What Have I Missed? Nothing

It has been a week since I disabled my Facebook account [temporarily]. Much to my surprise, I didn't really miss much. Life moved on, at a frantic pace of course for I am still a graduate student, and I still had contact with the people who mattered (that'd be my friends). I talk to people in the flesh, converse with them via email and IM, basically doing the things that I did prior to 2006 just when Facebook was starting to take over the world by storm.

Frankly, I think I can live this lifestyle. One without the interference of some odd social network thing like Facebook. Or LinkedIn. Or any of the hundreds of Friendster knock-offs (does anyone still remember Friendster?).

I'm not a technological Luddite---far from it considering everything. It's just that this ``always on, always connected'' lifestyle is really starting to burn into time that I once had to do things I liked, be it reading new material, sampling new games, writing or just going out for a meal. Sure, it seems harmless at first, but being a computer scientist also means that there is this obsession streak present. It is mild of course, almost all computer scientists or intellectuals have an obsession streak about them, but when these obsessions are effected as unproductive compulsions like using Facebook, it disrupts our general ability to do things. I mean, I'd rather have a compulsion of reading than to follow all the 500 or so Facebook ``friends''. At least all that reading will pay off in the end when I have the time to left my brain sort out what I have read and to distill the important parts while discarding the useless.

That's the problem. The lack of down-time, the lack of ``me'' time. That's what's different now when I compare it to the past. I don't realise how much I miss these times of introspection till I have decided to kill off all these useless compulsions one by one. No wonder I always feel drained.

One invaluable lesson that I am starting to learn is to take things in stride. Taking things in stride doesn't mean slackness---it means to take what it is dished out with a good measure of perspective. It means to not get so caught up with one part of life that I neglect the others. One potentially apocryphal quote by the Dalai Lama sums it up the best. When asked what surprised him the most, the Dalai Lama purported replied

``Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.''

It probably doesn't matter if the holy man actually said this, but I think that it summarises the perspective of life quite well. Referring back to Regina Brett's 45 (or 50) life lessons, it's really about asking oneself this: ``Will it matter in five years?''

But enough of arm chair philosophizing---I'm sure people are more interested in some of the ``juicier'' aspects of my life. (=

I've gotten one of those Energy Belt thingies that give you a small pouch for the important stuff, and small bottles that can store electrolyte drinks (poor man's version: tap water + half teaspoon of salt), all hanging snuggly around the waist. Why one of these thingies? Well, I hate having to carry keys or anything in the pockets of my bermudas for running because getting ass-slapped by the damn thing is just annoying. Plus, as I start to increase my overall running distance, I will have to start taking hydration seriously, especially since summer is about to arrive. I got mine from Meijer for about ten dollars cheaper, which is awesome if you ask me.

Recently, I made a self-inking rubber stamp of my emblem. That profile picture that is available on the side bar of this blog, or that icon on the address bar? Yes, that's my emblem. I got it done at Simon's Stamps. All I had to do was to upload the image file and they sorted it all out. Workmanship is wonderful and it arrived fairly quickly too.

I've been seeing an athletic trainer these days with regards to the ginky deep muscle on the outer left side of my left calve muscle (I'm not going to use precise anatomical-speak here because I don't really know how to call it, but I think it might actually be the Fibularis Brevis, some stabiliser muscle that controls eversion of the foot). The exercises that she prescribed were rather weird, but they do help with the overall condition. The next session is going to be interesting, because she will be checking out my [nearly] barefoot running gait and seeing if it can be fixed to reduce all these weird lower limb problems.

Alright, enough babble for now. Need to have an early night. I've been rather sleep-deprived for the week. Till the next update.