I am banning myself from the Internet.

No, not completely (though that might be nice). E-mail is pretty much a professional necessity for me at this point. I'll continue keeping this blog, because I enjoy writing it and others seem to enjoy reading it. I'll continue reading and occasionally responding to my LJ friends list, because it's one of the best ways I have of keeping in touch with friends (both real-life and electronic). I'll continue my eBay sales, because that little bit of extra income helps a lot. I'll maintain my website, and may even overhaul it soon. I'll keep reading eGullet, because it's a valuable food-writing resource and their membership policies keep the number of idiots way, way down.

That's the problem, you see: I have idiot fatigue. I don't except myself from this; the Internet has definitely made me dumber. I can't do anything about the other idiots, but I can do something about myself. I don't want to use Feedster to find out what people have said about me on their blogs. I don't want babybats who think I should just discreetly keel over dead if I'm not going to write that Lost Souls sequel.....

I've long said that the Internet can be a valuable tool for resource and promotion, and I still believe that. People used to liken it to CB radio. I think it's more like a gun: not inherently evil, but dangerous as hell if you mess around with it. The more time I spend online, the less I spend reading and writing, and I can't have that. It's time to get back to work. Fo' rizzle.