What would we do without the Internet?

Seriously.

No. Really.

Take a moment to ponder this. I'll wait.

Are you grasping the sheer enormity of its usefulness yet? No? Well, let me give you some examples then. Because today, I used the internet (thank you, Al Gore) to its max.

First, I purchased some black waxed cotton cord (a somewhat curious item, I know) to attach my homemade silver-wire figurines to (my gifts for this year's Burning Man). I had previously refrained from buying the item at the local crafts monopoly Michael's because the price seemed so outrageous (I think it was around $10 for 20 or 30 feet). Thanks to the miracle of eBay.com though, I ended up with a 330- foot roll of the stuff for $7.99 ($10.50 with shipping). Take that - you overpriced brick-and-mortar stores!

Moving right along: I finally reserved a rental minivan for my trip in August with Budget. I first ran through the whole rental process as anybody would - dates, pick-up location, kind of car etc. Then, on the last page, there was a field simply labeled "Coupons". I remembered that yes, of course, the internet is filled with discounts and coupons and such. You really only have to remember to look.

So sure enough - a quickie Google search later, I found MouseSavers.com, where "Walmart Customers" (i.e. anybody) can get a 20% discount with Budget by simply inputting the code W810011 at the time of reservation. I did, and - pow! - it knocked $70 off my rental fee. Yay! How cool is that?

And last, but not least - I saw that a musician called Eric Lindell was playing at the annual Bite of Bend event this Saturday. I couldn't quite place the name, although it sounded terribly familiar, so I googled his name. It jolted my memory that, indeed, I used to go listen to his music in a small brew pub in the Bay Area, and moments later, I was listening to his tunes online ...

So despite the viruses, worms, pop-ups, and spam - I love the internet.