sotolf

My internet at home was down over last week, and all in all I think I learned some things about me, and maybe also it managed to break some patterns. Also worth noticing is that I still had access to internet at work over the day, indeed doing my work would be near impossible without it.

Just to make the rest here make sense, I also have no dataplan for my smart phone, because I'm around wifi 80% of my time anyway, so if it would be going on for longer I'd probably get that dealt with, but I don't really want to do that unless it's very needed, I like my phonebill being around 3-4€ a month :p

Feeling alone

So I'll get this out of the way first, it's really the only really bad thing that I noticed, is that I felt really cut off from the world, much of this is because of the pandemic as well, as when I was going out taking walks on the weekend as well it was all empty, and then when I wasn't able to really contact people that I usually write with at least a couple of times over the evening, it felt kind of isolating and lonely. I was talking with people on the phone for a bit, but I have really come to the conclusion before that I don't really like talking with people over the phone, and much prefer asyncronus conversations, but that's just me being weird.

I've been having youtube on in the background a lot.

It's funny that I haven't really thought about this much, but mostly after getting back home I've been just putting together a youtube playlist to play on my TV as I was winding down for the evening, it's something that I enjoy doing, just having something mindless going on, but what I've realized that doing it every day probably isn't the best for me. In the time that I've been mostly offline in the evenings, I downloaded some videos that I was really excited to see with newpipe over the day, and then watched them in the evening later, and this made me realized that I have been often just watching things for the sake of having something on in the background, and I'm not quite sure how to think about that, I think I'll try at least to most days not go on those sprees.

Going through the downloading of videos in my lunchbreak, deciding what I really want to watch made the whole thing more deliberate, and lets me enjoy the time that I do watch more, also apart from missing the ability to use the chromecast, newpipe is a better way of using youtube in all ways. The interface is better, it has more functionality, it's freer, and it feels less like something that is trying all it can to incentivise you to watch more and more, and more like a tool you can use to watch something you want, and then go on with your day.

More time for podcasts.

Yeah I already listened to a lot of podcasts, but it shot even more through the roof this week, having something nice to listen to when you're feeling alone and just solving some sudoku or playing some minecraft or walking around the neighbourhood longing for a hug, well, podcasts are there for me, and I love it, the best thing about them is that it's not really something you need to wholly focus on, having just the audio part going means my eyes are free for other things, like enjoying the views, playing a game or something else. All in all I managed to clock in on a massive 68 hours of podcast listening last week, which is more than normal since I felt lonely and apart from everything, but it just solidified my enjoyment of it as a medium again, and still it's one of my favourite mediums.

Kickstarted my reading again.

I've been slacking off on reading again, mostly because due to me reducing my caffeine intake the last 3 weeks now I've been really sleepy in the evening, but also due to being more deliberate with the amount of videos I watch and reinstating my “no screens after 22:00” rule, it let's me focus on reading again, and it's wonderful, I just love putting on a good soundtrack, and dive into a good book as the last thing of the day, and I always end up annoyed with myself for having drifted away from it again, I don't know why, because I really love reading.

Something I look forward to when the weather gets warmer again is to walk out, find a place I like, a bench in the city, or a nice opening in the forest where I can spend an hour or so reading something and enjoying myself.

All in all.

In the end I'm happy that this happened to me for the week, I got reminded of things that I can do better, I refound things that I like to do, but for keeping up with people and not feeling happy, I'm happy that my internet is now back up again.