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I know it has been a while since I have posted anything new on my blog and no, I have not forgotten about it. I needed some time to contemplate and to figure a few things out for myself and where I am headed. I could have hashed out some half-assed blog a long time ago, but for my last one, I wanted to make it worthwhile to me and my readers. This is not going to be a blog filled with technical facts and other such mumbo jumbo, but a continuation of what my blog has become. I did not set out to create a journal of my Tech Blackout experiences, but my blog evolved into it and I kind of like it. I always imagined a journal being sort of wimpy, but the more I journaled/blogged, the more I enjoyed it. Because my blogs were personal I would like to end my blog on a personal note. Anyways, it is obvious to anyone that human reliance on and the usage of technology is growing at an unprecedented rate so why beat the dead horse. Everyone knows it and I am sure that we have all heard the stories of Korean gamers dying from playing computer games for 24 hours and such, true story, no lie. Check out the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm Anyway, I feel that personal stories are the real breadwinners when it comes to changing people’s minds and ways, not hard facts.
There are several reasons why I am posting this blog out so late after I have finished my little experiment. 1. Being that the weather has been really nice outside and I have used this as an excuse not to sit in front of a computer, 2. I wanted to read up on and learn a bit more about the voluntary simplicity movement, 3. To see if I could continue on with bits and pieces of my Tech Blackout experiment day to day without thinking about it. What I mean, is that I knew going into my Tech Blackout that it would one day end and I knew exactly what day it would end too and so far my results are varied.
I have been asked continuously by my readers in their comments if I plan on taking my Tech Blackout beyond the scope of my little six week experiment. The answer to that question is…yes, sort of. I am not going to go on specific days without technology, nor am I going to give up specific technological devices. I know I have said this before, but it would be impossible to cut oneself off from technology without becoming a hermit, which is a possibility. I am not going to abuse technology. I am not going to go back to my old ways of vegging out in front of the television or playing video games all day when I am bored or have no motivation to do anything. I have rediscovered too many simple pleasures to go back, who would give up free time, pleasure reading, or more sleep?? I am not!! I mean, one of the reasons why I had not gotten this blog out so quickly after my experiment had finished was because I was OUTSIDE enjoying the sun and warm weather and not INSIDE procrastinating by watching TV or playing video games. For this summer, I have partially constructed a reading list for myself, I say partially because I haven’t written anything down, but have formulated in my head several authors and books that I would like to read for the summer. One author I wish to start reading again is Ellis Peters and the Brother Cadfael series. They are interesting stories of an English Monk/detective set in 12th century England. I want to read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I have watched so many vampire movies, yet I have not read the book that really started the vampire craze. I would also like to read some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. As I said, I have a partially constructed book list, but if it is partially constructed it means nothing is set in stone and thus flexible!! I do promise you I will read more than I sit in front of a TV, game console, or computer this summer.
I wanted to learn more about the voluntary simplicity movement before writing this blog. I wanted to know more about the movement and all it entailed. I mean, is there a signup sheet and do I have to be a card carrying member who pays $15 a month to title myself as a member of the voluntary simplicity movement? What I found out in my reading and research is that the voluntary simplicity movement is wholly flexible, catering to each individual person’s needs and wants. “Simplicity is the razors edge that cuts through the trivial and finds the essential. Simplicity is not about a life of poverty, but about a life of purpose.” (These quotes are from the article, “Choosing a New Lifeway: Voluntary Simplicity.”) That passage and the article “The Garden of Simplicity” by Duane Elgin have given me motivation to continue on with my own personal voluntary simplistic movement. I want to continue to de-clutter my life and get rid of a lot of the detail. I don’t know what the end result will be or even if the end will ever come. I doubt there will be a nirvana like moment, but hopefully my use of less technology will lead me to branch off and simplify my life in other areas. I have just remembered in the past few weeks by walking home and enjoying the smells and sounds of the world, the Lilac bushes in bloom smell marvelous. I haven’t enjoyed the scent of lilacs since my childhood. Oh… the simple things in life.
Thanks for reading and I hope this jumbled mesh of sentences makes sense to someone. Later
It has been awhile since I have blogged about my non-technological escapades. But it’s not my fault that Spring Break came along and during this time my brain shuts down for a good week or so. The reasons I waited so long to post are many, but I decided to try applying the tech blackout to my Spring Break, more on that later though.
For a quick refresher two weeks ago my technology blackout was supposed to reach its zenith the week of March 7-13. During that week, I was supposed to go two full days without using technology while at the same time limiting my tech usage on the days I didn’t plan on going on a full tech blackout. The two days I picked were Wednesday March 10th and Friday March 12th. That week was hectic enough as it was a week with a couple of tests, a few papers, and a final all falling within several days during that week. But I am thankful that I had conditioned myself enough with my project prior to this week with working hard and developing it, as well as coming to terms with the notion of free time, that I have generated through tech blackout. Normally during weeks like these I get very little sleep, which puts me on edge and I turn literally into a snapping turtle, biting at anyone that sticks their finger near my face or intrudes in my affairs. All throughout that week, I was well rested and my nerves stayed placid. Anyway, on to the days I picked…
Wednesday
I tried to pick a few days during the week where I could avoid technology at all cost and concentrate on a grabbing and reading a newspaper or grab a random book at the library and read for the afternoon or I could have gone on a walk. The possibilities were endless. Wednesday looked great to accomplish one or more of my goals. It was the only free day where I didn’t have a paper due or a test. However, as my luck would have it, as I walked into my first class on Wednesday the professor hands us all in the class our midterm, a take home midterm. The best news is that it needed to be typed and it was due the next day at 4:00pm. There went my day and my wondrous plans for the day. I was stuck in one hell of a pickle! On one hand, my project and the other schoolwork, which I promised myself at the beginning of my journey would not be affected by the tech blackout. I didn’t want to force myself to write it all on Thursday and do sloppy or poor work. So, I compromised, I read and took a walk during the afternoon and early evening and then between 8 or 9 pm, I started working on my midterm ending between 1 and 2 in the morning. The one truly and only bad night of sleep I got that week. Oh well, the experience of going a full day without technology passed by me on Wednesday, but the effort is what counts and I still had one more day to go.
Friday
I picked Friday to go on a total tech blackout for a few reasons. They are as follow… 1) Friday is Friday I haven’t attempted to go on a tech blackout on very many Fridays because Friday is a Funday!! Generally, people like to go out, hangout with Friends, and be social on Fridays and I am one of those people. 2) Friday March 12th was the beginning of Spring Break… enough said. 3) Friday night I was traveling by Greyhound home for Spring Break (My destinations for Spring Break are generally more exciting, but are not the point of this blog). I wanted to challenge myself on the two days I went on my tech blackouts, if I didn’t, then why would I bother. I have ridden on the Greyhound too many times to count, although each time I ride the bus it is a new experience. If you are the adventurous type of person, I say try it once and give it a whirl. My modus operandi for traveling by Greyhound is to make sure that my ipod is fully charged before getting on the bus with my charger within easy reach. As soon as I find a seat on the bus, I pop in my head phones and either fall asleep or pretend to fall asleep, as to avoid contact with my fellow passengers. For both my Greyhound trips from school to home and from home to school, I would not use my ipod, although I did have it within reach in case of an emergency, don’t know what that would be, but I had my ipod on me. I would try to spark up conversation with some of my fellow passengers. On the trip home, I had a chat with some college students returning home from Spring Break. They had gone to South Padre Island which is in Texas and also, I hear, is the place to go for Spring Break. The other passengers weren’t too willing to talk as most were sleeping, but I did have a good chat with these guys. So, I would say I was mission successful for Friday. I went outside my comfort zone and chatted with a fellow passenger on the Greyhound.
Not to get a wee bit ahead of myself and as it is still relevant on the return trip back to school, I attempted the same little project on the Greyhound. Tuesday March 16th I was taking the bus heading back to school. At the Greyhound terminal waiting for the bus, I started talking to a man who had asked me which door was heading south. I told him it was door number 6 and I was taking that bus, too. There was really no one else in the terminal at this time of night around midnight so I thought I may as well strike up a conversation with the man. It turned out that he was a recently released prisoner, as in that very same day, who had just finished serving a ten year sentence in federal prison and he was heading home. I had the choice of walking away or taking a chance and keep talking with him, I went with the latter option. This gentleman turned out to be very interesting to talk to. We chatted about a lot of things and one of the topics that came up was technology. What really hit me hard, other than the fact that this man hasn’t seen his children in ten years, was the fact that in terms of technology, those that are incarcerated for long periods of time are basically in the Stone Age when they are released. This man was fascinated with my ipod touch; I felt that I could turn it on to show him, furthermore, the man had never owned a cell phone. I have mixed feelings over this encounter with this man. It more or less brought me crashing back down to earth. Here I am trying to rid myself of technology and then along comes a person who encountered me that more or less just walked out of a time machine dating from the year 1999/2000 and now wishes to become an upstanding functioning citizen of the United States. If one wishes to function well in this society one must literally be plugged in. I wish him the best of luck
Spring Break
Officially Tech Blackout ended the week prior to Spring Break. I am serious though in trying to incorporate a few of the things I learned during my little experiment in my now non-tech blackout life, who could give up free time? I decided to test myself while at home for a few days during spring break and to continue my tech blackout. I must say I was moderately successful. Normally, I just veg out in front of the TV or play hours upon hours of video games with my friends. I finished a book my mom had got me from the library, where she works. I read Michael Crichton’s Pirate Latitudes and although I normally don’t, but I did, read some comics one of my friends loaned me and said I just had to read.
The real test for me was hanging out with my friends and at the same time finding non technological activities to do with them. We are all, somewhat all, 21 so we could have gone to the bars, but we are poor and don’t have enough money to sustain ourselves at the bar. So, instead we drank and played billiards at my house and then the next night had a bonfire at one of my other friends. The only let down was the one night we had an old fashioned Halo link party with about 10 people at someone’s house. I have to defend myself by saying that it involved a lot of people and it was more of a party than people playing video games all night.
Right… so those are my adventures in the realm of Tech Blackouts. Next week is my wrap up blog. Hope you enjoyed it, I sure did.
Later Alligators
Last week nothing new and exciting occurred on the four days I went without technology. The days I went no tech for last week included Monday March 1st, Wednesday March 3rd, and back to back days of Friday March 5th and Saturday March 6th. In the quasi journal I have been keeping for this little experiment of mine, I wrote pretty much the same mundane stuff for all four days. The entries included how many newspapers I read, information on the walks I took, and the status of the technology located in my room, i.e. computer, cell phone, ipod, and game console, all of which, except for the computer gained tremendous amounts of dust. For which I am kind of proud of, but I did dust them on Sunday, having hay fever stinks.
To be honest, I don’t even wake up thinking about the fact that today is a Tech Blackout day or go to bed reminding myself, not to use technology for an extended period of time. I hardly ever watch television anymore, and this happens only non Tech Blackout days. Most of the time it is a sports game that I watch, but the television hardly stays on for very long, I always feel as if I have better things to be doing with my time. I haven’t heard my cell phone ring in over a week, as I have it on silent mode all the time or it’s dead sitting in my backpack. The voice messages and texts are pretty funny to listen to and read, especially as I go longer without having a phone always in my pocket. Most, are questioning if I am still even alive!! HAHA, I haven’t played a video game since I began this project, over five weeks ago. Furthermore, I feel as if my wristwatch is permanently attached to my hand as I grow more comfortable wearing it and relying on it to tell me the time. Not counting school and work, my life has become simpler, something I have always wanted, but this comes with a price.
Let’s be honest, cutting ones ties with the digital and technological world is inhibiting to ones social life and dangerous. A lot of the text messages, phone calls, and facebook messages I did not answer were inviting me to hang out with friends, attend parties, what I am planning on doing for spring break, will I be heading home, staying in Manhattan, or traveling somewhere exotic. I have missed calls from siblings, parents, and work, not that I care about missing calls from work, but they do make fun little conversations with my boss when I get to work. It went something like this…
Boss: “Did you get my phone call about coming in early?”
Me: “No.”
Boss: “Did you see my email asking you to wear black pants to work?”
Me: “No.”
Boss: “Why not?”
Me: “School Project.”
Boss: “Not to answer your cell phone and email…”
Me: “Kinda, but it’s only part of my project.”
Boss: “You’re serious?”
Me: “Yup.”
As for being dangerous walking home at night from the bars, a friends, or work can be unsafe. Let’s face it, there are not very nice people out in the world and having a cell phone is safe, one can call 911 from anywhere. Also, a citizen of this country has a civic duty to provide witness to accidents such as hit and runs. I would like to say that I have never seen a hit and run, but I have.
I can attest to the fact that cutting yourself off from technology has been freeing. I no longer live or die by my cell phone or facebook. I know longer think of killing time by killing aliens on a video game. I am reading more, I am more relaxed, I know longer feel rushed or as if I am always playing catch up with my school work, and more importantly, I am being more social by interacting with real people not through some medium like facebook or my cell phone. I can feel my people skills growing.
As to answering the question of how I manage my days without using technology the answer is simple. Don’t think about it and keep yourself busy with non related technology activities. Doing mundane housework or walking to and from school or work can seem dull without music, but I have found that they are great times to either zone out to the world or use them as great times to think, daydream, plan my day or contemplate on some school work. Also, although this may sound cliché, you got to enjoy the little things. This past week has been nice and I have enjoyed hearing and seeing wildlife return to Manhattan. It is about grooving to your own beat, so what if you look weird or crazy, I honestly don’t mind, the crazier the merrier. I challenge any of you, who read this to try and go a day without using your cell phone, ipod, or whatever. Just leave it on silent or turned off in your backpack. You may end up liking the experience. So farI know I have.
This week, Shot baker, plans on going two full days, 24 hours, without using technology.
Later Alligators.
2/22
Monday was one of the half days I planned on going without technology from Midnight to 5:00pm. To be honest, the day did not go really according to plan. I have spent more time in front of a computer screen in the last couple of days than I care to admit. Maybe, it is because of the fact that it is about halfway through the semester and professors all across campus seem to think that now is a good time to unleash hell in the form of papers and exams. I think it is a conspiracy amongst professors. Old lectures are online which makes studying truly fun and all papers MUST be typed in 12 font, Times New Roman, with 2 inch margins, and length between 2000 and 2500 words. (Don’t even make me mention one particular class which has most of our readings online. I know, I know, we save money this way for which I am eternally grateful for, but let me just get it out there… and now I’m happy). Personally, I think it’s sad that I just typed that last sentence without any instructions for a paper in front of me. It is a sad fact of life that I know exactly what most of my professors’ want in a paper before I even get the instructions. So far, I have two papers due this week with two more due next week, with the possibility of getting a couple of take home exams in the next couple of weeks. I know that I said that I could use the computer to do schoolwork, but jeez, come on. This is ridiculous. I remember the days when if I stared at a computer screen for more than two hours at a time I would get an immediate headache. Now, I can stare at the bloody thing all day and not feel a thing. Oh, how I wish for the simple life of a hermit. On the plus side, I am using my wristwatch! Didn’t even use my cell phone all day, it just stayed in my back pack!! I know pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but which is worse using a cell phone or having a little but if pride?
2/24
Wednesday was the entire day fully without Technology this week and I might add it t’was interesting. I am pretty sure I got weird looks on campus all day. I am not trying to make a spectacle of what I am doing, but I am kind of sure, I am getting weird looks. The kind of looks that say, I got something on my face or toilet paper stuck on the bottom of my shoe. It made me self-conscious and I checked myself several times throughout the day to make sure I had nothing on my face and shoe. The fact that I grabbed several newspapers in the library and sat down to read them all wasn’t the cause, but the fact that I kept glancing at my wristwatch as if I was using it, really, who uses a wristwatch to tell time these days? Wristwatches have become a fashion accessory. Trust me, when I repeat myself by saying that I did not make a huge spectacle in checking my watch, I could have, but I don’t like making a scene and drawing attention to myself. I like just being a face in the crowd. The funny thing too is when I dug my cell phone out of my backpack, where I had forgotten about it, to check it today, Thursday, it was dead. Yep, dead and I have no idea how long it’s been dead for either. I had put it on silent mode Monday and forgot about it till about when I started typing this blog. Stinks, to be those who tried to call and or text me the last couple of days HA. I have successfully weaned myself off from the evil addiction of the cell phone. I have renewed faith in my project. Forward and Onward!!
2/27
I got to say, Saturday was just one of those days, the kind of days where one does not just want to do anything but lay in bed all day in ones underwear. These days are so relaxing and freeing, but so damn wasteful. It was still cool, I actually did nothing but just lay in my bed. I needed it and I did it or at least until I walked to work at 4:00 pm in the afternoon.
I went for a walk today, Sunday, and came back to my roommates watching Office Space. Office Space is a great movie about a wannabe slacker. Peter, the protagonist, I think, hates his job and when asked what he would do with a million dollars, he said nothing, absolutely nothing and to quote Peter, “I would relax… I would sit on my ass all day… I would do nothing,” a quote to live by in my opinion. Another famous do nothing man was The Dude from the movie, The Big Lebowski. I don’t know where I am going with this, but damn I wish I could harness some of their attitude. Actually, wait, before you stop reading and deem me a crackpot rambler I do have a point to make. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier and more simpler where as the reverse has actually occurred. We were supposed to let technology take the stress out of cleaning, commuting, traveling, work, hell our entire lives, but that hasn’t happened either. Our society has bought into the technology lie for far too long and I hereby declare that I am going to abide by the Dudes and well not totally become a slacker but take as many Mental Health days, as my friend from high school called them, as I feel fit and just sit on my bum and chew the fat with who ever happens to be there with me and flip the bird at the consequences. A farfetched dream, I know, but it is something to live for. “Damn the torpedoes!!! Full steam ahead!!”
Oh, and my cell phone died again on me without my knowledge, oh darn.
P.S. I will answer the Question of how I manage or as some have said live on my days of No Technology on my next Blog post as I have more pressing matters to attend to this week.
Next week Tech Blackout will experience Four Days of No Technology from Midnight to 5:00pm next week.
Later Alligators
A few disclaimers before I get to my blog… This week’s blog is getting out relatively late as it has been a week full of ups and downs more or less, like a rollercoaster ride. I wrote this earlier in the week, but because of a brief but vicious cold and for other work that couldn’t be put aside I hadn’t had the time to post and I do apologize for that.
2/14
First I must get something off my chest before I get too carried away in my writing. I haven’t been too entirely faithful to my schedule on my quest of freeing myself from the evils of modern technology, or at least partially. Last week, on Sunday the 7th of February, I was supposed to go the entire day without using modern technology, but I changed my schedule fearing I could not accomplish such a legendary feet. I instead, went two half days, without technology, which if you have been following my blog you would know. So this week, with a few more days of experience under my belt, I attempted to go a whole day without technology.
Free time, for me, is defined as a time in a day when a person has absolutely nothing to do and has absolutely nothing immediately pressing to do in the near future, a concept I haven’t put much thought towards since my early childhood, and I do mean early.
This past Sunday, like any past Sunday for the past couple of weeks started in pretty much the same fashion, I woke up and did my normal routine without much thought, other than I couldn’t turn on the TV, my computer, and other such gadgets. Without any distractions other than the usual white noise from my roommates, I tackled my work and for once I finished early, about five o’clock in the afternoon. What the hell… that’s not normal!! Usually, I don’t even finish up to half of my work on the weekends. I am usually scrambling in front of my computer screen, cursing myself in the most profane language known to mankind, wondering what the hell I did with the two weeks I had to read the book and write the paper, heck, normally I don’t even finish the book. So, in sort of a shock, I realized I had nothing more to do for the day, an idea filtered into my head that I hadn’t even been part of my vocabulary in fourteen years. FREE TIME.
Now, I could imagine if I had free time and if I hadn’t restricted myself to this tech blackout I would have plopped my bum on the nearest couch, switched on the TV and zoned out for a few hours, while surfing the internet at the same time. Wasteful, in so many ways, I know. Needless to say, I was stuck in a most precarious of situations, what should I do with my free time? I hadn’t the faintest of clues.
After sitting in the living room staring at a blank TV for awhile contemplating on my situation and weighing the pros and cons of the various things I could do. The list of things, I like to make lists as it keeps my normally hectic life somewhat on track, I thought about doing with my free time included reading, going for a walk, taking a nap, or cleaning my room. I ruled out reading and taking a nap, as I was not in the mood for either activity, and taking a walk was ruled out to as the wind screeched like a banshee outside, so cleaning my room it was. So, I headed to my room to see if it needed a cleaning, but it was relatively clean by my standards so out of pure curiosity I began to search my drawers just to see what they contained. While searching the drawers I came across my wristwatch!!! Best thing to happen to me all day other than having free time.
The state of my wristwatch was somewhat laughable. It works fine and is in good condition, but the face of the watch read: the 18th of some month at two in the morning. I hadn’t used it since I was in Europe last summer, but let’s be fair, who needs a wristwatch when a cell phone has the date and time on its face, and as a plus, you don’t have to take a second and decipher the face of a cell phone like you do a watch. So, here I am going to make a declaration, I will wear my wristwatch every day. I will have my cell phone on me for obvious reasons, but it will be on silent, unless it is a tech blackout day in which case it will be turned off, and in my backpack. I’ll report on how wearing my watch goes on my next post.
As for how the rest of my Sunday went, I tackled the mound of dishes in the kitchen sink that had been sitting there neglected for the past week. That took about a good half hour or so, but after that… another great thing occurred. I had time to read for pleasure a book I have been plodding through for the last year or so, Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. After an hour or so of reading, I decided to hit the hay early… around ten o’clock!! I haven’t been in bed before midnight since, forever. God Bless free time!!
For next week on Tech Blackout Shotbaker will go an entire day without Technology, plus two days without technology from 12:00 am to 5:00 pm.
2/8
Yesterday was Super bowl Sunday! The day every single American plans to spend at least four, if not more hours, in front to the boob tube to watch one of America’s favorite sports. This day is probably the biggest non-official holiday in the United States (my roommates complained all day that it should be made a holiday). In fact, Super bowl XLIV had more viewers than the finale of M.A.S.H. To me it raises the question: Are Americans increasingly becoming addicted to mind numbing forms of media like TV or is football just that special? Another random fact is that the Super bowl is even a big event outside the United States! I can personally give testimony to the validity of that statement. Last year while studying abroad in England, I went to a local pub that advertised it was going to be airing Super bowl XLIII on television at around 11:00pm (6 hour time difference between the central time zone in United States and England) and it was packed with the English. I thought it would be kind of empty, but low and behold I was wrong, dead wrong, I almost didn’t get a seat. Now to get back on topic… As it turned out Super bowl Sunday happened to be on a No Tech day for me, midnight to 5pm with limited tech usage after. How could I let this happen!?! What is a man supposed to do? I am not in the business of lying as so I won’t lie to anyone and say that Super bowl Sunday was an easy day to go without using technology.
I woke up on a glorious cold Sunday morning to my roommates arguing about which team will win the Super bowl. As it turned out one wanted the Colts to win and the other was for the Saints, where I stand on the issue is I AM A VIKINGS FAN… you can decide where I stood on the issue from there. I also woke up to the wonderful sound of ESPN analysts dissecting both teams rather thoroughly coming through the ultra thin walls of my house from the living room where noise stayed that way for the rest of the day. (I wonder sometimes if my roommates are purposely giving me grief as they know about my project and what days I am going without tech… or am I just noticing for the first time how loud and how long the TVs are on in my house) Anyway… what the hell am I supposed to do in situations like these??? Am I supposed to say, “Oh well if I can’t beat ‘em join ‘em,” stick cotton balls in my ears for the duration of the day or stick my head in the ground like an ostrich at night? I don’t like either of those ideas, none of them are exceptionally appealing. I mean I have never been the anti-social type. I like to talk to people, humans are social animals after all, but my roommates were driving me to become anti-social. I went into the kitchen and said my good mornings and fixed breakfast and retreated as quickly as possible to my room to eat. Have we as humans lost the art of conversation? Must we always have TV or music in the background? For most of my day I stayed in my room relaxing and reading, only venturing out into the wild and untamed land of technology, which is my house, to nourish myself.
Five o’clock rolled around like it does every day and once again, I was freed of myself imposed rules on the usage of technology. My roommates had planned on having a Super bowl party with several people coming over to eat some food and watch the game. I had a decision to make. I could either be anti-social or get some free food and watch the game. I chose the latter of the two options, but with some conditions attached. I wouldn’t watch the half time show and I would promote conversation during the game if it didn’t disturb peoples viewing of the game. I must say that I accomplished my goal. I didn’t watch the half time show and I don’t even remember what took place during the second half (I wasn’t drinking any alcohol). I had a good time and what the Super bowl should be like every year. None of the people present at my house were either Saints or Colts fans and so it made for a relaxing atmosphere and nobody was really too interested in the game. I was even in such a good mood by the end of the night I even volunteered to clean the quintessential mound of dishes, which is something I tend to avoid like the Black Plague.
2/12
New Challenge this week in my crusade for reducing my addiction to technology, I went from Midnight to 5pm on Wednesday without any technology and limited use after 5pm. It is getting easier, but it is still a challenge to go longer periods of the day without logging on to a computer, surfing the net, texting, or flipping on the boob tube. During the week it is tougher to go the whole time without getting on the net. Two big parts of my life are connected intricately to the internet: work and school. My boss sends out emails with the schedules and even last minute schedule changes. My college professors send out emails with assignments, notes prior to or from class, or whether or not class has been canceled or if the location has changed. As a society we are dependent on new technologies and I must say it was FREEING. I didn’t rush to the library to check my emails in between or after class. I slowly meandered my way to the library, people watching as I went and as I entered the library, I stood in the first floor observing the flow of people hustling and bustling about the library looking desperately for empty computers to check their emails accounts or update their facebook status. It was amazing, like watching a show on the discovery channel on the peculiar and weird behaviors of rare animal species.
I was dead set on catching up on some sleep in the library while on my no Tech day, but a grand idea hit me as I saw the littered Collegian newspapers strewn about the tables, I would read a newspaper!! Not the Collegian, which isn’t very good and accurate representation of the particular form of media in my opinion. Now, to some of you out there, this may not seem like a big deal, but to me it is. I haven’t touched or read a newspaper other than the Daily Life section (the section of the newspaper which contains the horoscopes, games, and comics) which contains my favorite comic Lio, since about the age of fifteen. The reason for this is simple. Plain and simple, I used to be a paper boy. Think of the stereotypical paper boy and you have me from the ages of seven to thirteen. I have been almost run over more times than I care to remember, I have been chased by dogs, even got a black eye from one, and I ended up, in some cases. getting peoples mail or taking out the trash for them. I was a utility paper boy. I had around seventy odd houses to deliver everyday for 365 days a year, holidays too, Christmas has forever been ruined. The elements could not stop the presses and so they did not stop me, so rain, wind, snow, or shine (and I do mean snow we are talking several inches sometimes) my customers received their newspaper. On the weekends the papers I had to deliver to the 70 houses were the size of small babies and with two shoulder bags I was practically choked to death. So, needless to say I haven’t touched or looked at the insides of a newspaper in a very long time.
I picked up a copy of the New York Times, none of the other newspapers available really appealed to me, most were too local and the New York Times does a good job in covering, from what I heard, both national and international stories. I did set some guidelines, no daily life section and I could only peruse the sports section after I finished with everything else. Well, I both succeeded and failed. I read all of the articles in the national and international stories section, but I could not bring myself to read the Arts and Business sections so I skipped to the sports and read the stories there.
For the most part, I was happy with what I had accomplished. I had picked up and read a newspaper for the first time in eight years, quite an accomplishment I might say. The only downside of my day was that I lost track of time. I rely, like most people in this world, on my cell phone for time and since I couldn’t turn it on and I was in a room with no clock I was at a loss for time. I know somewhere in my room is a wristwatch. Let’s hope I can find it!!!!
1/29/09
Hi Ya’ll. One day while lying on my bed willing myself to fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning, I was continuously assaulted with the stupendous noise of grenades exploding, machine gun fire, heavy metal music, orcish grunts, and television commercials. I know I was not asleep in some nightmarish world of Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket (both are movies set in the Vietnam War and pretty good) as I could also hear my roommate cursing at the television wondering why his team in Call Of Duty abandoned him to die repeatedly in a hail of bullets. While listening to all this wonderful white noise as I was trying to go to sleep, I decided to take stock of how many televisions sets there are in our house… and the grand total is five with the largest being 42 inches. That might not seem like many in this day in age, but I grew up in a house of with only two TV sets which could not be turned on during the school week. I decided next to take stock of the other electronic devices that lie around our house. In a house of four people there are three cars, three Xbox 360s, one Playstation 3, two PCS, two Laptops, four cell phones, two iPod touches, two zunes, a VCR combined with a DVD player, and the TVs all have digital cable with High Definition…I think we have around 400 or 500 TV channels (I don’t want to sound like I am bragging…), and this is all along with five TV sets. Sometime later, after taking count of all of the electronic devices in my house I somehow managed to doze off to sleep even with the grenades and machinegun fire pelting my ears.
Over the course of the next week I mulled over this new data I had collected and what it could mean to me personally. How could I use this information? The deadline for coming up with a Lived Experience Project loomed ever nearer and I wanted to challenge myself. I don’t own a car so I am at the mercy of my roommates when it comes to going shopping for food and other basic necessities, so I was limited to something that would personally affect me and not burden them. I am not very good at math so putting two and two together was tough and challenging for me (JK) but eventually a light bulb flickered on in my head. I made a most brilliant deduction! (with the help of some logical reasoning) I would go on a technological blackout, no radio, cell phone, surfing the internet, computer, television, iPod, and video games.
For the next several weeks, I am going to go without the aforementioned technologies for part of the day (Midnight to 5pm) or the whole day. Every week I will increase the amount of time I will not use any of the aforementioned technology. This will culminate with going two full days, 48 hours, without technology. Instead of using technologies, like watching TV, I will instead read a book, read a newspaper, meditate, and go out and enjoy nature by taking walks. Granted I am not going on a total technological blackout (How would I blog?? with telepathic powers?). I will allow myself to use a cell phone or phone in emergency situations i.e. broken appendages, I am in jail (God Forbid), dying, also I will continue to carry out my civic duty as a citizen of the United States and call 911 if I see an accident, someone injured, or a crime. I will also allow myself to use the internet and computer to do my school work and to update my blog, but I am promising here and now that I will do my best to work ahead so that I will not be forced to use such technology. Even though there will be days that I am not on a technological blackout or when I only go for part of the day I still plan on limiting myself to not surfing the web, playing video games, or watching TV. So that’s the plan, clear enough? I hope… Here’s to me sticking to it.
2/2/10
This past Sunday was my first day going without technology and it was tough. I went from Midnight to 5pm without any TV, cell phone, computer, iPod, or video game. Waking up and starting out my day wasn’t too bad nor was eating my breakfast without any television, but over the course of the day I was constantly challenged while listening to my roommates listen to music, play video games, and watching TV while I was reading a book of mine and doing some non computer related school work. But as the day progressed, I felt more like a smoker of two packs a day for 40 years waking up one morning deciding to go cold turkey. It felt as if my hands were cursed as they seemed to have a mind of their own as they were constantly making a grab for the remote or reaching for my laptop to turn it on.
As the day progressed my mind kept wandering to wonder what time it was and my eyes kept glancing at the clock in my room. I couldn’t help but be disgusted at myself; I was raised better than this. I love to read, my mom who is a Librarian who brought home books for me constantly. I had a never ending supply of books when I was a child, furthermore, I was never allowed to watch TV during the week as a child, unless I woke up before my parents. I shouldn’t have been bothered by what time it was, going for seventeen hours without any technology should have been a piece of cake, this was supposed to be just the warm up round. The storm was still off in the distance.
Getting increasingly fed up with myself, I dropped everything that I was doing at the moment and went for a walk. Clearing my head felt good as well as being away from the constant sounds of twenty-first century hardware. I was gone walking around town for a good hour or so (I decided against taking my watch with me so as not to be tempted by its evil). This might be a copout but I came to the conclusion on my walk that in order to not be tempted by technology, I should find a, to quote Superman, “Fortress of Solitude” for myself (and no, I am not that big of a geek… in my own opinion, at least I didn’t quote Star Trek) in the form of either the library on campus or the Public Library in town, to which I am a member. Needless to say, 5pm rolled around in extraordinarily slow fashion and the first thing I did was plop down in front of the TV to eat dinner with my roommates, epic failure on my part I know, but I promise to do better next week.
