August 14th, 2012:

"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back!"
- Lyrics by Jack Norworth, 1908

	It's been just over a month since I left the "mainstream" 
internet.  I'm finding I don't miss it.  At all.  Apart from maintaining 
this little oasis, my online activities have been limited to banking and 
eBay.  It's largely out of laziness that I've stuck with online banking, 
but that may yet change.

	My eBay activities will probably continue for now, at least until 
my projects are complete.  There are a number of parts I need for my 
various projects, which I can't source locally.  So, until these projects 
are complete, eBay will have to stay.

	I've also been visiting the OpenCSW and Sunfreeware sites for 
software packages for the aforementioned projects (as mentioned in a 
previous post), but even that will come to an end once these projects are 
finished.

	The only thing I miss about being online would be maintaining my 
various websites (and blogs, of which there are several - ten at last 
count), but writing this phlog has kept me from caving in & running back 
to the blogosphere.  Hell, SDF in general has kept me from going back to 
the 'net... there's so much to do here (phlogging, usenet, and 
development), it ain't funny!

	My original plan was to remain offline for a year, then extended 
to thirteen months to accomodate my (non-)entry into the Retrochallenge 
(www.retrochallenge.org).  It's only been a month since I "left", but I'm 
not sure I'll ever go back to the "mainstream" internet again.

	I became an SDF MetaARPA member today, and plan to make better and 
more frequent use of everything they have to offer.