Painting, Cola, Haddonfield
Last night, I decided to work on some paintings. I figured it would be fun to drink a bit of vodka while I was at it. Wary of overdoing it on the booze, I poured half-shots mixed with two parts Mexican Coca-Cola and one part mineral water to make the soda less cloying. This allowed me to enjoy plenty of drinks while not consuming an inordinate quantity of alcohol. It worked like a charm. Not even the hint of a hangover this morning.
What I entirely failed to factor into my equation was the caffeine. Drinking two Cokes after 7 p.m. resulted in my being up until nearly 4 a.m. Fortunately, I don’t have much I need to do today. Write a blog post. Maybe do some light housework. A walk around the river while the weather is mild.1 Paint some more. Read a book, perhaps. I’ve started reading books again, now that there’s nothing worthwhile left to do on the internet.
Many folks complain about the enshittification of the Web, particularly with AI-slop coming to dominate nearly all of cyberspace at this point. While it is annoying, consider all the things we haven’t been doing much of since the Internet started sucking up all of society’s waking moments. Enshittification may provide the motivation needed for society to log off and get back to living in the real world.
You say, “The internet IS real life!” No. It very much isn’t. We’re all in a world of trouble right now because people have been living inside their heads for too long. Wiggle your toes.
Footnotes
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I wound up walking around historic Haddonfield for a few hours instead. Haddonfield is beautiful. I can definitely see myself residing there someday. ↩