Keep your chin up, man. This too shall pass.
Act I
- “What was that sound? I think something got hit. Wow, look at that smoke!”
- “The internet is dropping again… Damn, it looks like they’re not turning it back on this time.”
- “Hello? It’s down over here too… Are you guys still connected? Quick, back up everything! Your city will probably get cut off in a few hours.”
Act II
- “What did you say the medicine was called? Should I ask the doctor when to take it? Damn it, if we were online I could look this up in two seconds.”
- “Man, can you get online? I need to submit my paper. Nothing is connecting anywhere!”
- “I have a PhD interview at the end of the month! What on earth am I supposed to do now?! … Man, honestly? Just give up. It’s not coming back. Don’t waste your energy.”
Act III
- “I just started rewatching Friends. My brother downloaded the whole series before the blackout! … What? The Wire? Great show, but I’m just not in the mood for it right now.”
- “Man, what on earth is a spoof tunnel? What are layers 3 and 4? How many layers do we even have?”
- “I’m halfway through War and Peace. I’ve wanted to read it for as long as I can remember. Now that there’s literally nothing else to do, I’m finally getting through it.”
- “This is the thousandth time I’m watching The Lord of the Rings. Damn it, I know every single line by heart… My precious! Gollum… Gooollum!”
Act IV
- “Keep your chin up, man. This too shall pass.”
- “What do you mean some people are connected? … Ah, so you have to… No way. Honestly, I’d rather stay offline forever.”
- “I have an offline dump of Wikipedia, you want it? Hey, better than nothing!”
- “Go talk to him, get him out of this slump… I know… it’ll pass.”
Act V
- “Is it back on over there too? So, are you happy now? … Not really. I don’t even care anymore.”
- “Damn… I feel like I just woke up from the Middle Ages.”
If none of these lines make sense to you, congratulations! You probably had a completely normal, peaceful spring from February to May. But for the rest of us…
When your connection to the outside world gets severed overnight without warning, daily priorities shift in bizarre ways. Think about it. Picture an elderly man who should be peacefully enjoying his retirement, casually asking: “Son, what do these network layers actually mean?” Even stranger, everyone around you transforms into a self-taught network engineer, casually debating technical terms you’ve never heard in your life.
After countless futile attempts to reconnect, the void sets in. You realize with every cell in your body just how heavily modern existence relies on the invisible flow of data. You start picturing yourself as a lab rat in some twisted experiment.
Anyway, there is much to say and little time, or as the great Persian poet Khayyam put it:
“Drink wine, for this is life eternal.
This is all that youth will give you.
It is the season for wine, roses, and drunken friends.
Be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life.”
Postscripts
P.S. 1: If this post rendered on your screen today, it means the bits successfully made their way across the network. Please take a moment to appreciate this small miracle.
P.S. 2: We survived the blackout. We read classic literature and didn’t lose our minds (though a few friends’ newfound obsession with The Lord of the Rings might still require professional evaluation :)).