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Lost without internet, cell phones

By Gan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-07 12:52

Wednesday

9:36 am

One day to go. Work at home.

11:24 am

Finish hometown story. Would normally e-mail it to travel editor but instead copy the file to a CD and plan to physically hand it over. Realize I won't be in the office today because I must attend a press conference near where I live. Ask my roommate to send story via his e-mail. A tiny voice in head says: "You are breaking the rules."

2:56 pm

At Romanian film festival press conference and spot a hot girl. Want to ask for her number, but give up. Who uses a pen and paper to take down a number? I don't want to look like an idiot.

7:21 pm

Dinner with friends at Pink Loft restaurant. Gossip, fights, and quarrels, but mostly talk about my no-tech mission.

"I want to do that for a while and have no one bother me," Jessie says.

Helen smiles and says my absence is not missed. "He's out of my mind these days," she laughs.

"Okay, I get it. I don't exist if I don't have a mobile phone." I scream.

8:24 pm

I desperately miss Desperate Housewives! I usually watch it the moment it comes out online on Tuesday evening. Now I have to wait! "Eddie is finding out Dave's secrets! She is dead!" I create some plots myself.

10:25 pm

90 minutes to go and there is light ahead!

11:56 pm

Take mobile phones out and connect laptop. Ready to go!

At the stroke of midnight I open my mobile phones and hundreds of messages rush in.

"Lost?"

"Are you dead?"

"Reply to me ASAP!"

"Call me back!"

"Why have you turned off your phone?"

Over the past three days, I completely forget to call my parents and forget to tell them my project. They freak out and nearly call the police.

Maybe if I had called mom, I could have got more real information about my hometown.

During the past three days I missed

a) Two press conferences

b) Several episodes of Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girls, and Lie to Me

c) A small housewarming party, and

d) Kelly Clarkson's latest album. I download the album as soon as I go online. There is a song I love the most, My Life Would Suck Without You.

My life would suck without the Internet and mobile phones. I realize I am addicted to these devices, and they make life easier. I couldn't function at work or at home without them.

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