Checked into a different AirBNB tonight. I was playing Quake 2 when I noticed excessive vibrations through the ground. Removed my headphones and heard a bunch of diesel engines.

Walked outside and, much to my surprise, there are multiple bucket trucks servicing the telephony lines strung overhead. A couple heated trailers and a few vans on the ground. (Might post a photograph once I leave this accommodation.) The guys in the buckets were wearing headlamps, like ET eyes.

Logged into the into the AirBNB’s network. No internet. I usually never connect to random networks. Between my phone’s hotspot and my dedicated network box with a dedicated cellphone modem, my connectivity requires a cellphone signal and a half dozen watts.

The network box plugs into van, into whatever hotel room, whatever AirBNB. I even took a stripped-down variant to QuakeCon last year, which helped me immensely.

And if the internet did die, it would have been at most, inconvenient. Mostly I just want to ensure I can check my bank balance and pay my bills. ChatGPT, Quake, music streaming, a rare YouTube video, and a rare chitchat are all I really use.

I have a stash of local content on my laptop — 8TB SSD helps:

• Offline wikipedia.
• Other offline books.
• Website scrapes.
• A couple movies.
• Music.

My phone and laptop sync data as long as they exist on the same network (or are both on the internet).

Internet is nice. Not completely necessary.

I don’t recognize my dependent past self anymore.

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