We're Breaking Up. We Can Still Be Friends Though.

It was pointed out to me that I spend way too much time on the internet and that PERHAPS I should look at it and ask myself if there’s anything else I would rather be doing with my time.

So I looked at what I do online and it basically comes down to two things: I write blogs and I post on message boards. I go to two forums pretty religiously, and a couple off and on. Just talking about guitars pretty much.

So I thought IS there anything I would rather be doing with my time?

The answer is yes.

What I’d like to do is read, play guitar, maybe do some studying when I start going back to school, etc. etc.

So I stopped going the forums. Not cold turkey, I still visit from time to time, but I’m not on them with nearly the same passion. I think this is the first time I’ve ever done something in moderation.

That’s a big deal actually. I’m very much an all or nothing kind of guy so the idea of merely lessening an activity and not completely stopping it kind of blows my mind. It’s something I’m eager to try out.

But the blogging will continue. I was tempted to disconnect myself completely from the computer save putting new CDs on iTunes and updating my iPod, but I didn’t think that would be very fair to anyone. I didn’t think it would be fair to you because maybe you like coming here to kill time. I didn’t think it would be fair to me because I actually get quite a bit of satisfaction both from this blog and the 5th Fret. I’d feel pretty guilty leaving my blogs and their readers.

Anyway, so that’s what’s going on. I woke up today, day one of my lessened activity, spent maybe ten minutes on the internet (a good chunk of that trying to find videos of the Orange Dual Terror and emailing questions to Orange regarding it) checking the forums and not posting much, then finishing a blog for here and then I went to the bathroom to play guitar. I didn’t want to wake up my lovely wife with my horrible playing and it sounds the best in the bathroom (the acoustics are lovely). That, and I was feeling kind of like annoying the neighbors. If you’re in the bathroom at the same time as a neighbor (either next door or below, it doesn’t matter) you can hear what’s going on.

So maybe I made their *ahem* morning ritual interesting with some background music.

And how do I feel with this lessened amount of forum activity? Pretty good actually. I already miss talking about guitars as much, but I enjoyed actually playing guitar. I’m very excited for tomorrow morning where I start my jazz lessons. I figure, if I’m going to wake up that early anyway, I might as well learn stuff instead of just playing around.