When I wrote about zero days recently, I feel that I barely scratched the theme, but with this blog, I made it a feature to actually have things not finished, and half-said. I note my conscious (or subconscious) mind, a kind of stream of thoughts, and it’s more ‘for-me, but you’re allowed to read’ thing, rather than something I try to communicate with others. But interacting with this content of mine, I’m learning much better.
I’d find some name for it at some later point.
The system that works lies in the system itself. When a system makes it easy, you do the very thing you want to do.
I’m not paying for my data plan at Vodafone, my mobile operator of choice. And I realised it’s been two weeks today. I have barely noticed. There were a few inconveniences here and there.
Today, we visited Hnat’s new school, the one he’d go in a year. We did like it, Solomia visited the secretary department, and we, me and Nadia (who’s home today due her running nose), we were sitting before the entrance. Over time, she got too bored, and started making her usual noises and hands movements. I got bored too. So, to calm her down (and myself) we went exploring the school.
I forgot to make photos of the backyard’s awesome very modern sport playground (Nadia did like it a lot!), but here are some photos I made before we moved:
The school is about 150 years old!
I thought to myself: would Solomia understand where we may be or not? It’s been a long time we were waiting, and she should come out pretty soon. That’s when I remembered my phone is still in the Airplane (Flight) mode. It’s there 99% of the time, by the way. I simply don’t care much about it. When I’m outside home, I’m offline. That was the same when I was paying for the mobile services, so the only difference now is that I cannot summon mobile internet on a whim.
‘She’d call me,’ I thought.
And here she were, calling me, seconds after I went online. Perhaps a minute.
She did not call previously, I assumed, otherwise she’d commented that I always offline. (And I’d get the SMS saying ‘this-and-that called you at 09:35’ (which is very handy!) As I actually get from Nadia’s class’ school assistant this morning. He should have written me isntead, which he did.
That reminded me it’s been a week or so I’m not paying for the mobile data (I call it ‘mobile internet’). Turned out, today’s exactly two weeks I’ve stopped paying. I barely noticed!
I’ve got a luring message already, that OnLY fOR mE 🤪 there’s 40% discount, but if I’d pay till Oct 3rd, with one payment being about 150 UAH (which is about €3, £2.5, US$3.4), which is not much. I’m pretty OK with this sum, and I would pay… but! I need to pick a tarrif, and I have no mental capacity for that. They’re designed to trick me into paying more, and I’m not interested in playing by their rules.
Also, there’s a deadline, the day after tomorrow.
So my reactions is: ‘oohhhh, for fuck’s sake!’ (You should say it with Jackson’s Lamb intonation.)
Here, this thought visited me: by not paying, and hence living without mobile internet, it’s not that I’m doing some complicated quest here. Rather the opposite. I’m prerry comfortable where I am. I may design some inconveniences to people around me, but I don’t care too much. Because they can reach me, if I want to. And the inconvenience is minor. I can be offline, and I believe I’m offline for up to half an hour at a single stretch, which is ridiculously small tiny amount. I’m very skilled at managing a situation like that, and I’m almost always online, when I need it.
So, it’s an easy choice. I’d pay, when I’d feel resourceful enough, to explore what Vodafone has to offer. And if they design their system as being too complicated to pay them, jokes on them then. Not that they’re irreplaceable and invaluable. Not to me, at least.