Once you’ve been footloose and fancy-free for a while (a year and a half in my case) you find that adjusting your online life to your real life is very difficult indeed.
I have filled my livejournal friends page with lots of syndicated stuff that I need to stop reading, because I no longer have time to do so. I don’t think that I’ll have to delete any real friends, but all the syndicated stuff is going out the door, I guess.
I cannot take two hours a day anymore to read mail, USENET, and live journal before taking a leisurely shower and toddling off to the gym.
Right at the moment, it’s cheesing me off; however, I believe that once I get into the swing of things at work this will cease. At least, I hope so.
Otherwise, I’ll have to play the lottery more often in order to be able to live in the style to which I wish to become accustomed.
The 9 to 5 grind is so all consuming – there has to be a better way.
Hey! You found my world! How do you like it?
I have many friends who bombard me with suggestions about joining this Yahoo group or that email newsletter or reading this or that Blog. (Oh, god, the number of blogs!!)
While I often accept the suggestion, I rarely do more than check out the link, group, blog, etc., more than once.
The problem is that I, like you, am being overwhelmed by all the “stuff” out there. It’s all good stuff. But I can’t spend every waking moment reading every blog, every political site, every newsletter, every email…
When would I have a life?
I’ve had to “choose my battles,” so to speak. Many people say that I’m missing out. But I form the opposite conclusion: I’m deeply engrossed in the things I do pay attention to, and am taking much joy from them. I think I’d take less joy from skimming a thousand subjects than being immersed in just ten or twenty.
In a way, it has been almost an experience in mourning to have to abandon so many of the things I was used to doing (especially Usenet, the “first” thing on the Internet I was part of). But I suspect it’s like growing out of childhood, only now I’m more aware of the things I’m giving up. So it hasn’t been easy giving these things up, but I think I’m better off for it.
Well, I actually had it up until 2005, then lost it until now.
How do I like it? Well, the fact of the matter is that no one will pay me money unless I turn up and do the nifty job I always do. So, I trudge to work and back each day and do my best. I just have to get back into the swing of things again.
Yeah, in a year and a half I found lots and lots of stuff that I really had to read. Now I have to do triage on it. But, I’ll get that done soon, perhaps over the weekend. I think that a product out there that I need is something that will sense what I like to read and present me with a 1-page digest every evening. No links, just the salient points. If I could invent some AI app that would do that I’d be a rich man today (especially with the advertising possibilities).
I’d buy it! 🙂