Shutdown Shutdown Day.

Our favorite Geography Sucker put me on to this noble concept. I can't remember ever wanting to participate in a "Let's Not Do That For One Day" idea, and this one is no different. I suppose there are some who are addicted to computers the way that some people are addicted to sex. Wait a minute... addicted to sex? Doesn't everybody like that? If they don't, they're not doing it correctly.

Computers are a part of our life now. They're not toys or luxuries any more. I remember a conversation with a half dozen people in my living room in 1977, people from all walks of life and who all had different jobs. We had just gotten our first phototypesetting machine at work (which used 8-inch floppy disks, by the way). LWC was working for a big agricultural corporation that just added some new IBM 370 terminals she was using. All of us were starting to find computers in the workplace.

I guess there are some people who are addicted to showers. Or toasters. Or toothpaste. But that doesn't mean it somehow ennobles others to give them up for one day to feel superior somehow. Isn't that what this is all about? Looking down your nose at somebody? I always said that if I were Catholic, I'd give up watermelon for Lent, because it's not in season. (I have been told that is not in the proper spirit and that God would strike me down in a New York Minute for even thinking that if I weren't so Agnostic.)

So all you snooty bastards that use the Intertubenetweb once per day to check your email, I hope you feel better about yourselves when you skip that one day. Look down your long, patrician noses at the rest of us who work there and play there. We'll be online March 24. Maybe all day, just to spite you fuckers. The Shutdown Day logo has a "no" line slashed through a power switch. To me, that means "Don't Turn It Off."