People who say one needs to do something else instead of games are right. Just "not doing it" does not work. One needs some other stuff to fill out the void.
Why not share the ways in which you do manage not to game...
I like to:
do yoga
play the guitar
walk around on beaches / through woods
teach people to do stuff
learn new things
read fantasy / science fiction
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What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
Edited by: calm force at: 9/22/06 6:19
Yeah I have this problem too.
Not knowing how to fill all the time I used to spend playing video games.
I'm only on day 3 (morning) but so far I'm watching more TV, getting more sleep, doing more stuff around the house.
It's a good trade so far. I feel more rested, less stressed.
My trouble is that I have more to do than I can possibly imagine I can do.
So the easy solution is to play / read about games, so I can go on walloping around in my happy illusion that I will somehow manage everything in time, as soon as I stop playing.
Stupid situation.
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What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
Well, I'm still only a few hours into my WoW rehab but in that time I have learned and recorded a tiny bit of a song from Temple of the Dog. Usually I would only make time for a bit of guitar playing while flying on a griffin ;p
well, what are you waiting for ... canA't wait to hear the song
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What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
I like your pictures, Maxim. Thanks for sharing them.
Liz Woolley
Have visited a Karate course today. Liked it - again - did it already as adolescent. ItA's a good addition to the yoga I do.
We have marvellous weather here in Germany, so itA's almost a pity I am sitting at home so much, but my diploma is moving along nicely, today I have broken the 5000 words mark. A minimum of another 5000 to go.
Have started to brush up my french with a course from pimsler, seems to be fine. I learned french in school, but I was not very fond of the style they taught us, so I kinda boykotted it. I still like the language though.
In 3 weeks I will be off to the black sea for a month, doing yoga exclusively. Till then the diploma has to be ready.
Yoga teaching is coming along nicely. We have founded a company with 2 other friends and I am positive I will be able to earn at least a part of my income with it. Other options are NLP and another project of mine, that had to do with personell training and evaluation.
I am still playing sometimes, but are deleting all games after playing for an hour or so, as I simply see the futility of it. Maybe I will stop completely some day in the next fututre. So far so well.
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What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
Anyone can add on to this post..........with their suggestions.
Liz Woolley
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I work.
A lot.
It keeps me busy, pays the bills, and as I enjoy what I do, its fun too.
Leveling in Real Life
I am glad you like what you are doing. Is the fact that you are in the Bahamas doing it, help?D --> Liz
Edited by: Xandtar at: 9/3/06 15:30
Liz Woolley
Here's my list of things to do other than play games:
practice guitar
learn Spanish
write a song
write a short story
call up an old friend
learn sign language
work on my dad's farm
ask someone out for coffee
grade papers
plan lessons
rent a movie
learn Arabic
read
work on a novel
tell someone in my family I love her or him
see a movie in the theater
clean my bedroom
clean out the basement
paint the trim on my mom's house
plan and cook a meal
see live theater
involve myself in a political campaign
go to gospel music practice
listen to music
go see a live band
go for a run
Oh the Bahamas are way too far north for me.
I'm in the lesser Antilles, at a brand new job (as of Friday) on the island of Statia.
And yes, I do love what I do...
Good thing, when my wife is 2000 miles away!
Leveling in Real Life
Well, I too somehow always end up in long distance relationships / romance ... funny that I did not realize it before reading your post Xandtar, but all my relationships since 1999 have been long distance ...
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What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
For anyone who likes to dabble in the kitchen anb do some cooking, I was suprised one year to receive a home brewing starter kit as a gift.....as you can see by my name, it really took off and is quite an interesting hobby. Allot of science behind all, very involved and much more difficult then one would think.
Just be careful, it is beer and if your known to have problems in the alcohal area, I wont recommend it.
But cooking and brewing goes hand in hand, if you enjoy one, you will enjoy the other.
alot of people doing alot of things i do read and pray work and come home look at the ga sites go on facebook for a few minutes my whole family is into it and then i go to sleep cleaning helps sometimes i know the worry will never leave me i will keep going
susan mckay
I have taken up a second job. I am also working on my associates degree. It doesn't leave much time for gaming.
My son is working 2 jobs and getting his associate's degree too. It's a lot of work. Good for you, networker4.
"Small service is true service while it lasts. Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." -------William Wordsworth
Be careful not to create the illussion that gaming is such a great passtime that we must think of other things to fill the void. While I agree with all the lists made, I think when a person is very engaged in helping others and living their lives pushing for excellence, then there won't be any void to fill. Voids will always be there for people who want more more more. But for those who consider giving to others through time (taking friend out for coffee was a good one), and through work (something we all must do to make progress in life), then this imaginary void won't even be considered. More like this on my thread: http://www.olganon.org/?q=node/15657 Good luck all x
"You're blessed when you're content with just who you areaEU"no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."
The bible
model cars
model figures
check out my website here for pics:
http://postimg.org/gallery/bfdohrqe/
My main problem was with drinking alcohol, which I quit five years ago with the help of an online support community similar to Olga. The most important tool, the one that let me break the logjam and actually put down the booze after trying to for years, was these daily check-ins. There seems to be, for me at least, something very powerful about reading other people's posts and making my own. It works, so I'm sticking with it. I quit gaming a few months after I quit drinking, with the help of Olga and daily posts, but then quit posting here and eventually got back into gaming (although not drinking; I've kept posting pretty much daily on that). Now I'm back to stop gaming again and am nearly seven weeks into not gaming. It's been good. I don't miss gaming (much) and I love having so much more time to do other fun and useful stuff. There was that edge of insanity to the way I gamed all the time, and I just feel better about myself without that.
So, I have many interesting and useful activities I have started since giving up drinking and (for a couple of years at last) gaming five years ago. They include:
- starting to play music publicly, something I always wanted to do but had never progressed beyond the occasional open mic. These days I and my girlfriend have a duo and play paying gigs an average of about once a week. It's really fun and rewarding and we even make some money at it.
- getting an emergency medical technician certificate and a part-time job working for an ambulance company. This also is really rewarding and interesting. I love helping people and being around all these sick and injured people one day a week really helps me see how fortunate I am. I hardly ever feel sorry for myself these days, which is an enormous pleasure.
- starting a sideline as an activist for social change. My cause is equal custody for divorced parents and I have really enjoyed this work. I have given several talks on it, including one to the local downtown Rotary with about 150 including a federal judge and a couple of city council persons in the audience, and had several articles published on it, as well as meeting with a state legislator and a US Senator's aide. I am always looking for more people to give talks to on it, as well as writing articles, and am now thinking about organizing some sort of group to work on it locally and statewide.
- volunteering with a local investigative journal. I have always worked as a journalist, but my reporting has been pretty lame. It's paid the bills and, I'd like to think, provided people with some useful information but I really want to do meaningful work, such as exposing corruption and illegal behavior among public officials. A local publication has a track record of doing that and I contacted them and volunteered to work for free as a reporter. I'm still just barely into this, but it is very gratifying and I hope will lead to doing something important.
Those are just the new things I've started up. I have kept up or intensitified my involvement in endurance sports, songwriting and reading since quitting drinking, gaming (for a while at least) and also procrastination, which I tackled in the same way with a group called Procrastinators Anonymous.
This sounds like bragging, most likely, and of course it is, at least a little. It amazes me that a knucklehead like me, who has spent so much of the last 25 years hiding out from life in a computer game or a bottle, has managed to put togeter, piece by piece, such a rewarding, varied and active engagement with life. But I also hope, in addition to tooting my own horn, that other people will be encouraged. You can do this! Pick something or a couple of things and take a couple of steps to get involved. It is amazing how action leads to more action, just like inaction leads to more inaction. Move! Do something! You will be so, so happy you did.
I have no plans to game today. Thanks for your help with that. I couldn't, or at least never did, do it without you.