Torc

Got rid of my PS4 and Grand Theft Auto 5 Special Edition. It feels like I have started for realsies now. I still have a lot of consoles and games to let go off. Getting rid of my PS4 left me feeling I got rid of a weight.

Whew, keeping track of all that stuff is pretty difficult. I'm going to keep doing it until I consistently fill in boxes every day. Went to a Celebration of Learning event where people got certificates for taking part in courses. Mostly numeracy and literacy. I got one for literacy. It was a very good event. I have recently start looking up self compassion. I think that will come in handy. I have been reading two books on minimalism and have been decluttering and tidying for several months now. I still have work to do as I still have a lot of shit, but my room looks a lot nicer and I have a lot more room to move around.

I created a calendar to keep track of my habits. I'm thinking I will get rewards and punishments on whether a box gets ticked or not. I can't think of any rewards or punishments at the moment. Maybe for every box that doesn't get ticked, a pound will go to something I don't like.

I'm going to level with you, this whole "100 days without YouTube" sounds a bit too harsh for me. Instead, I want to limit it. Maybe I could watch three videos a day, or have a designated YouTube time. One of the reasons I went onto YouTube yesterday was because I was in a bad mood. I was at work and had some spare time. In hindsight I could have listened to some music and went onto GameQuitters. I also ate some junk food and that probably made my mood worse. It seems strange to change my mind in the middle of a comment, but I'm going to go back to a YouTube detox period. I need something fun to do first, though and completely cut out junk food.

I found that it has lots of helpful information. I do however think that it would go on longer than 8 weeks. There's usually a few things to learn each week. I think that it should have one thing to concentrate on each week and last for 16 weeks. I will have to constantly reread the lessons to get the benefit. I came here to say I relapsed. I ended up watching YouTube videos on E3. I think I should have planned to have activities first, then start the detox. I have at least avoided Twitter and Tumblr, those two are the real time-wasting hurdles I'm dealing with.

I have finished the last session of Beating the Blues, which is an online Cognitive Behavioural Techniques (CBT) course. I have considered calling this my Respawn day as today is when I really start getting serious. I need some social hobbies and will use the 50+ Hobby Ideas, MeetUp and the social club I go to three times a month to help me. I use my PS3 exclusively for DVDs, Blu-Rays and music, but I will get round to replacing it with a Blu-Ray/DVD combo soon. I haven't told anyone in real life about my desire to quit videogames. I want to wait until I get all of the Respawn worksheets done and have more time for the new hobbies to sink in first.

I managed to go 91 without playing videogames, but I didn't stop reading gaming news and let's play videos, so not much of a success. I played games on and off since. God of War (2018) is the last game I played. This new detox involves both playing games and doing anything videogame related. The "anyhting videogame related" part also ties in with theYouTube and social media detox as it is nearly E3 and you know those websites will be all over that. And I would also be over that.

This is my second attempt at a detox. Got to 91 days a few years ago. This time I'm adding internet addiction to the mix. I am not cutting out the internet entirely, just the websites I'm addicted to. I have added YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and a long list of gaming and naughty websites to the Cold Turkey application. I am cutting out games forever, but Youtube and maybe one social media site will only be 100 days. Youtube has too many uses for me to abandon forever, I'm just hoping after 100 days I'll be able to watch videos without staying up too late. It's a bit late now so I'll just end the comment here.

I messed up I managed to go 91 days without games and then I started playing games again. While I did find certain games fun, they didn't give me the same satisfaction they gave me as a kid. Two Saturdays ago I played a match-3 puzzle game for a few hours until I came across a level I found to be insanely hard. I got so frustrated that I spent the whole day thinking about it. I was playing pool at the social club and I kept making mistakes that I wouldn't normally make because I was too busy thinking about that stupid game. I realised that, yep, I don't find videogames that fun anymore and they can frustrate me. As well as cutting out videogames, I'm cutting down on internet browsing. I'm thinking of cutting it down to a maximum of 60 minutes a day and having a two days a week not browsing at all. I started not gaming on 26th August and will reach 100 days on Sunday 4th December. I've already went over 60 mins of browsing today so a new streak will start tomorrow and will reach 100 days on Friday 9th December. I started CodeAcademy today to learn JavaScript. I've been wanting to learn coding for a long time but kept putting it off. The time I spend on CodeAcademy will not add to the total time spent browsing. I also downloaded an app called Habitica for helping me get into good habits. Health-wise, I am fine now. Doctors couldn't find out what was wrong with me, had a chest x-ray and everything. The pains just went away. Weird. I am cutting down on junk food and planning on getting rid of junk food entirely.

31 December 2015 It's been a while since I was last here! I met up with my friend who lives in Aberdeen. He came down to visit his family at Christmas time with his wife and son. We went at the Edinburgh Christmas market. Got a wood carving of an owl and a candle holder. Played with his 7-month old son. He grabbed my nose in the car and had the biggest smile doing so. Awww. I got a few videogame-based books and a t-shirt with a videogame character on Christmas day. I read a few pages of each book and still don't feel the urge to game. I also watched a few gaming videos on YouTube. I think Christmas has put my brain in relax mode as I have neglected reading The Slight Edge and have been on YouTube instead of carrying on with goals. Never mind, I'll get cracking on with them in 2016. I'm grateful for: My friend and his familyMarvel moviesTangled (much better than Frozen)Stand-up comediansChristmasHot water bottlesPyjamasThis diary I use for writing stuff I'm grateful for

I'm still not 100% fine, I'm afraid. I found that chocolate and high fat food can be bad, but there's been times where I've had fried food and some chocolate and have been fine. Some days are worse than others. I've been thinking sometimes it might not be gastritis but something else. Today, I have been fine. I've noticed the pains come on soon after I feel stressed. I found this which might be helpful.

18 December 2015 It was my Birthday on Tuesday. I’m 29 years old, just one year until I’m in the fourth decade of my life. I got a safety razor, South Park DVDs and some puzzle toys. The workplace had a Christmas party, which luckily happened on my Birthday J Had the Cullen skink soup for starters, sea bass fillet for the main and poached fruit with coconut panna cotta for dessert. Everybody had a good time. I’ve been to the dentist for the first time in 21 years. I had a wisdom tooth that I wanted to be checked. She said it would be okay. I had some fillings, though. I’m grateful for: · Cool co-workers· Seafood· Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird· Sleep· BlueTooth headphones

12 December 2015 It's been 5 weeks since I last played a game. The pains of gastritis have significantly lowered the last few days. TMI warning! The medication might have given me constipation, though. I've got a prescription for Fybogel, a drink that's very high in fibre and tastes very grainy. I went shopping for clothes for a Christmas party. Turned out to be very expensive, but not buying games has saved me a lot of money. Started reading The Slight Edge. A lot of people on this forum were reading this so I though I'd give it a try. I want to get a few helpful habits like reading books, improving my communications skills and drawing. I'm interested in savings accounts now. The bit where I put down what I'm grateful for: Banana Nakd bars.Pre-shaving oil. Made shaving myself easier.Kindle making it convenient for me to read books.Bulleted lists. Don't feel compelled to make 10 things I'm grateful for.Warm salty bath water. Healed my... TMIShiny new shoesThis is what my Gamesquitter calendar looks like. Green 2's represent days where I didn't do anything gaming related, yellow 1's represent days where I looked at gaming news, reviews, videos, etc. red 0's represents days where I played videogames. I've also added a scoreboard.

5th November 2015 It's been four weeks since I last played a videogame! 28 days on Normal, 3 days on Hard. I have been following the guidelines on the gastritis book and have been feeling a lot less pain. The diet has had more impact on the pains than the medication. I'll keep using the medication until it runs out, though. I have been reading Danger and Play: Essays on Embracing Masculinity. It's been a very good read. I've been listening to house music this morning, as recommended in the Danger and Play book as it says that it helps you get out of your head. As a person who's always in his head, I thought it was a good idea to try.

I am 22 days on Normal, 16 1 on Hard. I watched two gaming related YouTube videos. I've put a calendar on the Excel file I have the countdowns on so it doesn't feel like a complete loss. Since the 7th of NOvember, I only had two days of looking at game-related stuff.