It was a year ago today that I got internet access in Bulgaria and discovered that it is possible to stream a movie while downloading something in the background. I finally had 21st-century quality internet.
So today is my first anniversary of living in the 21st century at last. It’s been a full year of paying a reasonable amount for internet access, not worrying about bandwidth usage, dealing with ISPs who understand that internet is vital and needs to be fixed NOW, being in locations where free unlimited WiFi is ubiquitous, and getting a taste of that Star Trek-like future where the internet is just there.
Oh, it hasn’t been perfect by far. But when I look at my first 20 years of internet access in Canada and compare it to the last year spent mostly in Europe and Mexico, it’s like I jumped ahead a full century, as evidenced by how difficult it was to be offline that week I was home.
I can now take any job a client sends me, even if it’s a huge video, and because I can reliably download tons of audio in a day I’ve been able to grow my business and take on more clients.
Netflix is actually part of my routine now and I can download reliably from the iTunes store. So I’ve considerably cut down on torrenting (the only download method that works on slow and flaky internet).
All my device updates are done as they come out and the ever increasing security breaches with Macs aren’t as nervewracking since I can get the security update right away.
I can now sync my calendar, notes, and to-dos between my devices and have considerably cut down on how much paper I use and am less scattered.
In the next year, I want to learn what podcasts are all about and start backing up remotely (on top of the local backup).
But first, the challenge of getting myself hard wired to internet at my first home in Mexico. I’ve been promised that that will not go smoothly, but with 20 years of dealing with stupid Canadian ISPs under my belt, I can take anything TelMex or whomever I end up with throws at me! 😀