Technology Detox

It's amazing how much our lives are involved in technology.  I remember rotary dial phones and not having an answering machine.  If you weren't home to pick up the phone, nobody knew where you were and they couldn't get in touch with you.  And we were okay with that!  I remember being able to only watch TV stations that we could get with our antenna and how big of a deal it was when we got cable.  I remember when the Internet was Usenet newsgroups and simple email.  Now we have multiple laptops in our home, several cell phones that stay glued to our sides where ever we go, broadband wi-fi, and satellite, DVRs, and DVD players for the two TVs.

It's time to take a break.

Lately I've been missing my creative side.  I used to write short stories and poetry.  I have written some amazing and often twisted adventures for table-top role-playing games.  Yet I seem to be having problems tapping into that side of me.  I feel the press of age and banality.  I don't take much time out to just have fun and be a child again.

I miss that, and I'm doing something about it.  For the upcoming week I'm doing a detox and having my whole family do it with me.  For the next five days the TV will be off, no video games will be played, and the only purpose of the computers will be for checking email (I teach online classes and do other important things via computer, so I can't go that long without email).  I'm going to spend time thinking, playing, and writing, and hope to reconnect with that spark that I used to have.  My goal is to eliminate the distractions of the modern world and find that part of myself that used to thrive on the creative process.

See you on the other side!

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