The Old Way

 Starbucks is out...but it kind of always has been.

There is no excuse as pathetic as "I was too busy" or "I've been so busy" to use to get yourself out of seeing or communicating with someone, feeling guilty for forgetting to do something relevant, or simply just looking after yourself and your surroundings. But this is a phrase that is used uncountably throughout the week and a passive way of shrugging off everything you've been meaning to do or even just want to do. I know this all too well because it's my own major fall back that I've come to more personal and shameful terms with; the reason that I haven't posted in over a month is exactly what I've distinguished in the first sentence of this post, the excuse of being "so busy" over the last few weeks.

Besides the infinite flow of homework and uni exams and exam prep (which I really should spend more time on) and my ever expanding and exploding water balloon of a social life I really have no "real" excuse as to why I don't spend more time writing. This blog isn't only for the pleasure of others to read (not that I think a ton of people have read it/are reading it) but a place for me to write for personal benefits, for critique, for whatever other reason that can't pop into my head right now.

Writing is only one aspect of my life that isn't done nearly enough or to my satisfaction; sketching, reading, exercising or merely spending more time outside or with people are all fundamentals that have fallen into the tiny, obscure crags of my conscience that deserve much more attention than what they've been getting. I personally blame the internet (and other forms of hyper-focused technology) and of course my lack of time-management skills. The Bertrand Russell quote of "the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" is something that I agree with but haven't come to satisfied terms with, especially if I log off my computer feeling hollow and ungratified (and sometimes a little bedraggled). Although it's fantastic to have a machine that holds an excess of information right at my fingertips and also a varied communication tool, I feel that the computer really hinders the time I want to use in other manors, i.e. the ones I mentioned above.

Although it's not even December and somewhat faraway from New Year's I want to start building up a complex yet feasible resolution for 2011. No, not just for 2011, but for as long as I can think of, starting today. With all of these things that make our lives easier, it's easy to forget that you actually have to use willpower to accomplish certain tasks. Simply put, technology, in some cases, makes us lazy and it's difficult to drag your mindset out of the bog and into the reality of where thinking actually takes energy. But it's an unreality to say "the computer is OUT the window from now on" because life today requires these means of technology. It's also a bit unrealistic to say "I vow to use the computer only half of the time of what is being used now"; with the rapidly changing world and everything inside it, it's more than easy to get swept up into that comfortable, think-less way of life, resorting to endless site-surfing to waste away those so called useless minutes.

So, my solution, is simple. Use the machine for what you originally bought it for. That may be communicating, gaming (if you say so), business, military extravaganzas or whatever. In my case it's writing. Primarily plain old essays but now more freelance writing and blogging. This is only a fraction of my New Year's resolution, but the rest is being sorted out from the mess in my head and being modified and polished, like those ever changing iPod models which have reached the 220 million sales mark as of Sept. '09 (thanks Wikipedia).

As the cliché goes, "out with the old and in with the new." Stop. Wasting. Time.