My computer is a vacuum

Kyle and "Geefle" at work.

To hear my spouse, Kyle, you would think my computer is a vacuum. He often equates the retrieval of information from online resources as “sucking it in.”

It seems he thinks that when I enter a search term in a browser - sometimes he asks me to look something up for him, while he stands over my shoulder - it activates a vacuum cleaner in cyberspace.

When the sought after information is found,  this cyber-hoover sucks it up like a dust bunny from under the couch and instantly appears on the monitor.

Perhaps I should explain. I think the last time Kyle used a computer punch cards were all the rage.

He is currently working on a major book project; an undertaking that has been going on for over a decade and has involved a great deal of research, reading and note-taking.

How has he accomplished his research without a computer or using the internet?

Kyle goes to the library and checks out books, makes notes on reams of the graph paper he likes and records major concepts on index cards with his favourite writing instruments: a Pilot Hi-tecpoint V7 Grip pen in various colours (excluding candy-colours of course), pencils, Sharpies, highlighters, and the old stand-by we once could not live without, Liquid Paper.

On the floor around his desk, and slowly creeping their way into the living room of our smallish apartment, is his filing system; stacks of folders containing his work and notes, written in English, German, Latvian, as well as some Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.

To call Kyle a Luddite would be wrong. He’s just not that interested in computers; he isn’t mesmerized by gadgets.

Sure, when he’s ready to compile all of his work into a coherent and readable format, in other words a manuscript, he’ll get a computer – he’s mentioned it twice in the last 12 months. But until he actually needs one, it’s old-school devices for him.

As for me, it's rare when I'm not in front of a computer.

Perhaps Kyle is on to something; maybe my computer is a vacuum?