A week ago I was supposed to have my internet turned off- I was actually proud of how the retention department at Comcast didn't argue with me. It turns out they didn't argue much because they never turned off the internet. So since I've got in writing the day I requested they turn it off and was told I'd get prorated back... I've been downloading a shit load of everything in the meantime. Hence the thread-

I've got enough movies to last me years of non-stop watching, I've got pretty much every thing you can grab off the sister site for VSTs. I have a few offline games I like. lots of mental health related stuff I clearly need to force myself to take in.

I'm downloading videos from youtube regarding music, videos from the Kush Audio guy, Dan Worrall, some music theory guitar stuff, the tabletop composer, marc daniel nelson.... videos from WWise which I've been meaning to teach myself. (they say the only disability is a bad attitude, in which case I am fucked)

any thoughts? what am i missing, where are my blind spots? any recommendations for overall courses/guides/books on audio engineering, theory, psycho acoustic stuff I won't understand? I have 4 gigs of data for email and texts which is more than enough to cover what i get... what am I desperately going to miss/need that I'm not thinking of once my internet stops?

 

Welcome to my world. I haven't had internet in years. I only have internet on my phone, prepaid internet "pay for 100gb per month". Well, it's been a while since I can afford an internet plan, here in my country they are very expensive (of course, depending on the income of each one). Now, I made the same question as you when I had a month of Internet access, and I downloaded movies and series, which is what I watch the most. From the sister site I also have many things that are worth gold. But if you start to think that you lack? It will never be enough, I think the internet is a drug. I miss the days when I was "free" without internet and I would get together with my friends to talk about life, philosophy, etc. I also hate social networks, and I try to stay away from them. My point of view is that, if you can, live the real life, which is out there. Sometimes I think that one tries to fill gaps with internet garbage, and I am not referring to plugins or work tools, I am referring to the need to always have more and more. I think the best thing one could do is to get the shit out of the internet.

 

LOL Paul Pi- I KNEW there was a blind spot as far as reporting how I'd prepared.... that I got covered too. Not covered in ectoplasm... but covered.

Ryck, couldn't agree more. I'm actually somewhat looking forward to NOT being able to waste my time writing out angry comments about the world that don't change it. Or whatever... I'm sure I'll still waste plenty of time, but just less on the internet more on other things. Fingers crossed anyways!

I don't have any friends or people to talk to, so that's not going to be a distraction, I guess I'm just kinda looking at is as a sojourn and I want to make sure I have the my "holy" books with me... IE learning tools so I can spend the time away from the distractions bettering myself. I could have stated that more clearly in the initial post! I think I'll be ok, I'm gonna grab some language learning software and beyond that i'll have a life time worth of material.

 

first of all, here you have someone to talk to whenever you want. So you can send me a PM and tell me what you want, music, movies, etc. If you love the sister site like I do, we can talk about many plugins. Over there, English is difficult for me, because I speak Spanish and use a translator, but I still think it is understood.

Regarding the internet and the absence of it. As I told you before, I feel that it is like a drug. The first stage passes as an abstinence, I spent a year without internet, and almost three years without using social networks. I got tired when facebook banned me for a month for a simple simpson joke, I feel like they are dictators and repressors. So I spent almost three years without entering facebook. Then I had to use it for work and paperwork issues.

But when you walk away, you begin to value things that are really useful. For example, I started to put together a portable guitar kit, I fixed my house a bit, and various things with real life.
I sincerely believe for many of us, it would be of great help to get away from the internet and do productive things.
So good, do not despair if that happens and you run out of internet. Think that there is a real world there waiting for you, and that in reality it is more a favor that life does you.
I see it as when a child is playing video games all day and the father takes the games away from him so that he can do something productive in life and not waste time.
Maybe everyone needs that father who pulls our ears and tells us "hey, there's a beautiful world waiting for you."

The netative messages of which they speak, I think it is part of the internet, the internet leads you to that, to make you feel bad. In my opinion, there are few who give it "fair use", the other great part wasted our time

 

Before going offline i would grab the old Win 3.11 Screensaver by Sierra On-Line

​

 

if it were me i'd also download some exercise stuff off youtube! would be nice to stockpile some workout plans and have the option for new routines to try out when the mood hits. keep my body sharp alongside my mind

 

Any big PC recovery software files or linux images. Most bad things happen to computers because they are network connected, but not all of them.

 

I haven't got internet for years. – saying this on an internet forum.
Not having internet is like living out of the society. You can barely manage your official duties. How you pay taxes, doing anything related to your life. Managing your bank account.
Being disconnected from the internet you can't stay up-to-date with life.
You can argue about contemporary art that you don't want, it's enough to have what have been released decades ago. Art, studies, entertainment stuff. But it's kind of a depressive way to look at life.
And there are also the NEWS that you can also hate and wish to ignore.

But the right thing to do is select the good stuff/activities and not ignore or abandon the whole infrastructure!

 

fantastic!

@Ryck thank you for the super kind words- you reminded me a long held goal with very little progress made is to learn a new language. being an ex history/wine&spirits enthusiast/nerd I've always been drawn to the romance languages, so i've downloaded and installed rosetta stone for french, italian, and spanish. Hopefully you and another user here who was ALSO very nice (a spanish thing? a forum thing? both?) will have to deal with my beginner spanish when i get back online. although- i hear you and pretty much agree about real life. I spend too much time on the computer, it's gross. that being said, hey there are some useful things and this site is one of them... or fun anyway haha. I'll do what i've been avoiding (ironically i forced myself to stop staring at my phone doing nothing, but like a whack a mole game i just ended up on the computer more... it's the internet that's the addiction clearly) and add this forum onto my phone's browser so i can check in once in a while.

@The Robot- THAT IS SO COOL. Thank you for sharing that, I was unaware. I didn't download a Sierra Online game (they should remake space quest. they'd probably ruin it but if they didn't that'd be a series ripe for a tech upgrade.) BUT I DID have the blade runner game downloaded, different studio but still point and click.

@No Doz- this is a fucking fantastic idea- I have some pdf's downloaded but i'm gonna go rip some vids right now.

@clone- also a very very good idea. I should note i'll be able to worse case scenario walk to a mcdonalds or star bucks to steal wifi on my decade old laptop (but hey even if it's a i5 that launched in 2011 it still runs ableton good enough to record some mics, all i need it for. and stealing internet now ha)

i think i'll be good. downloading a bunch of exercise shit right now. it'll be fine. plus they denied my disability claim so i either need to get a job or ...lol, one way or another internet will work itself out.

 

ah! 100% agree olymoon- i have so many plugins it's honestly a detriment at this point hahaha. I only rationalize it by thinking about them as having a collection, and that way I don't feel bad about only using a percentage of them. i also often force myself to pick up say a new synth/effect (out of the shitload i have downloaded) that i haven't used yet just to kinda inspire me/justify getting it.

i now have A LOT of music lessons from various sources... i even picked up my guitar for the first time in over a month today because i was reviewing stuff and i got inspired. as a somewhat humorous side note months ago, when i was converting this crappy song that's lost forever minus the mp3/lyrics into a crappy guitar song last year i felt like an idiot because i wrote down the chord progressions i'd made down alongside the lyrics. how could i forget how my own song goes after all? well... it turns out i could, so I'm glad I wrote that shit down haha. i could have figured it out again, but meh annoying.

and jazzzzz!

lol we don't need to bring internet into this for me to not be able to manage those things. i get your point though (i'm pretty sure), and i'm definitely not the type to toss it all out cause some is broken (like.. facebook misinformation or whatever, throw a dart)- i've seen signs saying "kill the internet" and thought how moronic that is. the internet at it's best is uncensored and free transmission of information, that's amazing. a kid being able to look up the blueprints to a well and figure out how to give his village water (or whatever feel good story you want to go with, there are plenty.)

BUT to defend Ryck somewhat (also i'll point out they mentioned english isn't there first language. true to form this means they write better english than some americans of course, but still) there is the internet and then there is THE INTERNET. I guess what i'm trying to say is to fully remove yourself from the internet would almost mean living in a cave at this point, or at least a cabin deep in the woods. I think Ryck was more implying (i think, i'm guessing both of your intentions so apologies if incorrect) since he mentioned having data on his phone he doesn't have it on the computer, he doesn't stare at youtube all day, use social media, etc.

Obviously posting on an internet forum that you don't have internet doesn't make sense-but it does if you kinda consider the internet to be the social layer (and not counting this forum lol) that's above the infrastructure stuff that's hard to avoid- like being able to check your bank account.

Anyway, just semantics I think, and I love running my mouth off about those. Best and worst part of the english language at the same time.

 

Books! You can grab many thousands and once you get into reading a lot it becomes much better than being spoon-fed internet media. Download a couple of hundred books from genres you haven't considered, fiction and non-fiction. Also, grab as much sheet music, guitar tabs etc., as possible - if you play guitar then Guitar Pro and the huge database of songs, you'll never run out of inspiration.

I think libraries have changed a lot now from what I hear, they're more internet cafes than actual libraries these days so definitely explore that option.

Not very ethical but before you're cut off research accessing open wifi options in your area, setup a laptop with a VPN and drive around...

Talk radio is good.

If you have an ipad download a ton of free jigsaw apps and download all the free content within them, also other games that take a long time to complete.

Finally, I'm afraid you won't like this suggestion much at all... Download knitting patterns!

 

Enough Movies, Series, Docus (kinda have my own NetFliX with ~3TB - holds like 1600 movies, around 30 series complete, some docus) It is quite huge now and i have problems to find anything tbh. If i dont know the title, i can find anything.
Enough Music!

But VVV (Virtual Volumes View) helps with building a fast searchable Database.

Not sure how long both my music and my Netflix could keep me busy? But a long time i guess.

Ebooks, Audio Books, Eng Wikipedia with pics. (around 5,5 Mio articles.)

Essential Apps: Adobe stuff, Audio Plugins, Audiosoftware, any other software you could use? Depends on user.

No games for me.

 

Yes, when I say "Internet" for the massive use that is given to it. Of course it's not the whole internet. We are here and now thanks to the internet. But unfortunately it drags you to what you don't want. I went back to facebook because I had to do paperwork and the only way to contact various things is via Facebook, in some way they force you to be in what you don't want to be in, and if not, you're out of everything. you don't exist
I do not have the control to use it as necessary, unfortunately, this damn phone I have the bad habit of grabbing it incessantly to waste my time, that's why I say it's a drug.

I agree with what the others said.

Series and movies make you feel less disconnected. Because when you put on a series (possibly several seasons) it makes you feel connected, because you follow the sequence.

Also what Crinklebumps said about knitting. The crafts are very good, it opens your mind and you think, it's very crazy. Well, as I told you, I was putting together a team, and when I started to solder cables, etc., it's like you float and it clears your mind.

Well I hope you have some internet or some means to connect, we are going to miss you. Try to get lost around here, from time to time from somewhere send a message.

 

I'm not gonna lie- I am not going to pick up knitting any time soon. HOWEVER, you are ABSOLUTELY A THOUSAND PERCENT INCORRECT- I LOVED SO MUCH that you suggested that. How could I NOT love something that left field and wholesome?! I can seriously see how knitting would be very zen- plus just like crafting a song you get something at the end that you can enjoy! if you made it decent!

maybe someday... but there are other many other things that take the lead for now.

Everyone- I think I'm pretty much set. If any emergencies pop up I can go find wifi, i have about 5 terabytes (humble brag directed at artic ;D although to be fair when i had a life and career i was a film type person so i tried to download the best quality files within reason. Or not within reason if I love the movie, anything kubrick/blade runner/2049/akira etc are all like 30 GB files. maybe someday i can get a tv again with a sound system and hd player.)

I have i think half of the sister site downloaded, I have books (i actually have a pile of REAL books I want to read, mostly to refresh myself on vonnegut.), i have a ton of helpful videos to watch, games... I'll be set.

later today i'll call comcast and bitch them out for not cancelling it a week ago when they said. i'll disconnect a bit, but i'll certainly poke my head back in at some point!

take care everyone! i might be on and off until then (especially since i can't sleep) but it'll be a bit before more long rants.

 

Good luck. If it gets too much call the Samaritans and ask if you can use their wifi.

 

One final thought, here in the UK it's a common practice to tell the coms company you're leaving with the sure knowledge that they will offer you a deal, pretty much anything to prevent you leaving so be aware of this next time you call them and make sure to twist the leaving knife hard, don't just take a first offer of 10 or 20% off, probably better to say 'no thank you' to their first offer, they will have more scope.

 

I have a shitload of epub format books, tons of sci-fi and various other genre. I could send it up to Dropbox and you could down it from there. Just say the word.

 

Re: knitting, if you change your mind I have hundreds of patterns from the 1950s, you'd look terrific in them.