> Shit like this seriously makes me want to give up on the internet and walk away from it
You echo my thoughts exactly - I've recently been thinking about moving to a small town north of where I currently live, where land prices are cheap, and you can get 10 acres for nothing. Bad part - little to no internet access.
That works if you can make that 10 acres work for you... I've been trying that model for the last little while on top of my full time job. I can tell you from first hand experience that while it may be rewarding, the amount of work and money it takes to get those 10 acres working for you is not trivial and has the serious probability of burning you out before you make it. I wouldn't recommend doing this on top of a full time job if time is of the essence. It's probably something you'd want to do over the period of a couple of years because trying to get 10 acres working for you inside of a year is an insane amount of work - it's literally more than a second full time job. I know this, because that's exactly what I've been doing for the last 9 months.
The shitty internet access will be beyond frustrating at first. Again, speaking from first hand experience, you will become accustomed to it and find workarounds. I sometimes think that not having any internet access at all would be easier than dealing with the outages that I deal with on a weekly basis. Eventually you stop caring about it and think fuck it, I'll just do something else with my time, read a book, go out on your land, learn useful things like small engine repair or carpentry or whatever...
Not having Internet and TV can be frustrating and boring at first, but finding hobbies and learning skills to fill that time instead can be extremely good for your confidence and your soul.
I know this is a late reply and such - but my first modem was a 300 baud screamer (heh) - so a slow connection could look fast to me otherwise (not as fast as what I have currently, tho).
As far as getting 10 acres to work for me - well, I wasn't thinking that route (ie - farming). More just doing odd jobs to make the tax payment; I'm pretty good with mechanically inclined stuff - I also can work a welder, plasma cutter, grinder, etc. Or - maybe I could get a cheap 3D printer and/or laser cutter and do stuff with that.
Everything else would be completely paid off, and otherwise I'd be off-the-grid (electric from solar/wind, water from a well, then a septic tank - I guess I might have to budget for maintenance of that stuff, too).
I'm thinking, though, I might still be able to commute into jobs - where I'm thinking about locating isn't too far away from work - though it'd be a long commute (50-75 miles each way).
You echo my thoughts exactly - I've recently been thinking about moving to a small town north of where I currently live, where land prices are cheap, and you can get 10 acres for nothing. Bad part - little to no internet access.
Part of me thinks that's a good thing.