Monday, March 3, 2008

check plus.

i love to check things. checking, in fact, may be my one of my favorite actions. just the word itself is a beauty--check check check check. not only is it fun to say, you can repeat it multiple times and the integrity of the word does not diminish into a hobble gobble of empty syllables. i like to refer to my pre-homework warm up as "checking my stuff." before i can begin my homework, i must check my email, my blog, my facebook account, my other email account, and my byu account. if i move locations, the checking process begins anew. i have become quite profficient at checking--i can log in and out of facebook in 34 seconds flat. i can check my email like nobody's business. there is no specific order to my checking, but i cannot start my homework until all things i have been checked. i just love to check. and I love Al Gore for inventing the internet, which has provided me something to check so regularly.

today on our walk home from the lrc, at which time i had already checked my email accounts, facebook, etc. multiple times, megan and i took a quick stop in the jsb to get warmed up. at this time, the kiosks looked like an ideal place to do some quick checking. so megan and i logged on, checked our stuff, and then slunk our way home. Needless to say, nothing we check had changed on the 5 minute walk between the lrc and the jsb. but it brought me comfort to know i had checked. i could continue my walk home knowing that i was updated on all events that concerned me on the internet, that all e-communications had been checked and accounted for. i then promptly checked my stuff as soon as i got home and got on my computer, and i have been checking it continuously throughout the night.

i dont know why checking is so fun. rarely has anything changed. rarely is there a new email in my inbox, a new post on my facebook wall, a new grade on my byu account. but on the rare occasion there is something new to check, im glad that i check it immediately, instead of leaving it there to stew without anyone to check on it and see that it is alive and existing on the world-wide-web. nope, not my emails. they are always checked.

i guess the moral of the story is, if you write me emails, i will check them. if you post on my facebook wall, i will check it. nothing goes unchecked in my world. im thinkin about creating more email addresses, websites, blogs, etc. so i have even more things to check. its like when you lose something and you leave a couple of places unchecked, so you still have that little ray of hope in your soul that the lost item is lurking in the one unchecked area. the more places i create to check, the more possibilities there are something new will appear and i will have something to be checking for. now i better go check my stuff before i start studying. it hasnt been checked in more than 8 minutes.

6 comments:

Katherine said...

I do this too. Do you have any idea how traumatic it's been for me to not have internet access at home? I am a compulsive checker. I MUST CHECK MY STUFF.

Amanda said...

Exactly how many things do you check, I wonder? So far I've got Hotmail, Yahoo (though I rarely check that one since it's primarily for FreeCycle use), Gmail, Facebook, my blog, twenty other blogs on Google Reader, and two bank accounts. Then there's the non-electronic checking that goes on with my to-do lists. At any given time I have at least four: day (homework & otherwise), week (just homework), month (just homework), year (goals, more than to-do list...but what's the difference, really?) and then the ever-present, ever-looming general "TO DO" list. Now that you you've got me thinking about it, I check all kinds of things. There is something reassuring in being able to quantify or keep track of these random threads in life, but I wonder if it ever gets to the point where it keeps me from other, more valuable, things? Like people who take pictures all the time, trying to keep track of memories instead of just enjoying them (this was me up until a few years ago).

dave said...

Wow! I am glad that I am not the only person who has a pre-homework ritual of browsing and checking everything I can possibly think of on the internet. More often than not there is no change but when there is oh how exciting it is to know someone thought of me. I often check things twice just to postpone the doing of my homework.

David said...

check this!

dear shannon,

hello. try applying to med school and having about 12 additional "application status check" sites that only ever leave you with "reviewing app" or "denied" every time you check them. i tried to get the automator in mac to set up a workflow to open everything in like 30 different tabs and windows and type in all my passwords and log in with the click of ONE button. after spending 3 hours trying to make it work i realized that i was going to waste more time figuring that out and that it would diminish the sick fun of the simple "check." bye.

love,
david michael

David said...

check 2:

p.s.- it looks like there is another me posting above me. that is not me.

Campby said...

Al Gore! I love that! Now go check my other blog....