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DaMuda’s Log


DaMudaPacker

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Yo guys, it’s DaMuda, back again for another journal log. Hopefully this one will be more successful than the previous ones

Foruth times the charm I guess.

I don’t even recall when my journal was to be frank. I would estimate it to be around a year or more ago?

Before I tear into myself, let me just note some goals that I actually achieved since my last journal.

1. I lost weight 

2. I got into the university of my choice

3. I’ve made a lot of progress in my social life - to the point where I’m mostly satisfied 

However, I’m still far from where I want to be. There’s a thought that I’ve been tangling with and it’s honestly keeping me up at night and it has been for months. The question is “How far could I go if I dedicated myself to improvement?”. If I spent the next month of my life, doing what I believe I should be doing, how much change could I see? It’s a tough question to answer, because I can’t really measure how quickly things can change and I don’t know where I would stop. After constant thought, I’ve concluded that “The further I go from my current situation, the more content I will be”. 

I’m 18 years old, birthday was only a few weeks ago and I think it’s time I become an adult as opposed to a child. My biggest time consumer right now is gaming, Summoners War and Battlefield 1. I spend probably at least 3 hours on that a day. When I wake up, it’s summoners war because I have in game energy that has to be burnt and arena wings I have to use in order to progress. At colllege, around lunch time, I have to open the game to do the same activities. Then once when I get home and once before bed. Rinse and repeat. I occasionally play BF1, sometimes until bed time. It keeps me up at night because of the guilt I feel of procrastinating.

Why not game during spare time only?

Two reasons. I can’t control myself and I can think of much better ways to spend my time. 

Whenever I say “It’ll be just one game”, it turns to four or more. I have a lack of self control around video games. 

Nextly, I think there’s better ways to spend my time. I love making progress in video games and I’m fairly good at most titles I play, but there’s more to life than constantly dedicating time to video games. I watched a documentary called “Dear Zachary” and the film really struck home a lot of important lessons. One of which was never to go out with a psycho bitch, but the other was that the relationship with people we love is extremely valuable. The amount of love that the people in that documentary felt for their friend was very touching. I felt that my time spent in gaming could have better spent with friends. Going out to watch movies, talking on the phone, or even texting. On a more personal level, I have an ever growing bucket list that I never work towards and I think it’s about time I really invested in that list as well.

My Bucket List / Goals List

1. Get a 4.0 GPA 

2. Finish those books I bought but never opened 

3. Get a job you bum!

4. Have a more concrete schedule

5. Wake up early 

6. Travel to China every summer

7. Learn Chinese fluently

8. Study law in my spare time

9. Get out more

10. Get a 315 deadlift

I’ll have more items later, but these are just stepping stones for the next month(s). I’m not sure how often I’ll write this journal, because I’m also keeping a private one for myself. But I’ll figure that out as I go along. 

Thanks for reading!

 

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CURRENT DILEMMA

I’m thinking about selling my gaming pc which is actually worth quite a pretty penny. I’m going to keep the CPU because I use my computer for photo editing as well. But I want to sell my GPU and Monitor because there’s no reason I should have some expensive hardware when I didn’t even earn them myself. I got into the university of my choice and all, but I still don’t think it’s right for me to have what I have. It’s a very complex situation and I’m not sure I can put it out in proper words since I can barely think about it clearly. Maybe you guys can help.

If I sell my hardware, I would have a decent start to a stock portfolio and I would have a lot more time on my hands to do productive tasks. I think what’s making this decision so hard despite its benefits is that I still love many games like Skyrim. It’s such a beautiful game and there’s so many great stories and quests and one day I would like to replay it. There’s many titles I still want to play like the older Fallout titles and maybe even Oblivion. I guess you could say I have one foot over the fence and the other behind it. 

I feel that selling my hardware is the responsible thing to do. Maybe when I have a lot of disposable income I can purchase the new hardware of the future! Computer hardware holds value like milk, but stocks, mutual funds or even retirement funds are much more likely to keep some value and almost certainly keep more value than computer hardware. Considering the time saved and instant funds, I would be setting myself up for success, or in the least not hurting my chances. 

WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK! Also consider that I would break even or even earn up to $200 from selling my hardware from the amount I originally spent.

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CURRENT DILEMMA

I’m thinking about selling my gaming pc which is actually worth quite a pretty penny. I’m going to keep the CPU because I use my computer for photo editing as well. But I want to sell my GPU and Monitor because there’s no reason I should have some expensive hardware when I didn’t even earn them myself. I got into the university of my choice and all, but I still don’t think it’s right for me to have what I have. It’s a very complex situation and I’m not sure I can put it out in proper words since I can barely think about it clearly. Maybe you guys can help.

If I sell my hardware, I would have a decent start to a stock portfolio and I would have a lot more time on my hands to do productive tasks. I think what’s making this decision so hard despite its benefits is that I still love many games like Skyrim. It’s such a beautiful game and there’s so many great stories and quests and one day I would like to replay it. There’s many titles I still want to play like the older Fallout titles and maybe even Oblivion. I guess you could say I have one foot over the fence and the other behind it. 

I feel that selling my hardware is the responsible thing to do. Maybe when I have a lot of disposable income I can purchase the new hardware of the future! Computer hardware holds value like milk, but stocks, mutual funds or even retirement funds are much more likely to keep some value and almost certainly keep more value than computer hardware. Considering the time saved and instant funds, I would be setting myself up for success, or in the least not hurting my chances. 

WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK! Also consider that I would break even or even earn up to $200 from selling my hardware from the amount I originally spent.

I suggest you sell. You said it, you can buy another computer and play again someday. But right now you should focus on your goals, see how you feel when you achieve them and if you still want to play by then, give it a try. Think about the reasons that you currently may have for being emotionally attached to your pc (if you weren't, you wouldn't have problem selling it). Doing it could be also a form of commitment, taking a specific action to make a difference from what you've been doing.

Those goals you've achieved are amazing man, don't sell yourself low! Reflect on your victories and how rewarding they felt.

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CURRENT DILEMMA

I’m thinking about selling my gaming pc which is actually worth quite a pretty penny. I’m going to keep the CPU because I use my computer for photo editing as well. But I want to sell my GPU and Monitor because there’s no reason I should have some expensive hardware when I didn’t even earn them myself. I got into the university of my choice and all, but I still don’t think it’s right for me to have what I have. It’s a very complex situation and I’m not sure I can put it out in proper words since I can barely think about it clearly. Maybe you guys can help.

If I sell my hardware, I would have a decent start to a stock portfolio and I would have a lot more time on my hands to do productive tasks. I think what’s making this decision so hard despite its benefits is that I still love many games like Skyrim. It’s such a beautiful game and there’s so many great stories and quests and one day I would like to replay it. There’s many titles I still want to play like the older Fallout titles and maybe even Oblivion. I guess you could say I have one foot over the fence and the other behind it. 

I feel that selling my hardware is the responsible thing to do. Maybe when I have a lot of disposable income I can purchase the new hardware of the future! Computer hardware holds value like milk, but stocks, mutual funds or even retirement funds are much more likely to keep some value and almost certainly keep more value than computer hardware. Considering the time saved and instant funds, I would be setting myself up for success, or in the least not hurting my chances. 

WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK! Also consider that I would break even or even earn up to $200 from selling my hardware from the amount I originally spent.

I suggest you sell. You said it, you can buy another computer and play again someday. But right now you should focus on your goals, see how you feel when you achieve them and if you still want to play by then, give it a try. Think about the reasons that you currently may have for being emotionally attached to your pc (if you weren't, you wouldn't have problem selling it). Doing it could be also a form of commitment, taking a specific action to make a difference from what you've been doing.

Those goals you've achieved are amazing man, don't sell yourself low! Reflect on your victories and how rewarding they felt.

Yeah definitely going to sell the graphics card, but there's been a wrench in the works in regards to my monitor. There's a slight clutter of dead pixels so it really won't sell for as much as I hoped - I should have checked this right when I got the display, but oh well. I'm definitely going to sell the graphics card, which means I'll just break even and then I'll have to buy a super cheap one because my CPU doesn't have an integrated one. It still prohibits me from using my computer for games. 

To be honest, I've been gaming for so long that it just feels weird not to be doing it and the thought of stripping my computer that I've grown so attached to because I assembled the pieces and everything just feels a bit sad too. But there's too much money on the line not to sell this and invest the money into something else - anything else to be frank. The more time I spend gaming, the more money the card costs me because I'm spending time that I could be using to improve my future.

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Hi welcome back. I vaguely remember you journaling ;) Definitely sell it. In doubt always do the proactive part.

Thanks for the welcome :) I already sold my GPU!

But about the monitor... Oh boi. There's some real scumbags in this world. I bought this from an auction website that claimed it was "new", but in reality it's 2 years old, it's just in the retail box. Sons of... so I can't even sell this monitor as being a month old because in reality in 2 years old! I'm trying to contact credit card companies and the consumer rights commission, but I'm sure this is going to be a VERY long process. There's too much money on the line for me to back out of this. I'm stubborn :P The best case scenario, the credit card company helps me out since I'm still within 2 months of the original purchase date, but worst case I just sell it for the cheap on the second hand market and lose a few hundred :(

Stuff I did

Wrote my first in class assignment and overall I think I did okay. I should have prepared more for it and I definitely could have scored a 4.0, but I think I'm expecting something more along the lines of low to mid 3s. Not too upset over it even though it's worth a decent amount because I'm making large changes right now. Got a perfect score on my first astronomy project which I'm super happy about. Spent a lot of time and effort editing that so that's a big boost in my day!

After classes I went around inquiring about job positions since I couldn't really mind any concrete information online for a lot of the positions I was interested in. Most of the responses weren't hopeful, but I think if I keep pushing at it, eventually I'll end up a bus boy or cashier - beats playing video games honestly. 

Got a sick fade at the barber too, feels so nice.

I really don't know how to make my journal interesting, sorry!

Goals for Tomorrow:

  • Hit Deadlift PR + Train Hard at the Gym
  • File complaint with the consumer rights people
  • Do my readings
    • Astronomy
    • English
    • Philosophy
  • Plan out a concrete schedule
  • Count my calories (bulking!)
  • Chat with my friends
  • Do the laundry
  • Write my Resume + Cover Letter
    • Apply for positions I want

Hope y'all have a great thanksgiving weekend if you're Canadian!

 

IT SEEMS WE CAN'T EDIT OLD POSTS SO I WANT TO ADD AS WELL THAT I WANT TO QUIT PORNOGRAPHY TOO!

 

Edited by DaMudaPacker
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If I sell my hardware, I would have a decent start to a stock portfolio and I would have a lot more time on my hands to do productive tasks. I think what’s making this decision so hard despite its benefits is that I still love many games like Skyrim. It’s such a beautiful game and there’s so many great stories and quests and one day I would like to replay it. There’s many titles I still want to play like the older Fallout titles and maybe even Oblivion. I guess you could say I have one foot over the fence and the other behind it. 

Let me just say that I resonate with this a lot. Skyrim was always the greatest offline game of all time for me, it was one of those games I would call an experience instead of just a game, and I definitely felt the same way about wanting to bust it out and dive back into it every now and then. And you can be certain that I was banking 100% on diving into Elder Scrolls 6 as soon as it releases, no questions asked.

I sold my stuff anyway. And let me tell you, I really don't feel like playing it anymore. I've got great memories, and it's a beautiful game, sure, but the general game-free life as a whole still wins flat out easily. Hey, maybe some years down the road I'll give elder scrolls a spin, maybe not. But I already don't need or even want it anymore and I've still go so far to go. That's still a long time away though and there's so much to get done and so much to develop in the meantime. Those games aren't running away, your time on this Earth, however, is.

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If I sell my hardware, I would have a decent start to a stock portfolio and I would have a lot more time on my hands to do productive tasks. I think what’s making this decision so hard despite its benefits is that I still love many games like Skyrim. It’s such a beautiful game and there’s so many great stories and quests and one day I would like to replay it. There’s many titles I still want to play like the older Fallout titles and maybe even Oblivion. I guess you could say I have one foot over the fence and the other behind it. 

Let me just say that I resonate with this a lot. Skyrim was always the greatest offline game of all time for me, it was one of those games I would call an experience instead of just a game, and I definitely felt the same way about wanting to bust it out and dive back into it every now and then. And you can be certain that I was banking 100% on diving into Elder Scrolls 6 as soon as it releases, no questions asked.

I sold my stuff anyway. And let me tell you, I really don't feel like playing it anymore. I've got great memories, and it's a beautiful game, sure, but the general game-free life as a whole still wins flat out easily. Hey, maybe some years down the road I'll give elder scrolls a spin, maybe not. But I already don't need or even want it anymore and I've still go so far to go. That's still a long time away though and there's so much to get done and so much to develop in the meantime. Those games aren't running away, your time on this Earth, however, is.

Oh shoot I totally forgot about Elder Scrolls 6 :o

But honestly, the more I play games, the less enjoyable and immersive they become. It's better that I take a very long break, develop my own life and then explore ES6 in the future. I don't think gaming is inherently bad, in fact I see good games as a form of art. But when I start to indulge on that art, that's when I have to take a step back :) 

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Big Changes

It's funny how life can be so tame at times, but then it hits you with a tidal wave of disasters. Due to miscommunication and overall just tension, I decided to leave a group of friends who I felt very attached to, but as time goes on, I think we became more separated. And in the end, after having a dispute, we were giving ultimatums and saying things that no one should really say to each other. It's pretty upsetting and I'd be a liar to say I didn't cry a bit on the inside (real men don't cry! jk). Other events occurred, but I'd rather not share them. 

All in all, I slept at 4am due to all this, woke up at 2pm and now I'm off to the gym. I feel different in all honesty, just odd, like I'm not me anymore and that something is missing. Yesterday was a decently productive day, but I didn't get to do my readings or hit the gym because of all these events I couldn't have foreseen, though in hindsight, I kinda think I might have. Anyway, LETS KILL THEM WEIGHTS. Stay positive and all that!

Edited by DaMudaPacker
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Journal Update #1:

I have officially quit all my video games! While I dropped all PC games last week, it was only today that I managed to finally sell my Summoners War account. Thus, this is entry #1, time to get serious!

What I Have Completed:

  • First draft of English Essay 
  • Quit all games
  • Finished all my photos for Astronomy Project
  • Applied for my first job!!!!!! (It’s a fast food chain - go figure :P )

What I Have to Do Until the Next Journal:

School Related:

  • Astronomy
    • Online Quiz by Oct 14
    • Readings for Mid-Term
  • Second English Course
    • Reading for Friday
  • Philosophy
    • Catch up on two weeks of readings + answer questions
  • Chinese Course
    • Practice writing
    • Finish homework assignment over the weekend
  • First English Course
    • Finish tutorial assignment

Life Related:

  • Get a proper sleep schedule
  • Specify my calendar more
  • Get to the gym more
  • Spend some time taking photos of the seasons

My Failures Since Last Entry:

It’s been a very irresponsible couple of days since my last entry. I didn’t sleep very well, I hardly went to the gym, my diet hasn’t been great and I’ve been indulging in summoners war. All the bad vices combined at the same time. But I think that’s behind me now. I sold my summoners war account and am totally game free. Summoners War really took up a LOT of my time and I think because I stopped playing PC games, I was more attracted to my mobile “games” - they’re really more slot machines with animations. But now that I’ve quit, my focus is back and overall I would say I’m headed in a upper direction. So far I’ve already made good changes in my sleep schedule and quality which should translate into more productivity and energy. 

TL;DR went through a poor couple of days, but now I’m heading uphill and things will only get better from here! :) 

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Glad to see your back in action but I see a couple of problems here. First of you need to be more definitive with your goals sort of like what do you want to accomplish this month, start small don't try to do too many things at once otherwise you will burn out. 

The second thing is what I call a tornado effect in which your body is craving games yet your mind is trying get back to reality, I v already had this happen once before but I did not give in to that temptation and the first week is the toughest but if you get through it then your solid. 

I think you if you really want to get rid of this then this means no mobile games, brain games, console games, PC games all have to either be deleted or put somewhere your not tempted during 90 day detox whatever it takes, I have noticed changes in my life and starting to realize thing I never saw before. Have project or goal set a deadline so it force you to work towards cause if you don't you find yourself (like me) regressing to what you know. 

that my thoughts. 

Edited by zeke365
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Glad to see your back in action but I see a couple of problems here. First of you need to be more definitive with your goals sort of like what do you want to accomplish this month, start small don't try to do too many things at once otherwise you will burn out. 

The second thing is what I call a tornado effect in which your body is craving games yet your mind is trying get back to reality, I v already had this happen once before but I did not give in to that temptation and the first week is the toughest but if you get through it then your solid. 

I think you if you really want to get rid of this then this means no mobile games, brain games, console games, PC games all have to either be deleted or put somewhere your not tempted during 90 day detox whatever it takes, I have noticed changes in my life and starting to realize thing I never saw before. Have project or goal set a deadline so it force you to work towards cause if you don't you find yourself (like me) regressing to what you know. 

that my thoughts. 

Definitely agreed about specifying my goals, that's why I'm trying to make my schedule be as descriptive as possible so I know exactly when something has to be done. 

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Journal Update #2: 

Day Count : 3

Journal the Second.

Alright I originally intended to write this journal on Saturday, following a T/T/Sat schedule for my log. I'm thinking I change that to T/T/Sun because Sunday is when the new week begins and I can thoroughly plot out the week and write some comments about the overall week progression. Sounds good! Just studying for my Chinese test tomorrow, there are way too many vocabulary words so I'm just gonna take a productive break and write my log :) 

Things I've Achieved Since Last Log:

Geee... not a lot honestly. It's harder to get into a productive habit than I thought :( 

I'm going to do a checklist from last log, that way I'll know my short comings and how long I've been delaying things.

School Related:

  • Astronomy
    • Online Quiz by Oct 14 - Nope, it was actually due on Oct 12 - Thankfully I have a really high average and it's not worth too much :|
    • Readings for Mid-Term - Nope, still haven't started (crap)
  • Second English Course
    • Reading for Friday - Never intended on finishing this weekend, so this is cool :)  
  • Philosophy
    • Catch up on two weeks of readings + answer questions - Nope :| , no comments really
  • Chinese Course
    • Practice writing - Yes! - Still in the process of doing it as I type, but it still counts!
    • Finish homework assignment over the weekend - Yup! - Very easy assignment
  • First English Course
    • Finish tutorial assignment - Never planned for the weekend, just more of a note - MUST FINISHED BY TUESDAY EVENING

Life Related:

  • Get a proper sleep schedule - It's a work in progress, not green quality yet 
  • Specify my calendar more - Will be doing right after I'm doing practicing writing
  • Get to the gym more - Gym has been spot on!
  • Spend some time taking photos of the seasons - Did a photo shoot for a condo, screw it, it counts (plus I got paid)

General Assessment:

This is harder than it seemed. Emotionally, I've very enthusiastic about my life and the direction I'm embarking on, but actually putting the rubber on the pavement (did I say that right?) is much more demanding. Easier said than done I guess is the best way to put it. I would say that sleep is my weakness. I have terrible sleep etiquette and over the last few years, but months especially, my sleep has been very rocky. I'm very high in neuroticism and low in conscientiousness so I'm trying very hard to fix that by ordering my house and my schedule. I would like to say that this is simply a learning process and chalk up my mistakes to just being beginner's turmoil, but I have to reflect on the reasons I didn't achieve most things I put on my list. It's not so much I couldn't do them, but because I didn't have the discipline or energy to do them.

Sleep:

Very important topic for me. I'm trying to adjust my sleep schedule because I think it would be in my interest to wake up earlier and sleep earlier. Presently I am accustomed to 12am sleep and 9am wake. When I follow that schedule I am generally fine energy wise, but it's not the ideal time for me due to various reasons. 

Some of which are:

  • I don't like going to the gym in the afternoon, but this schedule forces me to do so because of university
  • I don't like sleeping so late after the sun has set 
    • I think this contributes to my restlessness in bed (that sounded very dirty)
  • I don't like waking up so late
    • I feel lazy doing so and have greatly ambition and willpower the earlier I rise
  • Other things I can't think about right now

Plans for the Week:

Unfortunately I won't be posting them here this time around because of time constraints. I'm not sure I have the time to post every detail here, but they WILL be posted next entry. I will however write my plans in my Google Calendar to keep myself in check. I will reflect on my Calendar success in the next post which should be on Tuesday, October 17th. Stay

Hope you all have a great week! Feedback is appreciated!

Edited by DaMudaPacker
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Journal Update #3: 

Day Count : 9

Honestly haven't felt like writing a journal, even a personal one, but eventually I came to realization that it's nice to unravel your thoughts. First, the goals (these will be the ones I didn't record here unfortunately).

School Related:

  • Astronomy
    • Online Quiz by Oct 26 - FINISHED A WEEK EARLY YEAHHHHH
    • Mid Term - Think I got a 3.8~ or so, could have done better
  • Second English Course
    • Reading for Friday - DONE
  • Philosophy
    • Catch up on two weeks of readings + answer questions - WIP
  • Chinese Course
    • Practice writing - Yes!
    • Finish homework assignment over the weekend - Yup!
  • First English Course
    • Finish tutorial assignment - YES

Everything has been going fairly well in life, did the laundry, cleaned my bedroom and work space, although it's gotten dirty again in the last few days since I last wrote. 

Goals for the Week!

School Related:

  • Astronomy
    • Take notes earlier for upcoming exam in December
    • Finish photography project written portion
  • English
    • Read the Illiad 
  • Philosophy
    • Complete second assignment
  • Chinese Course
    • Study for upcoming Monday test
    • Complete Wednesday's homework
  • Second English course
    • Start essay outline 
    • Read this week's reading

Temptations!:

Welp it's been 9 days since I really went cold turkey on pornography and video games. I honestly haven't had any serious thought to buy another GPU and play games again, nor install any apps. I would say that video game temptation isn't a major issue, but pornography is a very different story. For the past 8 days, I have no urge to watch at all - I'm not entirely sure why, maybe because I'm occupied most of my weekdays with school. Weekends I have to really keep myself occupied or else the temptation lurks around the corner. I'm doing a lot of research and watching more anecdotal and theoretical discussions about pornography and I still have to convince myself that it's worth falling off the wagon when I'm tempted. Just need to keep my wits about and keep my eye on the goal.

Loneliness:  

Another issue I've had this week is just general isolation. It's hard to make time for friends when everyone's schedule is so incompatible. I have a few acquaintances at school, but it's not enough to keep my content with my social life at this point. My close friends were planning to an amusement park, but I'm not 100% if that's still happening at this point due to unforeseen events. Just being very down and paranoid lately because of being isolated so much I think. Bright side is that I'm making good progress with people in my astronomy class since it's really one of the few classes were you can communicate with others. 

Job:

Still haven't heard back from the job I applied to, I think I'm going to send out more resumes to other franchises even though the one I applied to has the best location for me. I have more photography gigs coming up which is great money, but I don't really learn many communication or time management skills. I truly believe that having a stable part time job will make me a lot happier just because it gives me more responsibilities and opportunities to speak with others which I really like. 

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Best thing for avoiding relapsing with porn (and by proximity with video games) is definitely putting physical distance between you and devices or putting yourself in public. Maybe you can identify the times of the day or week you'll be more tempted and plan ahead? That way you won't have to wit your way out of the craving, you will know you'll be spending your day in that café with WiFi, or outdoors doing this or that activity. Don't wait for the hard times to come at you, outsmart them.

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Best thing for avoiding relapsing with porn (and by proximity with video games) is definitely putting physical distance between you and devices or putting yourself in public. Maybe you can identify the times of the day or week you'll be more tempted and plan ahead? That way you won't have to wit your way out of the craving, you will know you'll be spending your day in that café with WiFi, or outdoors doing this or that activity. Don't wait for the hard times to come at you, outsmart them.

Was just thinking about that. I find that if I get away from my computer while craving, the craving quickly goes away. 

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