Advised repair schedule: reboot startup disk, offline for thirty-six hours, and replace head

[sovay]

The trouble is that when I manage to get a day in which I do nothing except lie around and read and occasionally glance at the internet and go back to lying around reading—and now intermittently thinking about rewatching Hans Christian Andersen (1952)—I feel that I am wasting time. I am not writing poems. I am not writing stories. I am not writing movie reviews. I am not working my paying job. I am not looking for supplementary work, of which God knows I need some. The Protestant work ethic is killing this country as we speak and I'm not even Protestant and it has been a demonstrable fact for years that if I do not get time by myself, unplugged, unstructured, not interacting in any fashion including the internet, I go nuts. And yet I feel like I'm wasting my time. Time I can't afford. Time running out. Avoiding my way through the end of days. Title of this post determined by my current mood, not by what I'm watching.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Tell your superego it needs to sit back and be quiet while your id and ego let plots and poems ferment in the background ;)

[gwynnega]

Time spent resting and recharging is definitely not wasted time.

[grammarwoman]

"Fuck the Protestant work ethic" has been a thought that has run through my head quite a lot recently, because seriously. Hope your rest is restful and not resentful.

[muffyjo]

Having recently rewatched Hans Christian Andersen, specifically, I was rather horrified by the misogyny and the brutality in the message about how it is ok to hit your spouse, if you really love them you see. Still has great tunes but was wearing on the soul to lose the glossy joy of it from my childhood.

[kore]

it has been a demonstrable fact for years that if I do not get time by myself, unplugged, unstructured, not interacting in any fashion including the internet, I go nuts. And yet I feel like I'm wasting my time. Time I can't afford. Time running out.

OH MAN, get out of my head. Doing anything other than work for money every second you're alive is Wrong! especially if you're poor or just scrambling for money!


I have 1 of 2 questions to ask you: can you read PDFs in any way? (I have given up converting them but can read them on my laptop all right, but it's a bit annoying.)

[mme_hardy]

I feel the same way. I'm really sorry.

Give yourself what respite you can. Everybody's got this empty feeling like their mother or their dog just died.

[teenybuffalo]

And yet I feel like I'm wasting my time. Time I can't afford. Time running out. Avoiding my way through the end of days.

It also me. Another friend used to say that she wound up with Catholic guilt and stern Protestant work ethic despite not being either of those things. I have no idea how one deals with this.

[nineweaving]

*hugs*

Time for musing is essential.

Nine

[selidor]

Yeah, the growing-back days are critical.
After too many years, there are now weekends again where the laptop stays firmly closed (ok maybe a quick email check, but no working), and this has proven to be a Very Good Thing for a healthier Selidor.
But then after the weekend there will still be a voice in the mind of 'yes but what did you get done?'. Fie on thee, guilt-voice. Unwatered seeds never grow.

[brigdh]

God, I have this exact same problem. Sympathies, at least?

[handful_ofdust]

You're not even vaguely wasting time. I've spent the last two days sleeping all day AND most of the night, and I can only think I'm recharging. Don't let the world tell you otherwise.