7:25 AM
I fell asleep last night at around 1 AM and I woke up this morning at around 6:25 AM. This morning I wrote yesterday's entry, and I ended up creating some automatic streaks. As long as I can do some of these good activities every day, and as long as I can avoid doing some negative activities, the streaks will continue counting upwards on their own and I won't have to reset their count. I also created a new streak just now for "Days of not replying to online 'debates'" since I get into those a lot. I win every time, but it's quite draining on the time and I feel like I can do more things with my time over replying to fools.
Yeah seriously, time is my most valuable asset, and here I was spending about an hour or more a day, just replying to fools online? It's silly. For entertainment like watching Basketball or shows like the Twilight Zone, who cares? As far as I know I got a bit of enjoyment from those events, but that's all. For messing up, that's one of the worst activities ever. Maybe it's because I have had several days long breaks between messing up now, but it just doesn't quite feel the same.
11:12 PM
Today was an excellent day. I did everything I wanted to do. It was all thanks to creating those streaks. Actually I've only walked about 5k steps so far today, and I'm going to take the remaining 10k steps now. I'll be back
12:05 AM (of Tuesday, August 11th 2020)
Okay I'm back after my walk, I managed to complete 10k steps. I walked in total darkness outside at times and the song "I'm gonna knock you out" started playing in my head, so I started singing along and shadow boxing a little bit as I walked. Today was such a good day and I was full of energy. I would stop boxing every time there was a car driving by though, as their headlights would illuminate where I was, and I didn't want to look weird. It was totally empty outside though, barely any cars drove by and there was no one else out.
Anyway, today has been an excellent day because I got done pretty much everything that I wanted to get done. I was able to walk 10k steps, catch up on logs, catch up on finances, and write today's entry. I was even able to study for a few hours today, which is remarkable since it's been like 2-3 weeks since I last studied what I was supposed to study.
Before work this morning I recorded a video on why obsession with material goods was harmful. I highlighted planned obsolescence and how technically phones from 5+ years ago could still do the same thing phones today can do, they're limited by their software updates not being allowed the latest versions. It's so arbitrary and is only there to make people buy the newer models instead of a used phone. I went over the material mining and how it destroys the environment, I went over the manual labor to mass produce these and other goods, and how everything ends up in landfill or even the oceans. I showed footage of how animals would eat these plastic parts or get caught in them, and die, of course I mentioned if they feel bad about these few animals dying, they should consider how many more they kill a day just for the food on their plates.
I thought it was a good video, I went over a lot. Basically all our material possessions we only use for such a short time, and then they're disposed of, except they're not really gone, since they take an eternity to decompose, considering that plastic bags take a thousand years. And material possessions are so temporary and ephemeral anyway, they really don't matter that much. This is why I pretty much only buy used things. I was about to buy a used iPhone 4 once my main phone broke, and the iPhone 4 is an 8 year old phone, and I would have had no problem using that as my main phone, if not for the fact that I already have another newer phone I only used for photos.
Speaking of my broken phone, my dad was able to find his phone which was the same exact phone as my broken phone. I charged up the battery and I swapped the batteries, and my phone still wouldn't turn on. His phone worked just fine. My phone was definitely completely dead.
Anyway I didn't upload the video or anything since I only had one take and I think I can improve upon it tomorrow. Actually I won't have time to do it tomorrow since I have to manage some Habitica challenges. Oh well.
Today has been a really good day. There's a huge urge I have to mess up tonight, but I'm not going to. I'm just going to go to sleep.
@lays_chips I don't think "using stuff for longer" is a good solution, since people will still eventually get rid of their things and replace it with something new, just a little bit later than normal. The solution is to not want anything. Someone with that mindset wouldn't buy anything unless they needed it (such as a phone) and if they did buy something, they'd most likely buy it used and older since they don't care that much about the latest and greatest.
The individual benefits the most for being like this. They get a pretty good mental benefit from looking inwards instead of outwards to find happiness. They also save a lot of money just by not buying anything. There's also less things and possessions they have to worry about. It's not a sacrifice at all, once an individual realizes how truly unnecessary most possessions are, not even mentioning how harmful they could be, they simply wouldn't want things anymore.
Just like with meat, the problem doesn't get resolved until everyone stops, but it does improve a small amount with each person.
@lays_chips Your dad picked a really bad phone haha. I actually was almost about to get a Windows phone as well at one point, I'm glad I didn't! I really enjoyed my first experience with a smartphone. On the bus on the way to school, I would play games with people like Words With Friends and Draw Something (this was before Snapchat). Everyone I played with I knew in real life and we'd have a lot of fun. Those were the days, as they say. Since you have a newer phone now, I don't think there's anything stopping you from playing those games with other people today.
You make a lot of great points, but I'm not specifically targeting people who are raising a family, fighting poverty, or are struggling with health, where'd I say that? My video is targeted at a general audience, with ideas applicable for anybody, including people in those groups, but I'm not targeting them directly.
Anyway I'll record and upload the video online tomorrow and link it, then you can judge the video yourself. The main theme will be about how our obsession with possession is harmful, and possible alternatives (minimalism and/or essentialism). I'll mention your ideas as well such as there being possible trade-offs.
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