How to Survive a Wi-Fi Free Weekend

Just in case the StFX internet blackout happens again, here’s a guide to keep yourself occupied

In case you live under a rock, let me fill you in on what happened to StFX’s internet recently. Two weeks ago, StFX’s Wi-Fi and all services (Moodle, Mes Amis, etc.) stopped working. For four painful days, we were forced to avoid school work, instead of just avoiding it on our own free will. 

Despite the guilt-free procrastination, it was a pretty stressful situation that happened at a horrible time. The first weekend of November is often a busy time for students and teachers alike. All of us use the StFX services and do research on the internet. 

From research to streaming, if you don’t have Wi-Fi and have run out of data 24 hours after the blackout began (like me), you are going to be bored. 

Now that I’ve been through the long weekend of torture, here’s a list of four things to keep yourself occupied when living without internet.

One: Go through your built-in laptop games or phone apps. Do you remember when everyone was obsessed with playing 3D Space Cadet Pinball on the good old Windows XP desktop computers? Though that game isn’t likely to be in your current laptop, there’s always solitaire. You’d be surprised to find some of the simple, yet fun games that Windows still includes in their new laptops. We spend so much time using Wi-Fi that our computers without internet are full of untapped potential!

Two: Do some readings. I know I just said that no internet equals forced procrastination; yet, everyone has a textbook from a class that they have never opened once. If you lost track of where you’re supposed to be and can’t access the course outline on Moodle, just read the entire textbook. Read your textbook until your brain can’t process any more info dumping. Will binge-reading your textbook really be a productive way to get caught up in your class? Probably not, since close reading, reflection and rereading are essential for a critical understanding of the textbook content. With that being said, reading will make you feel better when not being able to do any online-based reading or research.

Three: Play some board games! And when I say “play” board games, what I really mean is ask your roommates and friends to get together. Since they most likely won’t have any board games, it’s pretty entertaining to just talk to your roommates/friends about all of their favourite board games that they, “wished they played more often.” Share campfire stories about how you ruined your relationship with your aunt due to a particularly competitive game of Monopoly. If you have no board games, then maybe someone has a pack of cards lying around. If nobody can remember the rules to any card games without looking them up on Google, there’s always the easiest card game – Go Fish.

Four: Stare at your wall and feel bad for all the work you haven’t done. No internet means that you have lots of time to think about all of those things your really should have done earlier. All those papers you should have started. All of that research you could have done but didn’t, because you were taking the Wi-Fi for granted. It’s not the most entertaining thing do to, but it’s probably the most realistic thing you’d be doing during an internet blackout.

If you do these four things, I guarantee you’ll waste your weekend, but at least it, “wasn’t your fault.”