Why I love the Internet
Sometimes I forget just how cool the Internet is!
11pm Thursday night: Wife and I are sick of being cold (apartment at 14C-57F) decide to book trip if possible to some place warm (yes I know…cold is relative and remember we lived in Saudi Arabia before here).
7:45am Friday: E-mail travel agent looking for any last minute deals to “someplace warm”
8:00: Start up Google Earth and start tracking Mother-in-Law’s flight.
8:15: Agent e-mails back with a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia only problem is flight from Shanghai to Bangkok is fully booked. (Saturday is the first day of Chinese New Year so flights fill up fast). I e-mail her back passport and names of the three of us. If the seats come open we go.
9:30: Agent e-mails back with confirmed seats for all 3 of us.
10:30: Agree to meet deliver guy at my apartment at 5pm to pay for and get tickets (total 3 e-mails).
11:30: Start e-mailing friends in the school who have been to Cambodia
- Get recommendation for a hotel
- Get a guide book from a friend who borrowed from a friend (if guide books were music files we’d be in trouble).
- Learn we need a Visa but can be bought at the airport when we arrive
- Learn we need to take a passport picture for the Visa
- Learn to take a lot of USD because you can’t trust the ATM machines
1:00: Wife e-mails me to say that hotel is confirmed and will pick us up at the airport when we arrive.
3:00: Check weather report for Siem Reap 90F/32C
4:00: Snowing really hard and starting to stick.
5:00: Arrive home to find the ticket deliver guy waiting for me. Plugs in his wireless credit card reader and swipes my international credit card. Within 10 minutes the transactions done and tickets are in hand.
6:00: Check the status of Mother-in-Law’s flight. Do to get in at 6:17. Text wife the new arrival time.
6:44: Wife texts to say that she “Has Target in Site” as she watches her mom head to baggage claim.
7:15: Wife texts to say they are in a taxi and on their way home.
7:30: There’s about an inch of snow on the deck and this is looking better by the second!
What’s the lesson here?
(Other than I’m going to enjoy 4 days in the sun!)
[tags]vacation[/tags]
You gotta love it!
Why I love the Internet – I can live vicariously through everyone around the globe. While you are there, you can see my world in Punxsutawney PA. The groundhog will decide our winter fate (well, not really but it is something to watch). Everyone can watch synchronously or asynchronously if they wish.
I’m impressed! Hope you have a good time. I will be celebrating CNY here in the US but there is not a big Asian population here, so it is usually just my husband and me. I usually throw a big party for CNY but this year my house is too cluttered!
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I am envious. It’s cold and will snow again today. Have a great time.
Seems you’ve got a natural gift for inquiry. Lucky.
Your timeline is getting a little more interesting now that you’ve invited people in.
…enjoy the sun. I’ll be here in upstate NY fishing around from my wool socks.
Hi, great blog. I agree with your post on why the internet is great. I am a student who found his school online, and wanted to share a great site that I think can be a useful college search resource for anyone interested in expanding their education, whether at a traditional school or a career or trade school, or through an online program. CollegeBoard, CollegeSource, CollegeView and CollegeNet are all very good search directories, and CampusExplorer is the tool I used to find my school. Just wanted to spread the word a bit.
Thanks!
When I came across this, I had to read it. I feel like I do not realize how much I depend on the internet. Instead of turning on the weather channel, I check the weather instantly on the web. Also, instead of writing a letter, I could just write an e-mail. With e-mails, all you need to do is click send. With letters, there is the process of labeling the envelope and bringing it to the post office in order to mail it.
The internet has impacted our lives at a very quick pace. Basically, everything can be accomplished from your computer at home.
As a college student, the internet is my life. It is an amazing source of information for any kind of subject. Google is unbelievable. Anything you could ever wonder about is most likely to be found on Google. Also, the amazing Google search usually takes less than a second to complete.
It is an easy way to keep in touch with family and friends. For instance, Facebook is quite addicting, as well as entertaining. Facebook makes it easy to stay in contact with my friends that do not go to school with me.
For me, it is hard to picture life without the internet.
I loved this blog! I really rely on the internet for everything. The other day I asked my boyfriend a question and he didn’t know the answer, so I immediately jumped up and said let me check the internet. He made a comment back about how I use the internet for everything! So when I came across this blog, I got excited because I can really relate to what you wrote about. It’s true though, I really do use the internet for everything. I think in this day and age a lot of people are starting to rely on the internet for things. For example, how quickly you were able to book a vacation. Its reasons like that people use the internet for everything. As a college student, I find the internet to be so helpful. All my professors send us information for classes through e-mail and sometimes I have even taken a class online. There is also Facebook. I have found this to be a very useful mean of communication. Since only a couple of my friends from high school go to my school now, Facebook has really helped me keep in touch with my friends who are at different schools. I really can’t imagine what life would be like without the internet. Things would move at such a slower pace.