Well, long by blogging standards. It’s been 10 days since my last post and I’m happy to say that most of those days were spent enjoying a tech-lite vacation in western North Carolina. It was, as you might expect, refreshing and reinvigorating.

Not only was online time cut to just a few minutes per day, I also did without a GPS throughout the trip. Over the last few years I’d grown accustomed to relying on a GPS during longer road trips. I thought I’d try this trip without one to see if there’d be some noticeable difference in my experience. This is as they say strictly anecdotal, but I am prepared to report that I felt more familiar with my surroundings and more comfortable navigating through the region. I found myself more attentive to the landscape and the features of the human-built environment. And without a constantly updated “time to my destination” displayed, I found the drive up to be on the whole more enjoyable. I’m sure there’s more to be said, but I’ll leave it at that. (Although, I’ll take the opportunity to link once more to Ari Schulman’s excellent essay, “GPS and The End of the Road”.)

Oh, and upon returning I cleared out all the unread items in my Google Reader that had accumulated over several days of inattention. So if there was anything that you think I shouldn’t miss, feel free to send me a link.

You can expect more regular posting in the days ahead. As always, thanks for reading.

Cheers!