Failure- Recommit
I tried and failed.
It was a bold idea, to quit media for 5 days. I did say I would blog and continue with my “do it every day” initiative, I am still committed to that. But as part of that, did do a little blog comment checking, enough to notice Paynie calling me out. I did blogging specific internet use, as opposed to internet surfing. I have had no news or TV input for several days. I did much better than my usual crack addict-esque checking, to be sure. But, I will acknowledge failure, I cheated. I looked on tribe, I looked on facebook, I looked on myspace, beyond the reposting of my blog there. I checked my email more than just twice a day. Guilty. Evil. Foolish. It is a drug, I am addicted.
So when failing, which is not in itself wrong, all that is left t do is acknowledge the failure, cop to it, and recommit or give up.
So starting now, 5 days. Media fasting again, until Monday. No TV, writing related internet use only (clearly defined as simple looking up of facts for post, and the getting of images and links only), no radio or podcasts, no news. I am going to try again. Right now, I am going to make bookmarks for the “post to my blog” pages on myspace, tribe and facebook. I will allow myself to respond to comments while I check email at the designated times (noon and 4pm).
I know this is a worthwhile exercise, mainly because it is really hard to do.
New Skills
I remember when I first started learning about sleep. I was in high school and in a psychology class and our teacher Mr. Chip Phillips told us that sleep was for learning and processing. I always thought it was for relaxing.
It turns out that we deal with a lot of input during the day, and our brains take it all in and save some of the input to process later. Seemingly unrelated dreams are our minds’ way of dealing with all the data. At least that is part of the theory. It doesn’t explain my dreams of the future that come to pass, though. Maybe the brain can access past and future lives for more in-depth processes. But, that is a conversation for another time.
I have been dreaming a lot lately, and feeling really well rested and alert the moment I wake up. I think it has to do with the fact that I am learning a lot lately. It is coming from many sources, and both the physical and mental world.
1. I am teaching myself html code. Playing with Blogger’s interface and staring at codes that tell text to do things is opening up to something I always thought was really hard.
2. I am taking Ryan’s staff class. I am not exactly sure why, really, other than he invited me. I have no interest in performing with it. It is his method that interests me. I like the idea of physical tasks being much easier than we think. I am intererested in Metaprogramming
my human biocomputer, especially in my interactions in the structural realm. I am also practicing with my axe. I had to trim some tree limbs up at the cabin, that thing can chop wood like nobody’s business.
my human biocomputer, especially in my interactions in the structural realm. I am also practicing with my axe. I had to trim some tree limbs up at the cabin, that thing can chop wood like nobody’s business.3. My mind has been alight with crazy money making schemes and I have been searching the internets high and low for content and trying to prove to myself that my concepts are solid. What has happened is that I have found this whole new world of blogs and video that I previously ignored. I am also clear that I can do much better.
I woke up feeling like I was learning a lot more. Weird. It’s been a few hours and I am already forgetting. I trust my mind, though. I am sure it will be there when I need it.
Media Fast
I check my email maybe 1000 times a day. It is an absent, constant checking. I don’t get a thousand emails a day, I just check so that I will know when I do get one or three. I also browse the internet constantly, checking boingboing for weird news, checking to see if there are any new blogs up on tribe, or if someone has commented on mine. I wander aimlessly around myspace or facebook, finding nothing new. It just doesn’t work.
I am into this book right now, The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
It’s incredible, all of you should read it. One of it’s assertions is that much of the information we consume is not essential to survival, and is more akin to gorging ourselves on junk food than getting useful data. He suggests a 5 day media fast. Basically, no TV, radio, news, web, nonessential email, podcasts, audiobooks, or nonfiction reading. He allows 1 hour of TV per night for pleasure, and an hour of reading fiction for pleasure. But no more of the constant search for information. I have been all about giving up my vices this year, so this immediately frightened and appealed to me. I am stating now.
As part of this, I am also implementing checking email just twice a day, at noon and at 4pm. Tim suggests that email, and the tiny little distractions it provides is the #1 time waster in our modern age. and suggests getting it all clumped together at one time. I am curious to see what will come of this one. I may be setting up a simple auto response telling people this, or it just might not be necessary. I probably think that getting ahold of me via email is more important than it is.
I still will be blogging this week, and linking to tribe and facebook, but I will not be obsessively eyeballing my comments. I also will be spending this week working out my blogger interface and website. I am looking forward to having full interconnectedness between all of my internet places. I just got a youtube, a del.ici.ous, and flickr account, and I don’t know how to use them (experts in these sites, please tutor me!). I want to place some sort of connection to my cartoon projects that is secure. I want it to look fantastic. So yeah, I have a lot of work to do.
Most importantly, this week I will not be checking tribe, or evites or anything like that. If something is going on, please call me! Connect with me in a personal way, you have my permission. If something important happens for our community or in the world, please don’t hesitate to tell me.
Spaceman signing off.
spaceman23
