Off the grid

No April Fools.  Life is getting busy.... Family, ministry, travel, and all those wilderness/mountain outings I lead.  I'm gonna take a break from Garth's Blog (but not from my other blogs, nor Twitter) so I can focus on writing the remaining credentialing reports for my ministerial licensing process.

Garth's Blog will return.

Here is a re-post from one of my other blogs about my anxiety of being phoneless, originally posted last month:

March 4, 2017

Day 3 of no cell phone.  Cancelling my Mount Hood climb up/ ski down event that I was leading for NW Wilderness yesterday was a bit of a relief.  It's a challenge to coordinate these outings without a phone.  Though I was bummed that the mountain weather was too extreme for my friends and I to play on the slopes... What could beat sitting inside a Sprint repair store for 3+ hours on a sunny Saturday instead?  Blah.

Grumbling aside, being phone-free has ultimately been a calming experience for me.  But first, I had to overcome the expected anxieties:

• My friends are gonna think I'm either a flake or a jerk for not texting them back (some of them apparently followed up on Facebook, which I also can't check when I'm away from WiFi).
• How will my loved ones get ahold of me in an emergency, or if they need me for something?
• I have plans with my surfing buddy and also hiking/climbing friends this upcoming week... How will any of them let me know if something comes up?
• I already miss my Twitter friends.
• How many Instagram friends will I lose from not posting my daily Instagram Story pics?
• When I'm away from WiFi, how will I even message my overseas friends to plan our international trip for next weekend?

Looking back at this list, it's embarassing to see how overly social I am.  It's silly.  And it's sobering to realize how much I kill myself to stay in touch with the people I love.

Everything will be alright.  I'll see my friends when I see them.  In the meantime, I'm gonna enjoy being offline.

From my Instagram Story:  The latest winter adventure I led for NW Wilderness was, ahem, eventful.

Just read: The Adversary, by Reece Hirsch

P.S.A. -- Today is the long-awaited release date for Go Set a Watchman, a newly discovered earlier novel from Pulitzer prize winning author Harper Lee!

I was excited to buy this "new" book on opening day this morning, but our book budget is a little short this week.  Instead, I'll be binge re-reading Lee's unforgettable American classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" (purchased Sunday at Powell's City of Books with one of my favorite people) in honor of this historic literary event.



Disclosure:  The book reviewed below was a free selection from Amazon Kindle for Samsung's monthly book deals.  That's why I read it.  And this review will soon also be featured on my Goodreads page.

The Adversary (A Chris Bruen novel, Book 1) is a knowledgeably written tech thriller about a lawyer/ former D.O.J. cybercrimes prosecutor trying to thwart a massive cyberterrorist attack that could cost thousands or even millions of lives.

The good:  The trace bit of tech geek inside me enjoyed author Reece Hirsch's attention to credibility as the master plan of sinister cyberhacker Enigma is slowly uncovered by protagonist Chris Bruen. Cliches and gaps in logic are to be expected in novels such as these, but at least the technological aspects of the story seemed reasonably plausible.  And there was enough non-digital world action to balance it all out.

The okay:  The Adversary's engrossing plot makes up for protagonists Chris and Zoey occasionally feeling more like functional than sympathetic characters (though Chris eventually gets more fleshed out as his deeper backstory explains his quest for redemption). And author Hirsch has a tendency to repeat information in dialog at length that's already recently been revealed, as though spoon feeding it to readers who weren't paying attention the first time.

My take:  Ultimately, I enjoyed this story. A significant (and underused, in my opinion) twist at around the halfway point turns the plot on it's head, and the novel picks up plenty of steam as Enigma's villainous scheme sees its execution.  But reader be warned, a fondness for techno jargon may be required to enjoy this mystery-thriller.  I was all over it.

Throughout the final chapter, Kindle for Samsung kept reminding me that Book 2 in the Chris Bruen novel series has already been released.  Should I ever discover an opening in my reading list, I'd be game for checking that one out as well.

Coming this weekend on Garth's Blog, after our youth group camping/ rafting trip...

Here in Cincinnati tomorrow, we race again. Photo from #running last year's #flyingpigmarathon for @delta.

A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on May 2, 2015 at 3:01pm PDT

...The 2015 follow-up to last year's Cincinatti Flying Pig Marathon!

Disconnected: A home without internet

For backpackers and travelers like our family (and many of you readers), getting by without internet is something we prepare for. Offline plans and supplies are essential when in the wilderness or overseas without data. We return messages and tweets when we return to civilization. And, as I'm doing right now, I write travelogues and such on my phone and post them to Blogspot later... usually to my other blog.

An unplanned internet outage in the midst of our daily life, however is a different story. Our internet router blew up last week just hours before I was to head out to lead two hikes near Mount Adams.

Last minute details were unfinished and unsent to our hiking group. Plus, there were (and are) time-sensitive ministry reports, student lessons, travel blog drafts, Kathy's post about our Southern Oregon visits, trip reports from previous hikes, and announcements for upcoming hikes (I prefer to post my NW Wilderness events at least half a week in advance) that remain stuck on my laptop.

Even for a First World problem, this is admittedly petty. An inconvenient disruption.

Our phones have data plans, and it's not like I can't bum WiFi from a local coffee shop to upload whatever I need. And though we're not big movie or TV watchers, eliminating the threat of Netflix streaming through our PS3 guarantees more time for playing, praying, and reading together as a family.
(Continued below)


A gratuitous pic of Levi and Lena from this morning:





One of my current reads, "Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology" by Eric Brende, is a thoughtful meditation on offline living. Highly recommended. This post is not that.

In fact, I'll sheepishly confess that I remain unrepentant in my embrace of technology. But I see it mainly as a tool to connect with people I care about and get us all outdoors, away from the internet.

And speaking about getting outdoors...