So… I just pulled out of a week-and-a-half-long gaming binge. For the last week and a half, since Saturday after I fell sick, I’ve played and finished – in quick order: Civilization IV, Black and White 2, and SimCity Societies. So much for my grand resolutions to keep the month of March limited to 3 hours of leisure time a day.
Actually, it’s a combination of 2 factors. I was doing quite well until I fell sick, the day before a weekend. Then, a combination caused by reduced willpower (due to illness) and tremendous amounts of free time (due to the weekend, followed by two days of no classes and completely up-to-date marking) brought me crashing down. And it’s a vicious cycle – the sicker I was, the weaker my mental health was. The weaker my mental health, the more time I spend gaming. The more time I spend gaming, the weaker my physical health is. The weaker my physical health, the slower I am to recover from sickness. I finally pulled out of the cycle roughly yesterday.
Now I need to play catch-up and get the ball rolling again. My new motto is: “Success is defined not by how many times you’ve fallen down, but how many times you’ve gotten back up.” On the plus side, playing those particular three games in succession has spawned a whole cascade of ideas with regards to various issues and topics, which I’ll post about in upcoming entries. And furthermore, I found out today that some of my students read this blog as well. A shout-out to them!
