hemonkey's Journal

[hemonkey]

This is my second time writing but I wanted to begin in a new article. Today went by with me resisting my urges and telling my gamer friends that I can't play with them. While I was browsing the internet, I clicked on a website and it appeared all in Russian and my anti virus blocked a malware attack. I got scared because I don't want Ivan to hack into my computer. So today was my 2nd day of quitting games after so many relapses and I look forward to completing my 90 days.

[hemonkey]

Day 6 of quitting games. I didn't want to use my computer so I did not write after using so much of my energy on doing work on a computer. I struggled with watching youtube and just mainly television. I also built Lego castles and my creations and started working on a Lego stop motion film. This is me starting my detox again after many relapses. To conclude, I think my friends are my biggest temptation because they like gaming more than me and they tell me to play with them all the time. 

[hemonkey]

Day 14 of quitting games. I got lazy and procrastinated a lot the past few days and I'm finally back to writing. Some things that I found are distracting me are gaming streamers and gamer friends. I am trying to avoid those kind of temptations and try doing something else other than gaming. I think I watch too much TV so I went outside these days to play with bugs which is entertaining.

[hemonkey]

Day 15 of my detox. I started drawing a comic and finished one page of it. The weather got cold because the winter is approaching so I stayed inside most of the time.

[hemonkey]

Day 19 of my detox I think. Today is Halloween so my mom made a duck for dinner and my whole family had a Halloween feast. Also, I made myself my own Halloween costume from scratch which was pretty fun and exciting. One bad thing that happened was I relapsed thinking it was Halloween and giving myself a break which resulted in my relapse. 

[Commissar]

Good on you for being honest with things. It's an ongoing journey, and sometimes there's nothing to do but keep on keeping on. Part of being here tends to mean we're the sort of folks who just can't regulate that part of our lives. A few minutes easily turns into an hour, into that familiar well of lost time. It's tempting to think that we've moved past it, but I'm not sure we ever really do. Just learn to live with the person we are, and point ourselves in a direction that we can fulfilled going on.

The Halloween costume sounds sweet. I haven't made anything like that in the longest time - Never had the knack of avoiding gluing myself to the table. What'd you make?

Best of luck, Hai. Rooting for you!

Edited November 1, 2020 by Commissar

[hemonkey]

Day 20! I am so close to my last record of 20 something days after I relapsed hard and went back to gaming for a few months. About my Halloween costume. I made a snake scepter from scratch using a plastic pipe and some paper. I also found an electromagnetism kit with light bulbs and wires. I used my knowledge and skill and made a snake scepter which has a lever that activates two lightbulbs which are the snake's eyes so the eyes would gloooooooooow. I got some old wizard robe costumes from earlier and combined the two to become the master magician. It was fun creating it and I am finally finding something to encourage me to continue my path to become game free again.

[hemonkey]

Back on track. I just came back from a relapse and want to enjoy life again. I started drawing my comic and reading books. Also, I tried to exercise more and stop slacking off on my push ups. Did some burpees today and walked around my neighborhood. 

[BornAgain40]

Good idea on the exercise part. Even if it's super light, it's better than nothing. 

[hemonkey]

I got too lazy the past few weeks and did not write on here but I wrote some things down on my physical journal that I keep everyday. This past thanksgiving break has given me the opportunity to develop a new hobby, running. I haven't ran since the end of June due to the blistering rays of the summer sun. After a long time of skin burning ultraviolet sunlight, the Earth changed to nice cool autumn where the clouds rolled in. It was kind of hard at first because I was breathing heavily after just a mile of running and sweating profusely. After the first run, my second run got somewhat better with me getting over my first mile and over into my second one with less sweating and lung cramping. The most recent run came with me finishing my 3rd mile which is a step toward building my cardiovascular system back up again.

[Pochatok]

Woah, congrats on our progress with running! Also, I love your descriptive writing style, it's very original 🙂

About exercise: In order to make it a stronger, life-long habit, I recommend asking yourself how fun and rewarding the activities you currently do for your physical health are. For me, I kept losing my will to exercise because the exercises I did were rather tiring and not very fun for me, although very rewarding in terms of muscle gains. Changing my routine to less extreme but more fun exercises has helped me maintain my shape but also enjoy what I am doing and exercise every-every day.

Cheers!

[championeal]

Welcome back!

10 hours ago, Hai said:

It was kind of hard at first because I was breathing heavily after just a mile of running and sweating profusely. After the first run, my second run got somewhat better with me getting over my first mile and over into my second one with less sweating and lung cramping. The most recent run came with me finishing my 3rd mile which is a step toward building my cardiovascular system back up again.

Congrats on getting into the exercise habit. Running can be really rewarding because you can easily measure your progress both with distance and time.

[hemonkey]

     For the past few days I have been trying to get away from any type of gaming and staying away from gamer friends. I started to play chess after watching the new show on Netflix and although I am bad at it, I will not become a mindless addict to it. Usually I just play computers on chess websites and I play the higher level ones with hints so I can get better at knowing how to use the pieces effectively.

     Another thing I have been doing is making lego stopmotion films. I made them with the legos I built and it worked out pretty good. I uploaded some to youtube but although I do not get any views, I still do it for fun so to replace gaming.

[Pochatok]

Oh my please DM me with your lego stopmotion stuff, I love those!

[hemonkey]

I just finished my latest stop motion film. Although the background is not good(because I do not have a green screen and I am only using my ipad to film) I still made the special effects good with iMovie. So in conclusion, I made a good film for free using free apps and low budget filming equipment although I am thinking to upgrade my setup. In case you want to know what I made: 

 

[Jason70]

That's a great video for low budget equipment! I really enjoyed it, very creative! One thing I'd say is that there are too many characters to remember, at least for me, however that's just a small nitpick. Overall it's great!

Good luck on other videos!

Jason [I am also named Jason :)]

[hemonkey]

Today I took a break from filming and did some chores like cleaning around the house. Also did some reading at the end of the day. I have lost track of how many days I have been on my detox but I would take my best guess at 10 days because I remember starting my detox at around thanksgiving. Thankfully, I do not watch porn and do not use social media (you may want to call me a nerd) which is good because I have 2 less things to worry about.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Hai
made a mistake

[hemonkey]

It was pretty hard for me to get up from bed mostly because I had to use the bathroom at night and it woke me up and I had to try to fall asleep on my own. I think it is mostly because I got thirsty at night before bed and drained 2 cups water. Anyways, I went to class today and was pretty awake. I wanted to do video games today but I am not going to because I know the evil creeping behind the monitor. Since I am writing so early today I might edit this later in the after noon.

[hemonkey]

So I forgot to edit my journal yesterday. It is what it is and I will move on today to a new day. 

I have 2 things that I want to emphasize today. One of them is that I have started to play the piano which I think will help me significantly on my detox to become awesome again. I have played the piano before but got too much into gaming and just killed my time for it. Another thing is today I took math class and had a test. I got a full score which shows that I have studied and also that I used my time wisely and did not game.

I am also going to go running 3 miles this afternoon so I can keep my body healthy.

[Bird By Bird]

I've had a love-hate relationship with my piano for a while. It's all part of learning to take it easy not hate yourself for missing a few keys here and there. "There are no mistakes, only some keys that sound better than other keys." is what I read in an improv piano book.

[hemonkey]

Yesterday I had to postpone my run because the weather was just not right for me but I went on a walk and did a HIIT workout at home for 25 minutes. I practiced piano yesterday and although I made mistakes, I was able to enjoy my time and not smash my keys like I would do when I was younger. Another thing I would like to write is something important about my game quitting journey. My school is hosting an event on the game "Roblox" as part of a recreational activity for students. I was tempted to sign up but I know I would relapse after what happened last time. Last time I relapsed is when I wanted to play in moderation so I played for 1 hour. I didn't want to stop so I kept playing until it was the end of the day and I had to go to sleep and got nothing done. I believe I will complete my 90 day journey because of the hardships I have been through and learning how to cope with them. Eventually, I would get to a point where I will complete my journey and be in a crossroad to decide if I want to play or not but that is in the distant future.

[championeal]

9 hours ago, Hai said:

My school is hosting an event on the game "Roblox" as part of a recreational activity for students. I was tempted to sign up but I know I would relapse after what happened last time.

Congrats! The decision you made takes resolve. I think it's worth celebrating every moment we have the chance to game and choose not to 🥳

[Commissar]

Awesome stuff, Hai. Good on you for staying strong!

[hemonkey]

A fresh new day to work on time management!

Wake up time: 7:20 am

Last night sleep time: 9:50 pm

I feel refreshed after a good night's sleep. Today I have a few things planned out:

1)work on my presentation

2)color my drawing

3)practice piano

4)read for 2 hours

Edit: I changed my display name now to a more special one so now you can refer to me as @hemonkey

Edited December 10, 2020 by hemonkey

[hemonkey]

Today is an awesome day because it is Friday! I woke up at 7:10 today because I had to use the restroom but I did not go to sleep afterwards. Finished breakfast before 8 and attended my classes. I went to my friend's house to play ping pong today with a mask on and enjoyed my time there because I have not seen a single soul in months! I hope I don't get covid-19 though because I have heard of the consequences although I don't think I will because I don't think my friend has it.