The internet is a wonderful thing, to be sure. It's a broad information network that provides nearly limitless entertainment, knowledge, and time-saving applications.
However, with respect to the fact that I believe my computer and the internet have been at least partly responsible for the slump my life has been in for the past eight or so years, I'm observing a deliberate limitation on my computer use, with the hopes that by the end of the hiatus I'll have a girlfriend, a job, or both (but heck, I'd be satisfied with one or the other ;-)).
The rules, as I posted on my LiveJournal, are pretty much as follows:
* No computer game or game console use for more than thirty minutes per day.
* Absolutely no access to the internet.
* TV allowed, because TV is self-limited (I don't like most of the programs on TV)
* Computer use for business purposes (writing resumés, writing letters, etc.) is allowed
So, I'll see you guys in a month!
ID:31853
 Jun 22 2007, 12:19 pm
|
|
|
Jun 22 2007, 12:22 pm
|
|
Popisfizzy
 |
You should document it with a camera or video camera. =O
|
Good luck in the real world! =P
| |
The worst thing about you lot (the "i'm improving my life" types) is that you make the rest of us feel guilty for ruining our lives... :(
| |
That's right! Get a job, ya bum!
| |
My LiveJournal explicitly stated "Starting by the time I go to bed tomorrow (Friday) night", which I apparently neglected to mention here. I'm giving myself time to tie up loose ends and make sure people are aware that I'm going to be gone for a while.
(Specifically, new user registrations have been disabled on my Newtopia forum and my MegaTraveller wiki and won't be re-enabled until I get back. I think I've pretty much gotten everything, though I'll probably have one mess or another to clean up upon my return.) | |
Popisfizzy wrote:
And so he starts of his internet hiatus by making two new posts on the forums I started mine by updating Plunder Gnome XD Good luck JT; I've been doing pretty well on the job and degree fronts, but the girlfriend part seems much harder to accomplish. Programming experience seems to do very little in that area. | |
Well, Iain, you could write a virus declaring your love for the girl.
That may border on crazy stalker, though. | |
Sounds a bit like quitting drinking to solve an alcohol problem. Sure, it can solve the problem but it's not really dealing with it.
Limiting yourself to thirty minutes of game use per day isn't really a great idea because it doesn't help you deal with how to balance the use of video games. I spent about three hours playing Oblivion on the 360 last night. By your rules this is a bad thing, but those three hours were during my free time. If anything it was good because I was chatting with a friend over XBOX Live (and not running up my phone bill =D ). When it comes down to it it's the five minutes it takes to beat a boss that screws you. You put something off for five minutes and the opportunity passes you by (I've lost many a girlfriend to that damn Metal Gear Rex). One thing worth thinking about is that these are all things you enjoy. If you want a job and a girlfriend you're going to want a job that still allows you to do things you like (aka, internet, TV and video games) and a girlfriend who can at the very least tolerate your hobbies. As much fun as spending all your time together is you want to have something to do other than stare into each others eyes lovingly. Even if she doesn't like games that still gives you something to go off and do so you're not annoying her 24-7. =P I'm assuming you're unemployed and not just looking for a new one. When I was unemployed my major problem was too much time. Anything I needed to do could be put off until later. There's so little structure that it makes it nearly impossible to schedule something. That's probably where you should be focusing. Setting up some sort of routine. Wake up at the same time in the morning each weekday. Have some breakfast. Around 10 o'clock go for a walk to buy the paper. When you get home you spend the next three hours searching the wanted ads for anything that looks promising. Making calls, send off copies of your resume, etc. If there's not enough to fill up the two hours you work on your resume, maybe practice your interview skills, junk like that. During those hours there's no using the TV, PC, consoles or internet for entertainment. Unemployment will essentially turn into a part time job. If you've got a study that's perfect. That becomes your working area. It's best to avoid areas like lounge rooms and bedrooms because you're too comfortable in them and spend the majority of your time in them doing anti-work stuff. It's hard to get out and be social when you're unemployed, but if you can find a low-budget hobby you enjoy that you can get outside and do on the weekend you're set. You probably wont meet the girl of your dreams there, but it's a lot easier to talk to people and have interesting conversations in general when you've got an interesting hobby to talk about. You're bound to pick up a few friends at the very least, and just being able to say 'oh yeah, on the weekend me and the guys went to such-and-such' makes for an interesting conversation when you're getting to know someone (and they're getting to know you). [Edit; Oh yeah, good luck on your break. =P] | |
I love you, Spuzzy.
| |
Good luck, Jt
| |
Good luck Jt, but be careful. You can end up doing so well that you have rarely any time for the finer things in life (such as video games and the internet).
| |
Watch what happens when you find more on tv that you like than you thought you'd find. Due to several strange situations back-to-back, I went without regular tv for around 4 years. Feels good not to feed off of the thing at all. I tried to go back, just to catch up on some Law & Order, the only show I really liked. I end up watching 4 L&O in a row, then going to sleep thinking about the show that was on after. It scares me. I think this is how that guy who made 'Supersize Me' and the book 'Don't Eat This Book' must feel.
I still don't have a TV, but I keep catching myself being unable to look away each time I'm at a friend's house and the thing is on in the other room. I will have you in my thoughts as I leave my friend's place later tonight. | |
G'morning!
It was pretty hard to quit cold turkey like that, I can tell you. The fact that I'm on the internet only a couple hours after the hiatus expired should prove that, at least. ;-) As for what YMIHere said, that's pretty much what I did: I wasn't trying to just quit everything and recede into a little shell. I had a cohesive plan to it: first I'd clean up my room, get rid of everything I didn't want, and clean the whole damned thing from top to bottom with a toothbrush if I had to. Then I'd dedicate a few hours per day to digging through employment offers and actually going out on foot and making offers to people who didn't actually have published offers (many people don't do this, and you'd be surprised how many people are hiring even though they're not publicly offering positions to anyone). Finally, I'd get into some gaming groups for MegaTraveller or whatever so I could meet some more friends and by proxy meet some girls (most people meet their lovers through their friends, after all). So far, I only finished the cleaning-my-room part, and there are still some parts of my room I'm not satisfied with. I did go out looking for work... once. I'm going to have to manage that a bit better. I did a great deal of work on paper for my roleplaying games, so I should be able to get into some groups on fairly short order. Another thing on my todo list: volunteer at the local community police station. All told, I did cheat a few times: when I couldn't sleep, True Crime: New York City helped me relax a bit for much more than half an hour on about three separate occasions. I also spent some time towards the end working on some BYOND games, including Newtopia and another project that I'm not prepared to announce yet. However, I absolutely didn't cheat at all on the internet use. You're looking at someone who went 28 days without even looking up movie showtimes online. Booyah. For the most part, I felt pretty good about it. | |