laptops with us is a combination of addiction to being connected, relief from the tedium of hours on the Interstate system, and the ability to skimp on vacation time taken. Oh yeah - and an occasional DVD for the kids.
Summer is a time when the media trots out their reports about how Americans can't take vacation, and when they do, they can't disconnect, and on and on. One I heard the other day said something along the lines that the "typical" American doesn't use 4 of their entitled vacation days each year, even though we get less days than folks in most other countries do. While I'm sure in some ways I would be a prime example for these reports, I don't think its all that clear cut.
I like being connected. I get a lot of my information from the Internet, whether it be at home or at work - weather, news, what time the museum opens, or what have you. I stay in touch with friends scattered around the world as well. I have a keyboard under my fingers or very close by most of the day. Its just easier to click to the information I'm looking for than dig out a phone book or turn on the TV and do it the old fashioned way. Its just part of my life. If I continue that while on vacation, does that make me a bad person? It doesn't seem like being connected is all that terrible. Especially when I can choose whether to connect to work or not while on the computer. I don't have a Crackberry - just an old fashioned laptop. And a cool array of toys which make it possible to connect from the highway or wherever. Maybe that makes it different, in that I'm connected on my terms, not someone else's. I find cell phone calls much more intruding than Instant Messages or emails retrieved while on vacation.
A nerd, but maybe a wierder than normal one. Oh, and no chickens were harmed in the writing of this post.
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