smart computer use?

ROTFWKBMU…

Rolling on the floor with kids beating me up.

I liked it.

I think I need to step into the new millenium and get something other than a tape player for my car.

Interesting. I leave my computer for just a few minutes and all of the sudden gmail grew some buttons.

I had to check some other themes just to make sure it wasn’t the theme I was using only. It does seem to be all themes. I also see some search inputs in the drop down boxes for “Move To” and “Labels”. Good stuff.

I haven’t noticed any updates to Gmail recently that visually grabbed me like this one. Maybe it’s just cause it’s such a commonly used interface component that has been given the new looks.

Heavy computer users tend to start to do everything on a digital level if possible. I do it. I’m not sure why exactly, but I’m constantly finding that it is more efficient and easier to do things if I use a computer, which is probably 80% of the reason.

The Daily Digital Grind

As a result, here’s the most common things I do from day to day, and all involve heavy use of a computer:

• Work
• Listen to music
• Produce music
• Play video games
• Watch movies
• Accounting & Finances
• Blogging
• Checking the weather
• Reading news
• Managing my schedule
• Communicating with clients and co-workers

Here’s a few of the things that don’t involve use of a computer that I tend to do from day to day:

• Sleep
• Shower
• Eat
• Disc golfing (in the summer only)
• Maintaining my aquarium (however my aquarium logging software is computer based)
• Driving to and from the office
• Going to the gym

Haha, I could probably go on and on, but this gets my point across.

So, even when I’m not working, a lot of my free time is also spent using the computer. This is probably not a good thing! It just so happens that a lot of my hobbies fall into the “able to do it on a computer” category.

Getting Non-Digital

After realizing this overwhelming use of digital resources for work and play, I started focusing on introducing non-digital stuff into my life. Why? Just because I can, but also the need to mix it up I guess.

What’s one of the first things I did?

I bought a Banjo and am going to learn how to play that.

It’s not digital. I can’t plug it into an amplifier or hook it up via USB to my computer. I can play it anywhere, including in the middle of the woods with no power source within miles of my location. This is a good step in a non-digital direction. The sound is raw, compared to the computer-based synthesizers and drum machines I am used to playing with. I also don’t need to be in my studio to play it. I can play it anywhere. I can sit on the porch and hammer out some bluegrass at will. Well I gotta practice a bit more before I’m hammering out bluegrass at will, but you get the idea.

I’ve only had the Banjo for a couple days, but I already like being able to go home at night and pluck away on the Banjo, forgetting that I was even involved with marvelous technology for the last 10 hrs of the day.

The non-digital sound, the natural feel of the simple yet complex instrument, it’s a great break from overwhelming computer use in daily life.

Sometimes mixing in a lot more non-digital stuff will make your daily computer usage seem like less of a grind, and you might even regain some appreciation for computers, assuming you have started to take their usefulness for granted. I know that using computers less myself makes me appreciate them more, which is why I try to get away from computers from time-to-time if possible.

How’s Your Non-Digital Outlook?

Are you ever feeling overwhelmed by the digital nature of modern society? You probably are to some degree. Take a look at your day to day life and make sure that you get some non-digital stuff going from day to day, especially if you rely on computers as much as I do.

Don’t forget that music doesn’t need to be digital, vinyl records are fun to have around for something different. Want to learn to play guitar? Try acoustic first.

Some more examples:

• Want to get into more art related hobbies? Buy oil paints or get into woodcarving instead of using Photoshop more than you already do at work.
• Woodcarving is a nice alternative to a 3-D modeling hobby, for something more physical in nature (might be a stretch but helps make a point).
• Do you like to play online first-person shooter games? How about getting involved with paintball? That’s another very fun non-digital alternative.
• Try writing a letter to your parents every now and then, rather than trying to get them to use email more often. It’s a nice change of pace.

You get the idea. I’m not saying all digital stuff is bad, but I’m learning from experience that I should probably mix it up a bit to feel well rounded as a human being.

I stumbled across an interesting read at the Early Ed Watch blog today that got me reminiscing about all the educational computer games that I played back in the ’80s and early ’90s. I was a kid during that time, being born in 1979.

Computer gaming was reaching the classrooms, and I logged my fair share of Number Munchers hours. Imagine that. Learn and play video games at the same time. It was novel concept back in those days.

From Early Ed Watch I worked my way over to an article titled “The Top 10 Most Influential Educational Video Games from the 1980s“. What a good read.

From Educational Games Research:

People who grew up playing videogames are influenced by them, especially when designing games of their own. Those who played through the 1980s are reaching their professional prime, and the games they played in school are worth examining. Here we’ll take a look at what I consider to be the top ten most influential educational games from the 1980s.

I guess I fall into this category of people who grew up playing video games in the 1980s. I must read on. This is getting interesting…

After reading about and being reminded of the classics like Sim City, Number Munchers and Oregon Trail, I just want to play some of these games to see what my impressions of them are now as opposed to how I thought they were awesome when I was a kid.

This guy over here named Justin uncovered a couple links to both Number Munchers and Oregon Trail. I had to try to see if I could get them running.

First try was Number Munchers. Nuts. I can’t seem to get their emulator plugin to download into FireFox. The download fails.

Well, maybe I can get into the Maxis site where Sim City can be played online for free. Good times.