Crumpled Notebook

Preoccupied

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been preoccupied this week with something. Now, I’m not going to write about it in detail here, but I did want to comment on a couple of aspects of it.

So, I’ve had this interest in something for quiet some time. It’s been a build up actually. Some (ahem, Ross) might even call is an obsession. Anyway, it’s been building up and in all honesty, I expected this very lackluster and boring moment of “oh, that’s it.” I was actually hoping for that too. But it wasn’t. It actually left me with a lot more questions and something new to obsess over. But the point here isn’t that.

Isn’t it interesting that usually when we are building up to something, we except the grand things? We prepare ourselves for the big finale and then when it isn’t quiet that, we’re let down and disappointed. Yet at the same time, when it’s just the opposite–when we want some plain white bread, we’re still not satisfied with what we got. Sometimes we shouldn’t be either. I know in my case, I shouldn’t be. I want my white bread. But, what I’m thinking is that usually when we build up to things, get ourselves worked up, etc…what we expect and the reality are usually very different.

No Internet

So, I apologize for doing two subjects here, but I don’t feel like posting two times. So, the question of the week, or the last few days anyway is, “Why are you going without internet?”

There isn’t some big answer. I mean, I’m addicted, but it’s not like I have any expectation of really changing my behavior. I will say that when the idea came was as I was checking my email for about the 10th time on my cell phone during my 45 minute drive to Santa Cruz on Tuesday night. So part of it was the fact that I know I’m attached and addicted to the internet. The other part is just that I think it would be an interesting challenge. In all honesty, I put off doing a lot of things I’d like to do because of it. I mean, I do other things in the evenings, but it’s always on. I never miss an email, poke, comment or whatever else.

(I think I hear an alarm going off in one of the buildings…sigh)

Here’s the weird part. I’m actually looking forward to next week. I mean, yes, it will be hard, but I’m looking forward to doing other things. I keep lining up things to do next week, so I’m hoping it will be a productive week for me. But yeah, I really am looking forward to it. Sometimes (rarely) I just turn off the computer and enjoy my time away from it. I think it’s probably like any other kind of addict that probably wants to break their addiction but isn’t motivated enough to just quit on their own. They enjoy their life without it, but just aren’t strong enough, or don’t think they are strong enough to break it. Obviously I’m not giving up internet completely. That would be insane anyway, but I am anxious to see what I do with my time next week and see what affect that ultimately has on my priorities. In all honesty, it’s probably the thing I put first in my life, not God, so hopefully He’ll use that time as well to do some work on me.

You’d think I would be anyway, seeing as how in just 3 short days (just over 48 hours) I’m cutting myself off for an entire week. Maybe I’ll get inspired Saturday night or even later tonight. I’m just not inspired right now. I’m also hungry right now. It’s almost 8:30pm and I haven’t eaten yet, so I should probably do that before The Office comes on.

So yeah, I’ll write more before my hiatus for sure. I’ve just been preoccupied lately. Maybe I’ll blog about that later tonight.

(Man, I really don’t like scrolling down for the category in Wordpress 2.5. I just about forgot that time. Maybe that’s the real reason I’m not inspired).

Have I lost it? Probably. But here is the deal. Starting this Sunday, I’m going to try and go one entire week, 7 days, with no internet or text messaging. Okay, now, I do have to work, so there will be some exclusions, but for the most part, I’m going to try and be as complete about this as I can. So, here are the ground rules. If you think of something, feel free to make a suggestion.

• No internet at home. Unplugging my modem.
• Will only check work email, on my work email system and only respond to what is required.
• No text messaging, checking email or other websites on cell phone.
• However, if I receive work related text message (i.e. from the teens, I can respond to that)
• I WILL check my personal email once per day. Reason being is that not everyone will probably know what I’m doing. I will only respond in a must-reply situation.
• If work requires me to be online, or a work-type project for someone else pre-planned (working on a couple of websites for people), then I will do only what I am required to do for rhe task.

So, plan is the start Sunday morning when I wake up. The following Sunday when I wake up will be when it’s done. I am thinking about blogging during the week, either by sending an email once a day from my work email to wordpress so it’ll post automatically, or just write/type it out and post it up the following week on the corresponding day. Any suggestions?

Who thinks I can do it?

Anyone got any good suggestions for good quality online video? (BTW–this is my first post in my recently updated Wordpress 2.5…we’ll see how it goes).

So what I’m looking for here is something that retains decent quality of the original file. Something that isn’t really ad-based (or at least not too annoyingly) and something that works well (i.e. no hiccups in playback). I’m working a video for work for a competition thing, so I’d just like to take out any of those annoying factors. I will post it up to YouTube regardless, but YouTube really messes with the quality of the videos (even IF you follow their submission guidelines to a T), so I’d rather submit the video from a better quality site (it has to be submitted as a link from a free video site).

Some of the ones I’ve looked at are Revver and Veoh. Any opinions or other suggestions?

(okay, the categories and tags being below the write screen isn’t that bad when I’m using a desktop and actual mouse, cause I can use the scroll on my mouse, except that I have to click and scroll my categories too, which I don’t like. This is going to be dreadful on my laptop. Oh, hm, you have to actually click the “add” button to add your tags too. That’s kind of dumb).

At some point today I’m going to break down and upgraded to the new wordpress 2.5 release. Apparently there are plans to make some changes to the write page in the 2.6 release, so as long as I know it going to happen, I think I can deal with it.

However, as with most wordpress updates…something might break, so if it looks strange, bear with me while I fix it. It didn’t break on this one last time, but majorly messed over tsamonterey, and took forever to fix.