So these last few weeks can only be described as hell at work.  If it isn’t one thing its another breaking.  I get a pause at 6pm where I duck and run for home, hoping that work won’t follow me.  So far I haven’t been that lucky.  Trying to resolve issues and get everything back up and running I can’t seem to leave the office behind.

But here is the sad part, I love my job.  Go figure.

Once again I work on my paper only get get distracted.  I began by printing out some of my resources, as I hate reading on the screen, and my printer ran out of paper.  I started hunting for the ream I knew I had.  After about fifteen minutes I was unable to locate it.  Well instead of dealing with the issue and getting back to work, off I go to the office to snag myself a ream or two from the printer stack.  Jump in the car, get to the office, grab the paper and the night shift tech begins talking to me.  Thirty minutes later and an in depth discussion of Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft, I begin my trip back home.  I get home and reload the printer telling myself I’ve now wasted an hour that I should have spent working, so its time to get back to it. 

I start reading all the material I have now printed out and something keeps blinking out of the corner of my eye. I look down and it’s a CD I have burned, turned shiny side up.  I ignore it and go back to my readings.  Moments later the blink catches my eye again, forgetting that I already knew what this was, I investigate again.  Still just the CD, back to reading.  Once again the reflection is back in my eye.  Instead of moving the CD, I put my reading down on top of it and decide that I’ve had enough and I head to bed.  My mind was looking for the shiny to dissuade me from staying up and found it.  Now I’m at work, writing a paper between calls…  Maybe I should have entitled this post, the Slacker is at it again.

When is technology over taking your life?  For me it is when I’m sitting in the living room, watching a Blu-ray movie.  Only I’m not really focused on the movie as I’m on my laptop checking out links on Facebook and IM’ing friends.  But while that is normal it seems these days, the part that stood out and made me realize what was happening was when I put my cell phone down after sending a text message only to pick up my iPod to check my email.  How many more things can I do at once? Oh and I have my Xbox downloading a new game.

With all this going on you’d think that I’d be busy and entertained.  When in reality, its Friday night and I’m struggling to use all my technology to locate some one else to hang out with and leave the tech at home.  I want to have a conversation with a person over a drink.  Not IM, not Facebook, not Email, just face to face interaction.  For people saying technology brings us together, it sure doesn’t feel like it tonight.  Instead it just shortened the amount of time I spent finding out my friends all had other plans for the evening.

I guess its time to do something that I haven’t done in a long time….  Get a long full night’s sleep.