Tom

Nice! Keep going and good luck with your studies!

Hi Florian. Welcome I used to work with a chemist with a background very similar to yours. She "escaped the lab" and joined my former company as a technical service and development consultant. Then she moved to marketing development management. If you enjoy helping people understand the true value of something and help them make informed choices, consultative technical selling could be a great career path for you. And since it's hard to find somebody having both technical and social skills, there are always plenty of vacancies.

A few? That's impressive! How do you define a lucid dream? Are you using any particular techniques? Totally with you on martial arts. I can't wait to get back to the tatami myself.

Day 22. Woke up at 5.45. Dream recall below average for the last days but much better than the average of the last months. Some interesting mental threads to follow. Another slow morning where I dedicated quite some time to this forum, which I find to be a relaxed and engaging way to start the day. Those peppers I bought yesterday are great! Not hellfire but definitely hot and tasty. I've been very productive at work and I made good progress with my Dutch course. I still find it hard to understand everything they say in the cartoon I'm watching with my children but that doesn't make "boys time" less enjoyable. Gratitude journal: Small independent shops selling delicious ethnic food.Linux. It's just awesome and it makes the world a better place.Liszt for being such an amazing composer.

Plato would be proud of you and encourage you to go a bit further He didn't have much respect for art (which is what video games are). The keyword here is mimesis (imitation). He asserted that art is twice removed from reality as it imitates the "shadows in the cave" which in turn imitate reality. As such it leads us astray from truth and from the gods, and generates bad feelings. So once you get rid of art you still have to deal with the cave itself. Aristotle, who was his pupil, disagreed with Plato. He saw art and its mimesis as educational, particularly through catharsis. I tend to agree with Aristotle. I believe it's the (ex) gamer's responsibility to work on his/her moral virtue. That we are changing who we are, and what we do changes as a consequence of that.

Or you can go for a solitary walk. Even better, you can drag a friend with you. Some of my fondest memories are hiking in the mountains. After a while everybody gets silent and focuses on breathing and the terrain. Yet we are all together, sharing something truly special.

Awesome! Now really there's no place like it

Hey, interesting format! I'm reading your logs on my Kindle. Feels like the right place. Keep it up

Day 21. Another slow morning just for myself. Good stuff. A very productive day at work. I also made a sign for my office: green on one side, red on the other. The children like it, so they make it work Everybody at home is sick here except me, so I'm taking care of them and of the house as well. Feels good to be useful beyond my call of duty. The highlight of the day is a personal achievement: I managed to squat 125 kg five times, which is 1.8 times my body weight! Will I ever get to 150 x 5? Let's find out! I celebrated by buying several kinds of spicy peppers. Can't wait to try them all and find "the one". I also had a conversation in Dutch with the shop owner. Since there's no hurry I didn't nag my children to go to bed. We were together, playing and eating baked chestnuts until they finally wanted to go. Daily gratitude: Duolingo, a real help in teaching me the language and building confidence.Autumn. I always liked it. It's a season for intimacy.Game Quitters. Cam's baby is giving me so much.

Yes. It's something I always wanted and I worked hard to convince my employer. It's a blessing that it worked out. This Raclette looks amazing! Can't wait to try it!

Hi Marchosias. Welcome back. Fortunately I read all your posts before the bugs. You did earn something by learning GIMP: a great tool you can use on any operating system for free! So you save yourself (or your employer) quite some money. I also noticed how many addicts turn to religion, especially Christianity, when sobering up. My favorite example is Dave Mustaine, the singer and guitarist of Megadeth. While those people say they've been saved by god I'm always tempted to dismiss it as brain damage from the addiction. Then I slap myself in the face and remind me that whatever works for us, whatever makes us better people, is the right way to go. I used to be very fond of virtual characters. I kicked them away and made room for real people. I found out that social relationships give back what you put into them. Be consistent and yes, be insistent too If you really want to become friends with somebody (and to stay friends!), you must be there.

Hey Cor, you are over your first week! Congratulations! Great to read that you are finding the best strategies. Keep going

Nice! Distracting yourself from gaming by doing something you know will be of benefit to you and to others is something I'm doing too. It works great. Good to know you like coding. I went through many courses on Codecademy and still use it to review syntax after a while or as a primer for new ones. My advice is: think of something simple you'd like to program and do it. It's the only way to know if you like it for real.

Day 20. The highlight of the morning was taking both my children to the childminder. We took all the time in the world walking hand in hand, looking at and talking about the different roadwork equipment. This come at the result of some thinking I've done lately about time and its worth. Taking fifteen minutes longer in the morning has no negative effect on work. Those first emails can wait. What doesn't wait is time itself. I'd better spend it wisely by being 100% present. That's also why if I'm not in a call and my children want to come into my office. I let them. We chat for some minutes and after that we are all happier. Tomorrow I'm making a signal system so that they know at a glance whether they can come or not. Gratitude journal: Rediscovering the value of time and realizing I'm the one who must teach it to my children.Garlic. One head of garlic a day keeps the doctor and many others away.Neighbors's cats becoming friendly and cuddly.

Congrats on your 30 days! I too struggle with the daily gratitude thing. I'm so used to analysis that I overthink such a simple feeling. We'll learn... in time

?Yes, you are correct. Good for you! To me it has the same appeal of a headbutt to the groin ?No, record in my dream journal. I keep one to improve my dream recall. A fun hobby of mine.

We did Thomas's idea. He'll post it later. We met in The Hague, Netherlands.

Sure you can do it You had the strength to start your journey, you are still with us. You are strong. Imagine how proud you'll be of yourself. Imagine how you will you celebrate your victory. Have you tried keeping your hands occupied? I remember reading a study on pianists and the fact that using your hands and especially your fingers stimulates the brain in a very positive way. Writing, playing an instrument, making origami.,, I believe that the longer you can stay away from a screen the more in control you will feel. If you must stay home, inviting a friend over can be an excellent disruption of your routine. What do you think? So you are Slovenian! Nice! I used to study right across the border. Once I got great marks and I walked across it to award myself a La

Day 19. A good day! Since it's holiday time I didn't have to take care of anything school-related. So yesterday evening I spent more time with my wife and set my alarm clock for 7 AM. I woke up with detailed memories of three dreams and somewhat remembering a fourth. It took more than half an hour to record them. I am happy that I'm regaining this skill and excited at the thought of what's coming next. It's a major motivator for getting enough sleep. I took a long break from work and went to meet Thomas (Phoenix) at one of the few places where one can get some really good coffee. We talked for over an hour and the only disappointment was that at one point I had to run away and get back to work. Definitely the highlight of the day! We will sure meet again soon for the second GameQuitters European Meetup Who wants to join? Gratitude journal: Meeting Thomas. A new friend!Power racks, literally saving the neck of distracted weightlifters.Bicycles, the ultimate means of transportation.

Let's hope the ME movie will do the saga justice. I hyped it so much that even my wife (a non-gamer) is waiting for it. All the best with your new obsession

Yeah, it's counterintuitive but perfectionism is a fearsome enemy! I tend to strive for "80% perfect", then improve if I'm done taking other important stuff to the same level. Still I get carried away so many times that I feel my day is too short, while it's just my perception that is skewed. ?You mean the one by Hermann Hesse? I read it ages ago and I remember liking it quite a lot. My brother too. But then again I love Hesse and I read so many of his books that after fifteen years I'm starting to mix them up. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Day 18. Feels like ages since I had a full night's sleep. I wonder how can children have such fragmented nights and still be full of energy during the day. If only I could learn Well, whatever, it's not that bad, and it will pass eventually. The kids are not feeling great, which is affecting their mood, however we went to town anyway. I made it a point to spend all day together as a family. It worked out. I also studied some more Dutch. It's starting to get challenging. Good, maybe I'll soon stop expressing myself like a dumb monkey Gratitude journal: Public transport here is awesome.My eldest son is starting to speak Dutch. It's a great challenge for him.Unbranded disposable contact lenses.

Hey Chris. Welcome I'm convinced that gaming can sap your creativity. I struggle to understand why: you get in touch with a lot of ideas, great concepts, beautiful artworks... And yet you, on a personal level, become less inventive and, well, plain lazier. That's my experience at least. Good luck!

Time to catch up! Day 16. Highlight: meeting my friend and her husband again. Had to be just a chat and a couple of drinks and it turned into a great night out! We'll meet again soon and this time with my wife too. Day 17. Highlight: going for a walk with my 2.5 years old. I slowed down and let him take his time doing whatever he wanted on the way. We lifted the flap of every letterbox. We checked the color of every car. Gratitude journal: Seeing my friends happy. It uplifts me.Weekends: spending two days doing what you love, with the people you love.Pajamas. We should wear them all day, every day

You are gaining momentum! It can only get better from here. Enjoying The Escapist right now. You remind me that I should be less of a snob: Anette is an excellent singer too, and Nightwish are still awesome \m/,