A chronic illness of mine trapped me inside for the last few months where I nearly obsessively followed every minutia of the news via the Internet. Now my health has improved in sync with a run of fair weather, so I have spent the last two weeks virtually wallowing in outdoor activities like yard work and organizing my garage. (Yes, I have reached that point in life where such activities are strangely comforting.) At the same time I entered a pact with my son not to watch any TV for a while.
As a result of this confluence of events I haven’t read a blog, news site, newspaper or watched TV in nearly three weeks and I am as happy as a clam. I heard some distant whispers that some Congressmen has done something or the other but I don’t know the details and I don’t, at the moment, care.
This is not to say that I haven’t been mentally active. I have been designing tool stands and a new kind of clamp, writing some software, and repairing electronic stuff all the while listening to podcast university lectures on pathophysiology.
I have just been ignoring anything political. I think it’s good to take a break from the day-to-day stream-of-consciousness news cycle we find ourselves saturated in, and spend some time just concentrating on little things of no broad import. If a vacation is largely a state of mind then I am on one. The world will just have to struggle along without my insightful commentary (or even bare attention) for the next few days.
You can comment if you want but I probably won’t answer. I’m going to figure out precisely how I am going to anchor a halogen work light with a bucket of sand.
Shannon –
The congressman you heard about is now President Hastert. He formally welcomed our new alien overlords in a ceremony at the temporary capital yesterday.
Glad to help.
This kind of media fast can be very healthy. I have done it a few times and found it to be a good way to clear the noggin of clutter and noise.
“I have been designing tool stands and a new kind of clamp, writing some software, and repairing electronic stuff all the while listening to podcast university lectures on pathophysiology.”
Wow!
Interesting you bring this up. I have been on somewhat of a news/media fast for the last several years. I now read the major headlines – QUICKY – take in a bit of local news and read a few blogs a day that usually DO NOT cover politics and current events. That’s it. The rest of my time goes to reading (working toward my Masters in history), playing with my children, attending the occasional football game (Go Bears!) and my work.
I used to be very involved in internet wars, read several papers and blogs a day and was extremely involved in politics. My wife has noticed a marked change. What sparked my wanting to drop out? Helping out on a Republican campaign for the House and finding out that I was working harder than the candidate or anyone else on the campaign. Of course, he lost and that was the day I threw my hands up in the air on the whole shebang.
I am very much the better for it.
You picked a good time to take a news vacation.
I can’t imagine why you would want to miss the rotation from one kleptocracy to another – come back November 8 for the victory party. The maddening thing is that these assholes spend 20+ percent of GDP and the rest of us keep settling for such incompetence over and over…