opbagration20

My detox continues without any significant problems.

No games and lots of Italian! Another great day!

No games today!

Same stuff! My detox continues!

No games today. Great!

Oh, well, I see. Nevertheless, you were lucky. Few teachers strive to actually teach the students how to think. The education systems are getting destroyed all over the world, regrettably.

Well, that is one of the best thing to learn in my opinion. The ultimate problem-solving tool. I hope to have an opportunity to learn this subject in the future. You are very luck in this regard if you study maths on a deep level.

Thank you! As for tracking/blocking programs, I tried every single one of them. None, absolutely none helps. I managed to bug out and break Cold Turkey ten times or so (even asked the developer for help, lol). I guess it is not about programs or anything but just about discipline. P.S. As for politics, people consider it boring because they perceive it in complete isolation. Once you start seeing all political stuff through the lens of economics and philosophy, it gets much more interesting. Even addicting. It is as if you were blind all your life and then regained vision.

Thank you! The first day went quite well: managed to do all that I planned.

The Man who Managed to Read the Entirety of Internet I am back. A lot of stuff changed in my life: I found a well-paid job, started my Master's degree, and decided to learn Italian. As a result, I do not have much time for computer games or procrastination (continue to do both, in fact); one may say that they ceased to be a problem. However, while relatively "safe" and negligible, those habits still poison my life, taking away precious time that can be spent on something productive. For instance, I tend to sacrifice sleep for some stupid political stuff/music/games/let's plays, resting only 5 to 6 hours per day sometimes. For this reason, I would like to solve all of those problems once and for all. Gaming no longer brings me any pleasure: modern industry lost the last vestiges of creativity. Procrastination/Internet surfing is equally boring: as the title says, I have read the entirety of the Internet. Thus, all that is left is to let go, and finally do something new, something fun. My plan is fairly simple and straightforward: I would like to start a 90-day (and then ad-infinitum) gaming detox and limit the time I waste on the Internet to 20 or 30 minutes per day (1-2 hours on weekends). I will just post some signs here every day (maybe a "+") and maybe some traditional posts from time to time if everything goes well. Don't want to use the forum as an excuse for procrastination. Since I have a hobby now (Italian), I should have no problems with achieving my goals. Thanks for reading my boring journal! Good luck!

So, I am back. This time I am quitting for good and, hopefully, for the rest of my life. I have some good news: I managed to do a 90 day detox in autumn again and that kinda saved me from many problems, even though I still had problems with procrastination (damn politics). Sadly, I relapsed again and this time around my game addiction became even worse: sometimes I even neglect sleep or studying - something I have never done before. So, it is definitely high time to quit. As for the last year, it was a failure, kinda (I did not manage to achieve even half of what I planned, since I wasted holidays playing games), But still 180 days without games is a good result. Now it is time for a life without games. Now, what I am going to do: 1) Stop playing games. 2) Avoid game-related materials like videos, streams abd music (one of the.main reasons why I failed both detoxes) 3) No "let's try and play" on day 90. Together with music it is one of the main pitfalls for me (and not only for me, judging from what people write here) 4) Implement little changes to habits every week. Steadily and without hurry. For this week it will be quite simple: do homework as early as possible, without postponing. I can do anything except gaming during free time this week. Thank you for attention! Good luck! P.S. Damn, my old posts are so cringeworthy, that I can't even read them...

So, hello, guys. I guess it is not difficult to understand that I relapsed. I decided to play a game on day 90 of my detox (wanted to find out if I am addicted or not) and than it just snowballed into old good 7-16 hours a day. Well, at least, this time I was lucky in University, because I worked really hard before relapse and it saved me, so I have straight A marks. But, if I continue gaming, I will just waste this summer and won't achieve anything. My biggest mistake is that sometimes I am to lazy to update my journal, and I made a decision that from now on I will post every single day during my second detox. My goals are simple: continue learning German and to finally finish CS50 programming course. I have deleted my League of Legends account and am ready to do my best this time. Thank you for attention. I will share more info tomorrow, since I am too tired today and need to finally get some sleep. Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

23rd of April, 2016 Day 79 (video games) Day 1 (Internet) Greatest challenge So, I will start with some bad news. My Internet detox resulted in a failure. I don't even remember when I relapsed. Was it on Monday, or on Tuesday? It doesn't matter. I have again wasted my entire day watching stupid videos on Youtube, listening to music and reading some news. I also broke my promise not to listen to music during work. Why I emphasise music so much all the time? Because, I have realised that it is one of the greatest procrastination triggers for me. For example, I start listening to some tracks on Youtube (to relax a bit after University), and than I see some interesting video. At first I can resist temptation, but then I go and watch it (mostly because of some tedious. I do it and than I lose control over myself. I can't even count how many days were lost because of this. I guess, I have to make another set of rules for myself: 1) No Youtube. I may use it only for studying purposes (CS50 videos are hosted there). The same rule applies to other video hosting sites. 2) No music on notebook. Another trigger, as I have noticed, is my notebook. I have never wasted more than 2 hours on my smartphone. I guess it is connected with how comfortable it is to watch videos there. Yes, I am aware that I am making restrictions that are ridiculous. But I judging from what I observe, there is no other way. I have some good news too: I didn't watch any let's plays or read about politics. No problems with social networks either. I don't play computer games. I also made 600 new cards in Anki this week (it will take about a month to learn them all). I guess, I may call it quite an achievement. But. now it is time to achieve something greater. This time I won't fail. So, that is it for today! My next post will be next Saturday (30th of April). Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

So, after my observations I decided to change Internet detox rules a little bit: 1) No music during studying. Period. It hinders the learning process a lot. 2) I will try to make at least 50 new cards in Anki every day.

16th of April, 2016 Day 72 (video games) Day 3 (Internet) Boring and tedious I am reaping what I have sow. I could have done all of boring tasks at the beginning of the year... But, it is better late than never. If I consistently do all the tasks, it will make my life so much easier next month and during exams. Plans for the future 1) B2.1 in German by the end of this summer and B2.2 by the end of this year. So, a lot of German this summer. Main emphasis will be, I guess, on Grammar and Vocabulary. My initial plan was to get B2.2 by the end of the summer, but I decided to be more realistic in assessment of my learning skills. Maybe I will write one of the posts here in German just for fun, once I hit that milestone; 2) CS50 finished by the end of the summer. I think it is high time to learn how to program. I will start the course once I get through all the University stuff (most likely, at the end of this month). Obviously, I won't have time to do the entire course before the end of this semester, but I will try to get through at least 2 lectures. And than during summer it will finish other lectures and maybe even start studying some books; 3) Getting fit. Most likely I will go to the gym and will be jogging a lot. So, that is it for today! My next post will be this Saturday (23rd of April). Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

14th of April, 2016 Day 70 (video games) Day 1 (Internet) Hi, guys! I am back! I brought you both good and bad news. I will start with the bad ones. Bad news My fight with procrastination resulted in an epic fail. Yes, I still continue to surf the Internet (watching some stupid videos, reading political news, listening to music. trying to install either Arch Linux or Gentoo on my old laptop) for, on average, 7 hours a hours a day. Good news 1) My gaming detox, on the other hand, is not a failure. Actually, I am 20 days away from the goal. It wasn't that difficult. I had almost no cravings to play games. Sometimes I felt nostalgia, but it was mostly because of the fact that I continued to watch let's plays and the fact that I had constant stress due to constant deadlines. 2) German. I visit language courses three times a week, so I improved my language skills considerably. I also discovered that flash cards method is very awesome. I decided to use Anki and Memrise and I have only one question: why was I so skeptical about them before? If you learn some foreign languages, these programs are a must! 3) Touch typing. I finished SOLO. That was excruciatingly difficult, but I managed to receive perfect score in almost every exercise (I didn't do 2 optional ones). Right now my typing speed is around 250-270 symbols per minute. And I constantly improve. 4) I still study a lot. Despite my procrastination habits. I still visit every lecture in the University. I watched Cam's video about consistency and I totally agree, that it contributes 80% of success. The reason why I managed to pass my entrance exams at University is that I never skipped classes in school. As a result, I had to only revise some things before my exams, and not to learn everything, like others had to. Because of consistency, I managed not to relapse. Internet detox Yes, I have made a decision to start a separate Internet detox. I guess, I should have started it earlier, but it's better late than never. So, I decided to set some rules for this detox: 1) No let's plays. 2) No entertainment videos on Youtube or other similar sites. 3) No politics. 4) Music is ok, as long as it doesn't cause any major cravings, or hinder my work. 5) On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I may watch some series (Game of Thrones or some anime) for 1 hour in the evening (after 8 pm). 6) Social networks are fine, as long as I don't procrastinate and use them only for work. 7) Every Saturday I will make a post where I will report on my progress. They won't be long, because long posts = procrastination. 8) I won't procrastinate. I have a lot of work to do. I hate it, but I have to. Suvorov once said: "What is difficult in training will become easy in a battle". I would also like to encourage others to start Internet detox. Why? Because, as all of us already know, failure to stop procrastinating during video games detox (and the main source of procrastination today is Internet) leads to relapses. So, that is it for today! My next post will be this Saturday (16th of April). Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Days 12-13 (15th and 16th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Nothing special Yeah, all I do is studying. And I will study tomorrow too. If nothing interesting happens, most likely it will be a waste of time to write something. I am already doing the 73 lesson in Solo. The difficulty of exercises now is immense, but I hope to finish all of them by Sunday, So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 11 (14th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Touch typing I have been training this skill a lot today. Finally managed to get throught a little stalemate phase in Solo on a keyboard (which started around lesson 40). I have gone through 14 lessons today and managed to get through one of the most difficult in the course - 68. My typing speed is still quite slow (around 170-200), but I am able to type almost without mistakes already. And a little advice, if you decide to learn typing using this or other program - don't give up and always strive for perfection. During that little "stalemate" of mine I made a very large mistake - I whined that the exercises are too difficult for me and that there is no use trying to get perfect scores. But there is. Do exercises slowly and soon you exceed your wildest expectations. Festina lenta (Latin proverb - hurry slowly). Now it takes only 1-6 tries to get through the most brutal exercises. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 10 (13th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! "Learn, Learn, Learn" I don't like communists, but I definitely agree with Lenin on this - learning something is one of the best activities in the world. And, what I like about it the most is the fact that you can study for your entire life and you won't know much anyways. That is what I do, today and on every other day - learning. I have no boredom whatsoever because of this. And that is good. Learning is good. Comments Thank you! It is impressive, how fast I return the control over my life. Everyday I feel that I become better and better. That feeling alone can substitute any videogame. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 9 (12th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! First week Well, the first week of my detox is over (technically speaking it is the 9th day of the detox, but…). And, well, it was amazing. Really, amazing. I learned a lot of new stuff. I become calmer and braver every day. It is impressive, how negative was the influence of my gaming addiction. I finally can control my thoughts, emotions and actions. My willpower increases every day. I… I feel alive. Quitting games was like waking up from a long, long sleep. The Test Thanks you for all your comments! I actually tried watching a let's play today to test my resolve. Result: a lot of negative emotions. It was dumb. It was boring. I watched it for 5 minutes and only one thought occured in my mind: if playing videogames is dumb, then how dumb it is to watch someone else's gameplay? I guess, I won't have any problems with staying off games. Reason? I understood that gaming brings me only negative emotions. Maybe they were fun, but somewhere in the depths of my mind I felt miserable. I don't want to play them anymore. And my little test only confirmed my attitude to gaming - I want to live my own, not someone else's, life. Thank you! I finally feel alive again! NoFap and quitting videogames I actually started my nofap earlier than gaming detox (half a month ago). I am using the method described here: http://zhizn-bez-onanizma.ru/ Sadly, it is in Russian and there is no English version as of now. But, maybe I will translate it when I will have more free time, because the method is pure EPIC WIN. Actually, it helped me a lot with quitting games. The method is so easy, that it is actually difficult to describe it. It works so well, that I have no cravings to fap at all. How? All you have to do is to stop your sexual fantasies. It is easy: once you notice the first signs of them, return to reality. Open your eyes. Investigate your surroundings. Touch them. Smell them. The more information your sensory system gets, the better. Most likely you will find out that you are in a room, that is cluttered with a lot of garbage and that you are alone. No supermodels. No harem of virgins. Only you. Then try to visualise, how the situation you are in, will look like from other person's perspective. Quite embarassing. The same rules work for porn and... videogames too. Basically, everything you see on the other side of the screen is not real. Porn is not real. Games are not real. Another good advice is to defeat yourself BEFORE quitting masturbation or games. You have to understand that it is bad for your health, that there is nothing beneficial that masturbation or games give you. If you don't understand that, than the entire nofap or gaming detox will turn into a nightmare. Into a fight you won't be able to win, because you would be fighting yourself. You would end up just like everyone else on NoFap or AntiO (a Russian nofap site) - a lot of whining and then relapse. And some people repeat that pattern for several years without any results. By the by, that is why I watched let's play today and why I am not panicked when I see the pictures of nude women or porn on the Internet (and sometimes it is impossible to avoid). I understand how dumb it is to watch them. I finally live in real world. Everything that happens in my fantasies or on the screen is not real. Remember: all battles are won before they even start. Habits I actually touch-typed this entry. Solo helps a lot. I have got through half of the exercises already and I am sure that once I finish it, I will type even faster and better. It also helped a lot with swearing and anger problems. Thanks to that program, I impoved my self-control skills a lot (I will share more of my thoughts once I finish the training). I also continue studying German and using my read-interpret-record-listen method got through 2/3 of Gorilla Mindset. I improved both my reading comprehension and interpretation skills a lot. I can interpret for 16 minutes without any pauses already. And that is only a week of training. I don't even dare to imagine what I will be able to do in a month or a year. Music По многочисленным просьбам трудящихся, хе-хе. I can talk about my favorite music for hours, I will be writing a paragraph about music once in a month or two, since I think that music is a very important part of our lives. Complete silence can sometimes drive people to madness. We live in a world full of sounds, that is why we like music so much. I will talk about 3 metal bands today. This is not a top 3, I like every band's music equally. You won't find anything extremely original here, if you like metal though. So, without further ado, let's start: 1) Iron Maiden. Yes, I am not very original. If you know at least something about metal, then you, probably, know something about Iron Maiden. I recommend to start with some fan or official compilation, then, maybe, watch some old live performances. Albums: well, there is a lot of them (around 15). My favorite one's are: Number of the Beast (the first album where Bruce Dickinson was a vocalist), Seventh Son of the Seventh Son (I think it was the peak of Maiden's performance) and, let's take something more recent – The Book of Souls. I would also like to highlight The X Factor and Virtual XI, because in during that time the band had another vocalist – Blaze Bayley. Both albums are hated by most of fans, but I guess that is because of how different the style of the band became during that time. Actually, I think that those two were quite good but, sadly, not as good as they could have been. Especially, since the band tried to make Blaze sing like Bruce. That was quite dumb and damaged Blaze's vocal cords during world tours. 2) Blaze Bayley. After leaving Iron Maiden, Blaze created his own band. And, oh, it delivers. It is difficult to recommend something since every Blaze's album is superb. The band has a very unique, grim and heavy style. I would recommend to start with Silicon Messiah – the first album of the band. It is very heavy and has a very interesting sci-fi concept. You can also listen to Soundtracks of My Life – the official compilation of 30 songs from all albums (several new one's were added too). Another superb album is The Man Who Would Not Die. A very powerful album, has amazing and very mature lyrics. Also, I recommend King of Metal – the latest album. It was recorded in three or fours weeks, it is imperfect, it received very mixed reviews… And that is why I like it. Yes, it would have been a good idea to work more on some of the songs. But it is very honest and… well, alive. I use one of the songs from that album – Fighter, instead of a morning affirmation. 3) Metallica. Everyone knows Metallica. Recommendations? Don't listen to anything released after Black Album (1991). Except maybe S&M live, which was epic. Best album: …And Justice for All. The most mature Metallica's album. Very mature lyrics… and, of course, it is so difficult to perform on that “we're never fucking playing that song again“. Every song is 8 to 10 minutes long, so it is not surprising. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 8 (11th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Studying all day Difficult day. Very tired. A lot of lectures in University and then German courses. Tiresome and boring. I will write a bigger entry tomorrow, where I will share my thoughts on the first week of detox and write about my favorite metal bands and albums and my other favorite genres (nothing special there, though). If you never were into metal, then, I hope, you will find something interesting. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 7 (10th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Another boring day Nothing special I can tell you today, really. Noticed that I became much calmer. I almost stopped swearing. Anger is still there, but I guess that is the remnant of my old gaming habits. Thank you for your comment! Not entire speeches, but still I was swearing a lot. Especially, when I played with my friends. I sometimes was going totally "berserk" during those games (my friends were noobs, as I thought then) and then I would start "casting" fireballs of pure hatred... No wonder that I lost all of my friends. Oh, and the first week of my detox is over. That is quite an achievement, I never went so far! So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 6 (9th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Back to University! So, new semester begins today - it is time to double the effort! I have also started attending German language courses. Habits No changes - all goes as planned. I can touch type (not very good and slow though) already after I have got through half of the Solo's exercises. They are too brutal at times. And a new addition to my self-control habits - since I am very superstitious, from now on I am going to ignore every single stupid superstition I believe in (even though I know they are dumb) and prove that they are nothing more than an illusion of my mind! I am also successful at fighting anger and my swearing habit. I have sweared only 2 or 3 times today, instead of my usual 100 and more a day. Sometimes, back in the day, I made combos of 20+ extremely obscene words. Thanks to the pecularities of grammar in Slavic languages, you can create sentences that consist only of bad words (or мат - mat, as we call it). And sometimes, when I was angry, I said all that to my parents. It is shameful, but it happened. I am glad, that I am finally getting rid of this stupid habit. And of anger of course! Comments Thank you! I try to do my best to create a journal, that can help not only me, but also other people to overcome their gaming addiction! So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 5 (8th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! And... Everthing goes just as I planned! Nothing special happened today. I continue doing what I am doing. And that's good. Next semester will start soon and I am completely ready for it. I was quite successful at managing anger today too. And that is good! So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 4 (7th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Everything goes as planned! Today I did everything I wanted to do. I read several chapters of Gorilla Mindset using the method I described on the first day. I memorized a lot of words and read several texts in German. I made 25 exercises in Solo on a keyboard (or just SOLO) program today (only 65 lessons left!). They were brutal. Especially, because of the fact that I am a perfectionist and I do not give up until I do an exercise without any mistakes. Anger control and swearing When I was doing touch typing exercises I noticed one big problem today: sometimes I get so frustrated, that I smash the keyboard. So, now I am going to start controlling my anger (exercises from Gorilla Mindset help a lot, but I need to use them more often). Excessive anger, just like hatred, is unproductive. Why would I be angry? I make steady progress. Most of the people wouldn't even start going through that course. Oh, and it is I, who do mistakes, not my keyboard! I also should start controling what I say more strictly. Sometimes I say a lot of bad words and it is not right, I think. I am not like that, I know a lot of words. I read a lot of books. Why would I use the most obscene ones? So, from now I make a commitment to fight this stupid habit. I must stop swearing, once and for all! Comments Thank you for your comment! Mostly rock, metal and classical music. I can write more next Friday, if you are interested! Thank you for all your comments, Cam! And for the amazing forum, site and subreddit you have created! Without them, I, most likely would have continued playing games and destroying my mental and physical health. Totally agree about the news. And news here in Ukraine tend to be depressing. I was told today, that some people started stealing... food. Just because they don't have money to buy it themselves. Many people earn less than 100$ a month. You have to be lucky to get a work with 150$-200$ salary. Pensioners often get 40$ to 60$. And the amount of hatred on TV and Internet is insane. I definitely made a right decision not to watch or read any of this stuff. It is too depressing. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!