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Doms Diary Dalies


HayaiDom

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Hey all, 

My names Dom, 25 and have been playing games since I was 5 if I recall correctly. I remember spending hours upon hours during my adolescence and high school playing video games. MMORPG's, League, R6 Siege and more recently FF14 and Path of Exile. Luckily content for FF14 ran dry and I only spent one day playing it , but Path of Exile was a huge problem.

Today was the day I decided to completely quit video games and detox for the next 90 days. 

Why? Well, the past month has been the same, I would get home from work, and hop on my computer to play Path of Exile. I play hardcore mode, which means that if your character dies in game, it gets sent to softcore which erases all your progress on the hardcore mode. After spending multiple full days getting my character to a certain point, I died, and it got sent to softcore. After being disheartened and closing the game, I looked at my steam time log for Path, and it said that I spent 150 hours within the past two weeks. And in total I spent 260 hours on the game total. 

This wasn't the first time that I had a hardcore character die, but honestly this certainly was the last straw. 

I wouldn't say I have as bad of a gaming addiction as other people, but it certainly has had a somewhat negative impact on my life and I would like that to change for 2020. 

I've always been an artist and I've always had a love for the visual arts, and I really want to devote a lot more time this year towards my craft. Whilst challenging myself to draw every day, I hope that I could use this diary as an added motivator to track my progress on my detox journey as my sketchbook does for my art journey. 

90 days from now I would be back from my Japan trip, and I want to come back with a sketchbook full of drawings that I've done from that trip.

So....

Day 1

I described before that I had decided to quit PoE, and so right after I uninstalled the game and changed my steam settings, I went to the gym.

It's been a hot two weeks since I've been to the gym since the holidays were happening and PoE was consuming my life, so it felt good. I have a DnD session also with my mates, technically it isn't a video game so it's kind of fine? I'm also expressing my imagination a bit and hanging out with some friends so that's nice. 

Otherwise not so bad for a cold turkey approach. Hopefully I can keep it up for the next 90 days.

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Hey man, welcome to the forums!

Those steam numbers can be very sobering. They also played a part for me when I decided to quit. As for DnD, I think it's allowed. You can't put 150hrs a week into it unless you have a whole room of addicts with you, and as you said it's a social and imaginative experience too. It's a hobby that's much easier to play healthily than solo gaming.

Good luck with your detox! Keep us posted.

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Hey thanks for the response! Keeping it steady and I'm taking it a bit slow in terms of hobbies so I don't burn myself out.

Anyways 

Day 2

Woke up around 9 since my team for my volunteer organization was going to demo some meals to prep for our upcoming festival. Went pretty smoothly, got to make Pad Thai for the directors for them to try out and we can see how to improve on the recipe when it comes time. Hung out with my teammates afterward and took a nap after. 

Then I got to some learning for art. I'm studying a composition video series on this art instruction site called New Masters Academy. It's quite interesting and it's teaching me how to look at an image and breaking it down into the most basic components. Not really sure how I can apply this to my creative work just yet but for now lets just keep studying photographs and stuff.

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I forgot to post yesterday but I didn't cheat I swear!

Day 3

I got slapped suddenly with an additional big project at work today on top of my normal day to day routine stuff. Caught me by surprise since my boss name dropped me in charge of it in the middle of a team meeting and I had no prior knowledge. I'm contemplating protesting this because I'm not getting a pay increase in exchange for the additional responsibility. 

Other than work ranting, I've been feeling under the weather today because of sudden weather changes here in California so I took a nap when I got home.

I managed to pick up my charcoal pencils and drew in my newsprint pad. Two 25 minute sessions of figure drawing just to warm up, and then watched some composition lessons for a while and made some dinner.

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Day 4

Today was somewhat stressful since I was running late for work, and had a meeting first thing in the morning about the project that I suddenly got pushed into.

The worst part is that I have absolutely no idea what this thing is about, and I have no idea what I don't know. I can't even ask questions because I just don't know where to start.

Other than that reports and daily work was taking much longer than usual and I ended up getting really frustrated. 

Despite all this stress however, when I got home I was actually really excited to sit down and draw for once.

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Day 5 & 6

1-9-2020

Forgot to post again so I'll make up for it today. I figured I should also add some date stamps even though the post should have some already. Just to remember what days I missed.

Still going strong on the detox, however AGDQ is happening right now and I was watching some during work today and boy does it add to the slight craving I have now to play Bug Princess 2. But I'll resist. I didn't explicitly say that I would not watch twitch streams (Because I already do so very seldom) so I guess it's fine. It's not like I spend hours on twitch anyways. Nothing too interesting these past two days. Been making a potential career move after a recruiter called me today so let's see where that goes. 

Spent a crap ton of money on Amazon for some things I've been meaning to buy also. So there's that.

It's my birthday tomorrow so me and my mates are gonna be celebrating tonight instead since one of them have work late tomorrow. Fun times. Turning 25 seems strange since I'm a quarter century old. Seems like yesterday I was turning 20 and at a completely different stage of life. weird huh.

I digress. Back to drawing for me.

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Day 7 & 8

1-11-2020

I think it's gonna be a reoccurring thing that I forget to post for some days. Nothing too eventful during these past two days. Finally get a day to myself just to sit back and focus on my goals. Currently I'm getting back on the swing of drawing charcoal again so there's that. Drawing boards and a big paper pad helped my get back into the groove and the flow of things again.

Plan to do some SQL coding later to prep myself for some work initiatives that I want to get done by the end of this quarter. I've got a head full of ideas on how to tackle some work problems and I want to be technically proficient enough to see those ideas through.

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Day 9&10

1-13-2020

Still going strong! I got sick recently so I've been spending most of my time sleeping and resting. I've noticed that I've been spending more time on youtube and Instagram which is not very good. I've also been lagging behind in my composition course so I need to catch up. 

Decided to job hunt again since I feel that it's prime time to start applying for jobs since companies and teams have got their 2020 budgets. I'm grossly underpaid for the amount of effort I put into learning new software, so I want a job that will help me become a proficient data analyst with a relatively decent pay. (Mind you I get pair measly $3 more than an In N Out worker here in California. So you can kind of do the math) And I'm a bit tired of my workplace. Office politics and my boss promising too much for our given  teams capabilities. 

I realized that figurary (portmaneau  of February and figure) is coming up so I would like to devote my all towards becoming more proficient in drawing the human figure. So hopefully with the gaming detox I can really put some gains towards that venture.

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Day 11

1-14-2020

Feeling a lot better today, but otherwise nothing super eventful. Made a home cooked meal and did some comp learning. I probably should learn some RESTFUL API and JSON for an upcoming work initiative I want to pursue. Applied to 2 jobs today so let's keep that consistency up!

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Day 12

1-15-2020

Went to the gym today, applied to some jobs and did the usual lessons. Same old same old. Thinking about how I'm going to occupy my time during the longer weekend coming up.  probably apply to some jobs and do some extra drawing. Certainly not gaming. Work is starting to get on my nerves again as I approach that fine line of crossing to a new opportunity once more. This time I just need a reason to cross.

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