Tim Boucher

It’s I think maybe six weeks or even longer now that I have stopped using my computer and the internet (apart from wifi radio on dedicated devices) on weekends. And I’m loving it, and it no longer feels weird and absent when my computer is not near to hand as it did at first.

I’m experiencing sort of a zen state towards Friday, knowing that I’ll go offline for 48 hours or so. So I am more careful about wrapping things up that need to be done online before then, or notifying anybody who might potentially care that I won’t be around on the weekend.

The five days I am online go by way faster it feels like. Because they are marked out as distinct experientially from the two days where I am off. I think I might use my time a little bit better, because tasks can’t just be done whenever, but within the frame of those five days – freeing me up to do other non-computer tasks the weekends.

I’m also finding now that when I’m “fasting” on the no-internet weekends, that by the time 48 hours is up, I’m almost like, that’s it? That was easy. I feel like I could do more. So sometimes I won’t go back online til Monday morning. Though, I found that this left me sometimes with too few available work sessions to get random things done or plan for what I need to do, so I’m generally back online Sunday night at this point.

I’ve also kept up the habit of keeping a small pocket-size notebook that I write down any ideas, tasks, or things I need to buy that come up while I’m offline. And now I keep it and use it as a sort of “central command” even when I am in an online-okay weekday. So that’s kinda cool too.

Anyway, unless I ever have some overriding need (like having to order dog food in a hurry, for example – which I did let myself go and quickly grab another bag on Amazon to have it shipped early in the coming week), I don’t really see myself going back to using the web on the weekends. What for? Why bother? Most everything I need is right in front of me. I guess that exact sentiment could apply to my whole life, and maybe there’s a world where I walk away from the internet altogether 24/7. But that day is not yet upon us. Til then, this big new blast of moderation and temperance is a welcome boon and breath of fresh air in my life.

It doesn’t happen all the time for me, but occasionally I will have meditation sessions where especially stronger hypnogic/hypnopompic visions (though I’m not really “asleep” so those both feel like incorrect terms for it). Recently I had one that was especially vivid and persisted for “some amount of time” that was difficult to gauge in the moment without breaking the inward experience.

I seemed to drop into something that I would call Hedgespace, a sort of adjacent (but interpentrating with ours) parallel hyperdimension (??), where … let’s say the intelligence of woody-stemmed plants is able to express itself fully in any physical form or configuration it is equipped for, where it has perhaps its domain of power.

It was closed eye visuals of like stems of hedges, and especially willow which I’ve been handling and working with a lot, and felt very psychedelic in its interactivity, kaleidoscopic, and fractal nature. The stems and cuttings and branches and whatnot were like moving and re-arranging themselves in response to my inward interactions. It felt somehow like navigating the “latent space” of the natural AI of the plants.

Like I said, I have been going deep on trees, coppicing, getting into green woodworking. Projects starting to come in hot and heavy now that the snow is almost all melted. This first one I made on Sunday, a shave horse for shaping green (undried) wood with a draw knife. You push the pedals forward with your feet, and it clamps your wood in place, so you can cut and pull with the draw knife.

Legs are all cockamamie because I didn’t know how to really align or angle them correctly or consistently. I’ll learn that in subsequent tries though, as I’m excited to make more stuff using these techniques. It feels very magical af to be able to turn a tree that fell (the poplar for the bench), and others that I coppiced (the willow sticks), and to turn them into a physical piece of furniture you can sit on and do work on. I love it. Lots more coming down that road for me, I can already see.

And I planted over the past few days a batch of ~80 of so of my own willow cuttings, and another 50 of ones I bought in of diverse genetics from an Ontario farm seller.

I have probably another 100 or so kicking around that I’ll do another dense planting like this of. The set up consists of thick brown paper rolled out, overlapping, covered in tons of woodchips to about 3 inches. The first I didn’t cut the grass that was there and left it underneath, the second I did ad nicked it down hard to the ground. I made the mistake of putting these into water too soon and letting them break dormancy before the ground was unfrozen, so some of them started to leaf out already. But I think it’s fine, and it’s the best I can do with what I’ve got.

Also cut a bunch of wild dogwood I found near a lake, and was really wild to see how easily the low branches layer into the mud, root, and resprout like it’s nothing. So I coppiced a bunch, and then helped layer in some more, and then stuck in cuttings to see if I could shore up the little streambed that emerges there and slow its eventual erosion. I will take some of those cuttings from that batch and try to install the first of possibly several fascines to see if I can’t do some other erosion control facing the Big River as well. Hedgespace is in my blood now. There’s no going back.

(Inspired by Ben Werdmuller & Nathan Schneider)

This is something I’ve been thinking about and tinkering with a lot these past few months, so thought I’d use similar posts by Ben & Nathan linked above as a jumping off point to try and put it all together.

I’m still searching for the language around it, but I would characterize myself at this point as a human-first digital objector/protester. None of those terms really fit or describe it easily, nor does “neo-Luddite” feel adequate. So let’s put it in more concrete terms:

I have been for maybe 6-8 weeks blocking most images and videos on the web. It’s revolutionized my experience. The ones I allow have narrowly defined purposes and I seek them out intentionally, rather than allowing them to be auto-played to me.

I block ads. I block paywalls. While it was still possible for it to function, I used Nitter, along with other alternative front-ends for major platforms, stripped of tracking, etc. My only social media account is on ye “Old Reddit,” and a defunct Medium page I only log into now and then to complain from. I use an RSS reader called Fraidycat (which I wish were easy to run locally or on my own server or something – I haven’t looked into that lately).

I have not had a cell phone in over 13 years, though got an old flip phone for the car when I had a kid. I basically never use it but it’s there just in case, and sometimes I can receive sign up codes on it for things that require a phone number online.

I browse and do most online activities in greyscale, which I toggle on and off as needed. I recently got an external e-ink monitor from Boox. It’s… okay so long as you temper your expectations and what you do with it. Took some getting used to and is a little pricey, but definitely easier on the eyes for just ordinary text-editing tasks. If I had to do it again, I’d probably go for the larger fixed table top one instead of the one I got, which bills itself as portable, but I find it bleeds the Macbook battery fast, which I don’t like, so I never use it without the Macbook being plugged in. Then I put that on my lap to type, folding the screen down unless I need to cross-reference something on it, and have the Boox up on the table as my primary viewscreen. I find this set-up to be excellent for blogging.

I stopped using my computer all together for ~48 hours on the weekend. It’s been about 4 weeks that I’ve done it, and I’m going to continue on for basically… ever? I think? Unless there’s some compelling need, but I’m just automatically re-arranging myself so that there is none. I’ve found the same thing happens with making room for meditation, which I do twice daily for 20 minutes. And that all these habits build on each other, and sort of synergize at some point to make dropping other random bad habits easier. Not saying I’m perfect, far from it, and it’s not about that. It’s about feeling better. About feeling less driven and controlled and constantly bombarded and invaded by digital signals of questionable origin driving human behavior toward unknown ends, and just reclaiming my life back. About severing that “always on” connection in the brain that makes every thought terminate in you having to pick up a device and use some tool to achieve x thing that is definitely something that can wait.

For that purpose, I’ve turned back to a small notebook as my alternative “device” to fill in the need to always be inputting/checking some little thing. I can just jot down my thoughts, needs, tasks, etc. there instead of opening up the computer, and getting mired in 10 billion other things, and agendas of others telling me what I should need or want or hate or feel mad about. Fuck all that. A book is a good enough screen most of the time. And once you re-orient yourself again to physical books (I read a shit ton on weekends now instead, or do little sketches on paper), you realize how the web is basically one giant jumble of really poorly organized and shittily edited books – or rather pages and paragraphs torn out of books, scrambled around and peed on. But I digress…

I got into wifi radio. Not “web radio” that you listen to on your browser or phone and are still chained to that object. But dedicated radio devices which turn wifi signals into streaming radio channels. I love it and it has made me quit using Spotify just about all together. I’m back to deeply listening, discovering, and loving all kinds of new music, and hearing sounds and voices from around the world, and hearing the music contextualized with real people not algorithms. It’s rekindled something I’d feared was lost, and is central to my re-orientation around reification of function, objects, embodiment. Technologies that Do One Thing. Technologies that can’t kick you off because you got them bad press. I allow myself to use my wifi radio on the weekend (I use it all the time) because I’m not able to and therefore not tempted to do other tasks or check in on anything while using it. Tangentially, I’m really curious about the possibilities of digital shortwave radio, because apparently you can transmit text and even video with it? DRM or Digital Radio Mondiale. Though I’m having trouble finding anyone selling receivers in North America. I’m a licensed amateur radio operator in Canada, but never use it because someone told me I’d need to put up a 16′ tower to get a signal out of the geographic bowl I live in. It has all got me wondering whether we couldn’t just have blogs that get transmitted onto digital shortwave?

I’m also working on in the background an adaptation of something called Mailbug, which is this amazing email-only appliance aimed at old people. My provisional project name for it would be “Chatbug” and instead of email only, it could plug into other services, like Slack, Signal, Beeper, etc. This thing called Beepy seems pretty close to what I’d be after, but I like the big old klunkiness of the actual Mailbug with a full-size keyboard for typing. I just don’t see why I should have to spend $15/mo to pay Mailbug for a dial-in number to check email…

Speaking of old and klunky and awesome, I have and love an old Alphasmart Neo2 stand-alone type-y dealy word processor. It’s so great, takes 2 AA batteries, and my kid is getting into it now too. If I could have that form factor exactly, even with the LCD screen, but have it have Chatbug “guts” that work on Wifi, I would be so happy. No web browser, maybe only super rudimentary, text-based, images handled how they work on Gemini (if at all). In short, I’d love to have a non-cell phone, non-tablet objectified device with a medium size keyboard to have “words with friends,” though even if I had that, I’d have to determine whether or not I allow that during my 48 hours off from computers per week.

Speaking of lately also stopped mostly watching streaming shows in the evening. This has freed up a ton of time, which I have occupied with doing paintings, making nearly a dozen in a few short weeks, and absolutely rekindling some deep stuff for me. So now I spend 2-3 hours a night most nights doing that instead of piddling around on the internet for no real reason. Between that and cutting out weekends, it has radically downsized my online time while simultaneously giving me great new/old things to occupy myself with again, leaving me much happier in the short and long term. Also, in conjunction with blocking most images and videos on the web (I still consume a fair amount of Youtube btw, usually at 3x speed), I have taken up the habit of looking at art books, and not really having any preconceived ideas of what I am looking for, I just go through them and look and look and look and let them impact me. I choose them as inputs for my brain (and my kid’s brain who is looking on) instead of the constant stream of useless trash being fired out from every end of the internet.

Speaking of kids, were it up to me alone he would never touch a cell phone til he’s 18, but it’s not, so at least his usage of it is severely limited. As a replacement, I found a pathway to get YouTube videos onto SD cards, that I put into a small DVD player/card reader and that is working out great. This way I know what he’s watching, no ads or tracking, and I can propose new things for him to check out (animals, ecosystems, earth sciences). Even that though, I cap his usage, and same for watching YT on the tv. I’d prefer personally that he watches his shows on the TV with us because its a communal activity in a shared space, instead of him immobilized over a tablet on a couch in isolation, which I think is a terrible recipe for development and happiness of anyone at basically any age (myself included, I’m trying to show a better example to him too in what I do).

Anyway, there’s probably more but I think that’s a more or less thorough accounting for the most part. I realize I’m probably at a minority of a minority position here, but I think that’s exactly right and great. People have to find out what works for them, and the best way to do that is to have many examples and ideas to choose from to implement in one’s own life and practice.

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Sidenote to Ben: Could you also please build a simple way for blogs to talk to one another? You seem like an ideal candidate for this. Trackbacks & pingbacks got drowned in spam back in the day, though were a good idea in theory. I’m not part of the Fediverse as such, but perhaps there’s a way there? I tried some WP plugins to get this sort of thing set up, but they didn’t work for me at the time. Thank you!

Found this article somehow from the Guardian in 2022, about people ditching their Spotify accounts in favor of discovering and playing music using other methods and technologies like — gasp — CD players. The people in the article echo sentiments I’ve felt myself about the ever-increasing digitization of all things, and especially streaming media. That because of something about how Spotify works (and I’ve tried almost every other major service, and they’re all basically the same technologically, imo), it makes you end up hating music, even music you supposedly “like.” They quote one person:

“Taking the extra step to load it on to my phone, or the extra step to flip over the tape, or put the CD on in the car, it feels like something that I’m doing, rather than something I’m receiving,” they continue. “And that sense of agency makes me a more dedicated and involved listener than the kind of passive listening-without-listening that streaming was making me do.”

There’s a lot to like and a lot that I agree with in this article, about agency, and cultivating the human relationships that lead to the discovery of new music. I’ve gotten there mostly via a huge wifi radio kick I’ve been on since the New Year, after trying out and sending back the newest Sonos. I almost never listen to Spotify now, and haven’t been this invested in my listening choices in eons, it seems like.

I have I guess been collecting stories like this one from the Guardian unofficially for a while now. Like that one that I think was in the NYT about how teens at some high school were forming clubs where they didn’t use cell phones or only used old flip phones or something… That and some other things in this vein have made me wonder, what is this movement historically speaking?

I’ve seen the label ‘Neo-Luddite’ thrown around a fair amount, but for most people the actual historical roots of the Luddite movement are a hazy blur if known at all. And I wonder if it doesn’t in fact go deeper than merely this critique of economic misuse of automation against the craft worker. I wonder if it doesn’t cut right down to the bone – the human soul.

I recently came across a term I hadn’t seen before, a proto-Protestant movement starting in the 14th century in England, Lollardy. I won’t go into what their actual substantial beliefs were too much here, except insofar as they touch on the wider Protestant notion of the priesthood of all believers. Quoting from the Lollardy wiki page linked above:

Believing in a universal priesthood, the Lollards challenged the Church’s authority to invest or to deny the divine authority to make a man a priest. Denying any special status to the priesthood, Lollards thought confession to a priest was unnecessary since according to them priests did not have the ability to forgive sins.

This might be something of a reach to try to equate use of streaming services with, I don’t know, access to the sacred via music. But if music isn’t sacred at some level, then probably nothing is. Putting even aside the question of the “sacred” and what the hell that even is supposed to mean (a question I don’t care all that much about), I think this goes back to the point above about agency. About the ability to decide, to think, to feel, to act for yourself. To not be a mere passive recipient. To get up, to change the channel. To turn the damn thing off. To yell at the TV. To protest.

I don’t know then if “digital protestantism” is really quite an apt label for that which I’m seeking a purer expression of, but welded onto perhaps certain elements of Neo-Luddite, maybe we are starting to get some of the rudiments in place for carving out a larger space to play in productively – if only in our imaginations, and perhaps there only still for a time, as the fingers of digital control try to reach ever inward. We need not let them though. We have the ability to protest and to resist, so long as we exercise it.