Video Games

I've talked before, I think, of how necessary it is to include rest time into your schedule, especially if you are self-employed and can decide your own schedule.  Some people somehow like to work constantly, but that's not healthy for anyone, promise me.  We have to rest, relax, and recuperate, for the sake of our bodies, minds, emotions, and our families and friends.  No one will want to hang out with us if we are constantly downtrodden.  For those who need to work endlessly, we should obviously work hard to create a world where we need not work more than is healthy--hence why about a hundred years ago the USA did began instituting laws in that direction.

Humans are also designed to work.  Some are designed to work physically, either athletically or laboriously, and some are designed to work lighter tasks; some are designed to work creatively or mentally.  Thus, we must be very careful not to let our rest days, our sabbath days (Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, as Jesus said), overcome and overrule us.

Unfortunately that's precisely what happened to me the past couple of days.  Nearing the end of a week with my girlfriend and struggling against a cold I had left off sticking to my schedule rigorously, then I returned home and, as I usually do after traveling, I took a day off.  Lots of days off here, I know, but then again that is a perk of being a writer: I could take the next two weeks off if I really wanted to.  Anyway, on my day off I decided to purchase Pro Cycling Manager 2012, a video game that would allow me to virtually control my own professional cycling team and lead them to greatness.  Greatness!  The game is too perfect for me.  I've been stuck with my head in the sand ever since.  Due to a scheduling oddity, my girlfriend will be coming to visit this weekend, so now I've decided not to work again until next week.  Essentially that means the video game has sapped five days from my writing and will be a little more than a week between days learning Greek and Spanish.  Not good at all.

The lesson here clearly is that video games are the scourge of the Earth.  Damn them!  Or, perhaps, the lesson is that we need to discipline ourselves so that rest and relaxation stay in their respective corners and don't take up the entire room.  But still, damn video games!

For me, personally, the only good thing about the whole situation is that I've now decided to combine my day with my girlfriend with the tasks I was planning to do on my next rest day: making soap and collecting blueberries.  That way I can feel accomplished even as I rest, and then can hit the ground running on Monday again.  So, until then, adios! (I apologize that this is probably not well-written: I've written quickly in the middle of game breaks)