Killing Time

Poor baby boy has been sick, and wants only to be rocked by his Mommy.  It's cute and sweet for a finite period of time, then Mommy goes crazy.  That's where the lappy comes in.  Cha-ching!  Whole world at my fingertips.  An infinite amount of knowledge streamed to me in seconds.  And what do i choose to do with this exciting and limitless tool in the palm of my hand?  Blog surf.

After checking out my sister in law's latest craft project, I hit that slighlty firghtening "Next Blog -->" button.  A blog about video games.  Okay, next then.  Another blog about video games.  Next: video games.  And more video games.  14 blogs in a row about video games!!!  How to get to a level 20 Maji without encountering the witch of Rumiah, alliances, priests, warlocks, rogues.  This guy stayed up all night getting a spell to manage minions.  What the heck?

Time was I cruised blogs to get ideas about where people have gone for quick weekend vacations, or what cool things they've made, or how to organize a space better.  When I was just sitting around killing time, I still wanted to learn something.  Now I'm just finding people who are killing time with killing time.  ARGH!

I don't get video games.  I really don't.  Maybe it's because I don't like to sit still.  My brain cannot comprehend what good is coming out of sitting in front of the computer for hours on end to complete arbitraty goals and build a meaningless realm.   I know that everyone needs a hobby - something to relax and unwind and just purely enjoy.  But how much is too much?

Now, to be fair, I know it's not just video games that waste time.  I once heard a story on NPR about a compulsive scrapbooker.  Her husband threatened to divorce her unless she curbed her scrapbooking addiction.  She was spending more time scrapbooking about her kids than she was spending with the kids.  She spent something like $12,000 on supplies in a year.  What!?

Here's what I'm getting at: What am I doing with my time and how is it making me a better person and/or the world a better place?  Some people spend 6 hours a day playing video games with their alliance.  What if that alliance cut that time in half, and each member spent 3 hours doing a service project?  How many neighbor's sidewalks could you shovel in 3 hours?  How many beanies could you knit for preemies at the hospital?  How many homes could be built for habitat for humanity? 

I'm calling myself and everyone else out to turn a non-productive hour into a service hour.  Rake someone's leaves, sweep out the gutter, take some cans to the food bank, pick up litter in your neighborhood.  Hang up, unplug, turn off, and go DO something!