On the way to work Thursday morning, I hurt myself coming down the stairs on the 700 bus. In my eagerness to get off the bus, I'd decided to try and come down the stairs at precisely the moment that the bus pulled away from a set of traffic lights.
Thankfully I was holding on, otherwise I would have fallen down the stairs. As it was at one point I was suspended in mid air, with my feet hanging free, with my hands supporting my weight. Good job I wasn't holding onto my kindle or phone at that point, as not only would they have gone flying, but I would have too, into the not very friendly looking metal bar at the bottom of the stairwell. Idiot.
It being the cat's birthdays I celebrated it with them by buying some treat sticks for them, which they did seem to enjoy, and getting some slightly different food, which they seemed to appreciate. Anyway, I made a short video to explain all that, but having just read this, you may think that watching it will be a waste of your time. You may be right. But anyway, here's the video.....
I also took some footage whilst I was cleaning the cat litter tray, which I was going to edit into something like the talking animals type video of The Dumb, The Unwilling, and the Washing Machine... That I will leave to another day to edit. Laters.
Friday, 24 February 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
2nd day....
It would seem ironic, that someone who posts vlogs that they, like everyone else, cringes at the sight of footage of themselves on screen. But it's true. More so when I'm acting.
Tonight I completed my review for this month's Venturer Magazine, for members of Beacon. This month's task was to pass comment on 'Questions and Questionings' a story for the Ninth Man series. Sometimes, this may feel less enjoyable than others. This month was one of the times that it's an absolute joy turning over my evening to it.
I feel a little guilty that I haven't made a new video myself tonight. Last night's offering was quite fun to do, and did rather come inspired out of the lack of any decent footage more than anything else.
Still. My second day without facebook, has passed without me missing it at all. I am getting (getting ?) a bit sad and vacuuming every day at the moment. I thought that cats were supposed to malt in spring or summer, not when it's still quite obviously in the middle of bloody winter. Either that, or they are managing to pull about 3% of their fur off each other every day whilst I'm out. They do look at me (the cats) like I'm mad most of the time, but when I again bring out the vacuum cleaner, which they usually run from, but can't resist the temptation to sit at a safe distance watching me giving me a 'why are you bothering with that ?' look.
With tonight also marking the end of one pay-month and the start of another, I am trying to restrain myself to not take freshly charged debit card in hand tomorrow and 'let lose'. It means that I will finally have some money, that means I can meet up with someone. Someone, who come to think of it has been suspiciously quiet text wise today. Hmmmm.
I also want to meet up with another friend who I haven't seen for quite some considerable time. He even offered to supply drink (and I get the next), but that would be too easy an offer to take, and knowing me, I would forget to return the favour. It's one thing being a friend that you don't hear from for ages, and quite another that drinks your vodka and never buys a round.
So, this does open out the possibilities for me to, well have real interactions with people in the real world (IRL as the kids are saying it). This is a good thing. Yes ? A coincidence that these events are both pending to occur during my facebook-free time.
I did cheekily set up my facebook account so that it repeats whatever I tweet, telling myself that the point of the exercise is for me to avoid facebook, not for people that 'friend' me on there to not have any idea what I'm doing. I haven't aimed this as 'quitting facebook' in any way, or with any pseudo sociological or political message or purpose. However, if I am pleased with the lack of facebook in my life, and the opportunities that brings, then I may well take more drastic action.
Tonight I completed my review for this month's Venturer Magazine, for members of Beacon. This month's task was to pass comment on 'Questions and Questionings' a story for the Ninth Man series. Sometimes, this may feel less enjoyable than others. This month was one of the times that it's an absolute joy turning over my evening to it.
I feel a little guilty that I haven't made a new video myself tonight. Last night's offering was quite fun to do, and did rather come inspired out of the lack of any decent footage more than anything else.
Still. My second day without facebook, has passed without me missing it at all. I am getting (getting ?) a bit sad and vacuuming every day at the moment. I thought that cats were supposed to malt in spring or summer, not when it's still quite obviously in the middle of bloody winter. Either that, or they are managing to pull about 3% of their fur off each other every day whilst I'm out. They do look at me (the cats) like I'm mad most of the time, but when I again bring out the vacuum cleaner, which they usually run from, but can't resist the temptation to sit at a safe distance watching me giving me a 'why are you bothering with that ?' look.
With tonight also marking the end of one pay-month and the start of another, I am trying to restrain myself to not take freshly charged debit card in hand tomorrow and 'let lose'. It means that I will finally have some money, that means I can meet up with someone. Someone, who come to think of it has been suspiciously quiet text wise today. Hmmmm.
I also want to meet up with another friend who I haven't seen for quite some considerable time. He even offered to supply drink (and I get the next), but that would be too easy an offer to take, and knowing me, I would forget to return the favour. It's one thing being a friend that you don't hear from for ages, and quite another that drinks your vodka and never buys a round.
So, this does open out the possibilities for me to, well have real interactions with people in the real world (IRL as the kids are saying it). This is a good thing. Yes ? A coincidence that these events are both pending to occur during my facebook-free time.
I did cheekily set up my facebook account so that it repeats whatever I tweet, telling myself that the point of the exercise is for me to avoid facebook, not for people that 'friend' me on there to not have any idea what I'm doing. I haven't aimed this as 'quitting facebook' in any way, or with any pseudo sociological or political message or purpose. However, if I am pleased with the lack of facebook in my life, and the opportunities that brings, then I may well take more drastic action.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
The dumb, the unwilling, and the washing machine...
I don't want your freedom.....
Day One...
But hang on, doesn't Lent start the day AFTER Shrove Tuesday, I may have over egged this a little. Over egged ? Pancake day ? Yes I did crack a joke, or is that yoke there...
Okay, so I've now slapped myself round the face. No more puns. (in today's blog). Today was a bit different, not just for the freedom from facebook, but because I went in much earlier to work than I have done for quite a while. A 9am start may not sound that early to some people, in fact to most people, but none the less, it was a big step for me. Prior to this, 10:30 was the recently earliest start. Being worried about oversleeping (as is my habit at the moment) meant that I didn't get to sleep until about 1:30-2:00am.
As indicated in my video last night, I did indeed get a torrent of comments from friends at the announcement I would be avoiding Facebook until further notice. A certain irony attached there, having to spend time explaining, on facebook, why it is that you want to spend time away from facebook. I know that some people have gone so far as to suspend or delete their accounts, but I didn't want to take that step just yet.
One of my friends text me later in the night (or morning as it was, but I was as described above very much wide awake), to let me know that after all the trouble I had gone to, to inform people that they could still keep up to date with my goings on via Twitter, that I had in fact, stupidly, mistyped the address for my Twitter account. Idiot. This now leaves me with the conundrum of going back onto facebook in order to correct this post. I am already in the process of uploading a corrected version of the video from yesterday. I guess that as Lent doesn't technically start till the day AFTER Shrove Tuesday (although, again I am not doing this for religious purposes, just for personal growth), then I'm in the clear. Right ?
There is also the idea that I can set up for my facebook account to update its status with my tweets. I'm undecided if this constitutes and breach of the idea of the exercise. I, one the one hand will still not be looking on facebook, but my friends will still think that I am. Hmmm. Answers on a postcard please.
No. Not a postcard, I want to know what you think before the end of my abstinence. Post here is terrible.
So what I have I noticed so far today ? Well, I've noticed that I've actually finished reading the book I had on my Kindle. The Eden Prescription. By Ethan Evers. I have to say that at times I struggled to keep up with the science bits (never was any good at chemistry) and the sheer number of characters in it. When it gets going, it really gets going.
So finishing a book on my Kindle, isn't a new thing, but when you consider that last night I was about 88% through the book. By about 6pm this evening, I'd finished it. So, what next ? Well, I think I'm going to pretend to be all cultured and intellectual, and have a go at reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I did feel a little without something to occupy me at the bus stop this morning, as I arrived half asleep, but still before the bus did (which is certainly much better than arriving after the bus does). Normally I would have a browse through facebook. Today, I did not. Nor did I 'feel the need' to cop crafty looks at it whilst at work.
This evening I've vacuumed the flat (I think it's a daily chore now, I've set my standards so high), I went over and spent a bit of time, and had two cups of tea, with my parents, brought them up to date with the goings on in my life.
The fact that I've been bothered to write a blog entry, sitting here listening to the radio, or the music on my computer, without even the barest temptation to turn on the TV, or keep flicking back and forth checking for those all important updates, leaves me feeling more... content, purposeful.
But hang on, doesn't Lent start the day AFTER Shrove Tuesday, I may have over egged this a little. Over egged ? Pancake day ? Yes I did crack a joke, or is that yoke there...
Okay, so I've now slapped myself round the face. No more puns. (in today's blog). Today was a bit different, not just for the freedom from facebook, but because I went in much earlier to work than I have done for quite a while. A 9am start may not sound that early to some people, in fact to most people, but none the less, it was a big step for me. Prior to this, 10:30 was the recently earliest start. Being worried about oversleeping (as is my habit at the moment) meant that I didn't get to sleep until about 1:30-2:00am.
As indicated in my video last night, I did indeed get a torrent of comments from friends at the announcement I would be avoiding Facebook until further notice. A certain irony attached there, having to spend time explaining, on facebook, why it is that you want to spend time away from facebook. I know that some people have gone so far as to suspend or delete their accounts, but I didn't want to take that step just yet.
One of my friends text me later in the night (or morning as it was, but I was as described above very much wide awake), to let me know that after all the trouble I had gone to, to inform people that they could still keep up to date with my goings on via Twitter, that I had in fact, stupidly, mistyped the address for my Twitter account. Idiot. This now leaves me with the conundrum of going back onto facebook in order to correct this post. I am already in the process of uploading a corrected version of the video from yesterday. I guess that as Lent doesn't technically start till the day AFTER Shrove Tuesday (although, again I am not doing this for religious purposes, just for personal growth), then I'm in the clear. Right ?
 |
| The Eden Prescription |
No. Not a postcard, I want to know what you think before the end of my abstinence. Post here is terrible.
So what I have I noticed so far today ? Well, I've noticed that I've actually finished reading the book I had on my Kindle. The Eden Prescription. By Ethan Evers. I have to say that at times I struggled to keep up with the science bits (never was any good at chemistry) and the sheer number of characters in it. When it gets going, it really gets going.
So finishing a book on my Kindle, isn't a new thing, but when you consider that last night I was about 88% through the book. By about 6pm this evening, I'd finished it. So, what next ? Well, I think I'm going to pretend to be all cultured and intellectual, and have a go at reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I did feel a little without something to occupy me at the bus stop this morning, as I arrived half asleep, but still before the bus did (which is certainly much better than arriving after the bus does). Normally I would have a browse through facebook. Today, I did not. Nor did I 'feel the need' to cop crafty looks at it whilst at work.
This evening I've vacuumed the flat (I think it's a daily chore now, I've set my standards so high), I went over and spent a bit of time, and had two cups of tea, with my parents, brought them up to date with the goings on in my life.
 |
| oooh, and I did some washing, which I must get out the machine... |
Monday, 20 February 2012
To facebook or not to facebook.... that is the question.
I've decided to test myself, and to give up Facebook, and live TV until Easter. I know this is traditionally usually referred to as Lent, (the marking of abstinence in the Christian calendar from Shrove Tuesday and Easter). I'm sticking a disclaimer right here, because I'm just using the timing as a motivational device. I am absolutely not religious (I'm an atheist), don't have a problem with other people being religious, it's just not for me.
I want to see what effect removing these two massive distractions (time sucks) have on my life, and how much more productive with my creativity I am as a result. I have (as you can tell) already been blogging and vlogging a lot more in the last week.
To that end, I will still be making videos and writing entries, but I will also be making sure that I get some 'more solid' writing done. In school we would have called it 'creative writing', I wouldn't be able to guess what the hell they call it now. It still means making stuff up.
There was something else of a minor mishap this morning, which I will now save to tomorrow's vlog. Spoilers sweatie, spoilers.
I want to see what effect removing these two massive distractions (time sucks) have on my life, and how much more productive with my creativity I am as a result. I have (as you can tell) already been blogging and vlogging a lot more in the last week.
To that end, I will still be making videos and writing entries, but I will also be making sure that I get some 'more solid' writing done. In school we would have called it 'creative writing', I wouldn't be able to guess what the hell they call it now. It still means making stuff up.
There was something else of a minor mishap this morning, which I will now save to tomorrow's vlog. Spoilers sweatie, spoilers.
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