{"id":197,"date":"2020-03-29T20:51:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T20:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billcraig.info\/?p=197"},"modified":"2024-03-03T17:05:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T22:05:57","slug":"amusing-ourselves-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/?p=197","title":{"rendered":"Amusing Ourselves to Death"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

I prefer to say that we are procrastinating on life, filling in the limited time we have with spoonful\u2019s of cheap low value so called \u201centertainment\u201d that robs us of the real joys of life obtained through doing, playing, experiencing and participating in a world full of opportunities. If you think that sounds a little harsh \u2013 you\u2019re right, it is harsh! It needs to be harsh to snap us out of the \u201czombie\u201d like state we are in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A preschooler watching violent cartoons on television. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m challenged every day! TV and un-focused internet browsing (\u201ce-wandering\u201d) is tempting and easy to fall into \u2013 however, every year I have been able to reduce the amount and gradually slow down the \u201cprocrastination on life\u201d \u2013 or have I? Perhaps blogging with no guarantee of an audience or writing without a particular audience in mind is just another form of \u201ce-wandering\u201d which is helping me to \u201camuse myself to death\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Originally published on billcraig.info December 13, 2009.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Additional comment I made on this post February 21, 2010 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every once in a while I revisit a few books in my library. Today I picked out \u201cThe Rules of Life\u201d by Richard Templar. I quickly scanned the 100 rules laid out in the book and noticed one that related closely to this topic. Rule 87, on page 188 said it simply and most effectively \u2013 Get Involved!
The author starts off with \u2013 \u201ctake an interest in your world. Don\u2019t watch it on television but go out there and interact with it. Too many people are living their lives through the lives of others seen on that little screen. Or even living their lives vicariously through the lives of others in the real world\u2026\u201d He continues with my favourite couple of sentences:
\u201cThere is a great big wide world out there full of life, vitality, energy, experience, drive, excitement. Get involved means get out there and be part of it.\u201d
I think the author has said it best. I will being taking his words to heart in my remaining years so keep following this post to see how it goes!<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>I prefer to say that we are procrastinating on life, filling in the limited time we have with spoonful\u2019s of cheap low value so called \u201centertainment\u201d that robs us of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","book_review_cover_url":"","book_review_title":"","book_review_series":"","book_review_author":"","book_review_genre":"","book_review_isbn":"","book_review_publisher":"","book_review_release_date":"","book_review_format":"","book_review_pages":"","book_review_source":"","book_review_rating":"","book_review_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-blog","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billcraig.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}