Please don't let gaming consume your life

Most of my friends consisted of people whom I gamed with -- I barely made any friends in college. And of course, most of those gaming friendships never developed into any sort of deeper connection. Having made friends "IRL" with whom I have deeper connections than playing video games, I can't tell you how much more enriching that is.

Also, I now have all sorts of interests that require lots of something that I once had but now don't: time. In college, I now understand, I had so much time with which to learn and create. Instead I squandered it all away. I did graduate cum laude, so it's not like I was a total slacker, but I could have spent my time in ways that would have been far more interesting and rewarding than clicking, clicking...

Furthermore, I now have problems with my left hand as a result of holding down WASD so much. That's not something that can necessarily ever be fixed, which is frustrating to me as someone who once played musical instruments. I gave up being able to play guitar and violin for what? For video games?

Yes, I have Diablo 3 and I see that many of my friends are on Hell difficulty now and level 55 or whatever. They did that in 2 or 3 days while I still haven't beaten normal mode. And even though I'm having a bit of fun playing Diablo 3, it can never compare to the enjoyment that I once had playing instruments. And what's sad is that _I knew this_ at the time, but it was so much _easier_ to play games than to do any of these other more rewarding but more challenging activities.

Was I addicted to video games? I don't think I've suffered from any of the more classical addictions like alcoholism, so I can't fully compare. But in retrospect, I think that I was. I was always interested in games as a kid (playing NES), but I think that I really turned to games after a particularly traumatic event in my life. From that point on, gaming became an outlet for psychological stress and personal insecurities. And as time went on with me using gaming as a bad coping mechanism, additional negative effects accrued: for instance, I lost that drive in life which boredguy8 mentioned.

Well, I'm rambling a bit now... but what I wanted to convey was that if you find that what I said about my relationship with gaming resonates with you, please take some time to reflect upon yourself and the way in which you are using the gift that is your unrepeatable life. Examine yourself and see if there are perhaps deeper problems with which you need to get help, problems which are being masked by gaming. And if you can't figure this out through self-examination, please find someone who can help you. There's more to life than playing games.

Fencing is a sport that appeals to many aspects of a gamer personality: it requires the use of the mind as much as the body; it is competitive; it has clear feedback as to whether you are improving or not. It will get your blood pumping and also stretch you out -- something that most of us need since we probably are sitting at computers all day!

When I first thought about trying fencing I watched some videos online and had no clue what was going on. Things happened so quickly that it seemed like people were just moving at random to get a touch. But now that I've fenced, I see why fencing isn't so popular as a spectator sport: in order to appreciate what is going on, you have to understand the techniques. It is only then that you can appreciate the brilliance and athleticism of a high level fencing match. It's much like watching chess or go: largely indecipherable to a layman.

I know that I don't have the patience or discipline to run on a treadmill, but fencing is a different story... and it's even motivating me to the point where I might hop on a treadmill or jump rope to improve my fencing. Give it a try!

Also Buildstarted's account was just created to post this entry, which it is not helping me to sorting this out in my mind. I don't want to be skeptical but I take very serious these kind of news and it would be really sad that somebody would be joking with these matters.

In China I had some of the best meals I ever had for about $2 - boiled rice and a variety of vegetable/meat dishes with assorted flavours. Of course you have to go as a group to make that style of eating worthwhile, but that was hardly a bad thing. If I wanted a late-night lazy meal, I'd get a plate of fried rice or noodles from one of the little diners -- not super healthy, but way better than Big Macs. In Malaysia I eventually stopped grabbing junk food from the 7-11s (which I did for the first few days) and started buying fresh fruit from the street vendors whenever I wanted a snack. I think Anglo culture in particular has a bad relationship to food (which is a shame, as despite the stereotype, we actually had some innovative cuisine in the past).

http://joshuaspodek.com/food-joy-values