A Drifter Among Us

I sent my last tweet out Monday morning  at 7:24 a.m. and immediately felt anxiety over how I was going to make it through the week with no fb,twitter, or text messaging. I was bombarded with an array of thoughts such as: "Will anyone even text me?" "How will I know what's going on?" "How will I spend my downtime?" "Am I going to get sick of being productive?"

I spent the first few hours picking up and then putting down my phone as if I had some "phantom" message awaiting me. I could tell the habit was going to die hard.
**Monday: Read 3 chapters of a book, watched Cardinals game, didn't interact with anyone outside of work.
**Tuesday: Created a Budget, Read, Had family over for dinner where we discussed a variety of topics including social media's impact on family relations, problems with one another, frustrations, jobs, trips, further schooling, and caring for one another.
**Wednesday: Listed and sold household items on Craigslist. Read.
**Thursday: Did proofreading for the Journey, Worked on invitations for Mom's party, Called an old friend, Emailed from my computer Kristen while she is in Europe.
**Friday: Dinner with my parents, Made mojito's from home, watched "A River Runs Through It"
**Saturday: Read on the back deck, Went to my cousins graduation party, bookshopping at a Goodwill, home for the evening
**Sunday: Church in the morning, finished up a book and got a nice lobster tan, Afternoon drink with Josh, Self-analyzation in the evening.

I feel refreshed after a time of quieting all the noise in my life. To be honest I didn't miss what I gave up too terribly much. It took a little adjusting at first to stop picking up my phone and point the curser to my twitter app, but in the end I hardly touched my phone unless it rang or I called a friend. I've given thought to downgrading my phone plan. There is something troublesome to me that I'm so easily accessible to people. I guess that goes both ways.

I highly recommend others taking a week off and trying this. Some of you need it.

Mention to anyone with computer savvy that your laptop has somehow gotten slower over recent months and they’ll ask you the same thing: “have you defragmented your hard drive?” Defragmenting works by taking small slivers of information stored in various locations and consolidating them so that they’re in the same place on the drive and thus easier to access in larger chunks. Hard drive fragmentation is a great metaphor for - if not a literal manifestation of - what’s happened to our brains over years and years of processing small bursts of information. 2009 took fragmentation to a whole new level given the rise of Twitter and the social acceptance of texting people as a substitute to making phone calls.

That’s where the one week digital cleanse comes in. I’ll be defragmenting my mental and psychological hard drive during the first seven days of the new year, and I invite you all to participate.

The cleanse will begin at 9am on January 1. This gives everyone a chance to text and tweet their new year’s well wishes, and theoretically begins upon waking up the morning of January 1. The cleanse will end at 9am on January 8.

Guidelines:

*email only from laptop or desktop computers

*cell phones can only be used to make calls, and no text messages or e-mails are allowed - if you receive a text, you must reply in voice over the phone. E-mails must be returned from a laptop or desktop computer.

*no use of Twitter or any other social networking site - this includes reading as well as posting.

*no visiting of any entertainment or gossip sites. (No need to detail which ones - you know what they are.)

I floated the idea last week on Twitter to see if anyone could envision themselves doing this, and the responses were interesting; some said they could definitely do it, but many were resigned to the idea, calling it impossible. If it is impossible, than my theory is already proven and we’re in big trouble as a society.

This can be done, people. Do it with me. When we pop back up on the grid on January 8, let’s trade stories on what it felt like, how hard it was, and maybe how hard it actually wasn’t.

JM

Don't get me wrong, a comfortable life is really not that bad. But I needed a change. I had just gotten out of a relationship and I was feeling pretty drained. I felt like I had been slowly shutting myself down. I was exhausted, I was bitter, I was angry that my life felt ordinary. Feeling as if my time was running out, I realized quickly that the window for many unbelievable experiences is only open for a limited time.

As I'm sure some of you may have noticed, I've been writing a lot lately about a "list." It started out innocently enough by my friend and roommate Chris having an idea of listing out things he wanted to accomplish in the new year. It was New Years Day after all, and it was appropriate to come up with resolutions. As the ideas slowly developed, it became much more than resolutions. It became a list of narratives to live out.

There were 2 guidelines to follow: 1)It had to be within reason to accomplish and 2)it could not violate our morals/law. So with those guidelines we sat in a neighborhood bar in South City, brainstorming ideas for a bucket list to accomplish in a year. We grabbed a bar napkin and started writing. We asked the question "What would you like to do with your life before the end of the year?" to our waitress, our bartender, and after changing locations, to a table of 4 attractive, college age women.

(Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking this sounds a lot like the show on MTV right now and my response is: "yeah, you're right." In our defense the show had not come out until a month after we started. And if Chris knew anything of the show beforehand I was completely oblivious to it.)

Anyways, when we drafted the initial list, the three of us said we would all do it. Aric quickly bailed, and I dragged my feet for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Chris started living with purpose after that night. I saw him sacrifice, be humbled, gain confidence, and find joy with it. In that I found my motivation to finally join him.

A few other things happened that really got me moving, I'll share those stories one day. But for now, here it is: my 2010 bucket list. 52 things I hope to accomplish by years end. There are a lot of items listed that are intended to challenge my comfort level or challenge me physically. There are also a few things that I've always wanted to do in addition to a few soft-balls to keep me rolling. I'll try to write about each one as they come along. I've completed 10 so far, so my list is far from complete.

If you find yourself thinking of drafting a list, consider this question: Who do you want to be this year?

All the best,
James

(P.S. Oh also, if any of these interest you and you'd like to do it with me, send me a message or comment below)

1.     Write a song and perform it at an open mic night

2.     Encourage at least one person a day for a week

3.     Mentor someone by year’s end

4.     Read a book a month (one month read a book with a friend and have a discussion on it)

5.     Blog at least once a week for 3 months

6.     Have a “yes” day

7.     Have a friend make all decisions for 24 hours

8.     Read the bible in a year

9.     Paint something

10.   Write a short story

11.   Fast for 24 hours

12.   Go to a winery

13.   1 month without vice*

14.   2 month alcohol fast

15.   Take a train trip spur of the moment

16.   Take my camera everywhere for 1 month

17.   Digital Cleanse

18.   Weekend Trip somewhere new

19.   Hike

20.   Kayak

21.   Mountain Bike on a trail

22.   Right a wrong

23.   See my grandpa’s grave

24.   Skydive with Matt

25.   Rock climb at upper limits

26.   Embarrass Aric in public

27.   Go to Soulard Market

28.   Captain a team for Mission St. Louis

29.   Camp alone at Huzzah (end of March, April)

30.   Go to Cardinals Opening Day

31.   Put this list on display

32.   Surprise Someone

33.   Journal every day

34.   Deer Hunt

35.   Invest in 401K

36.   Enroll in Grad School

37.   5 in 5 *

38.   Buy Keg Beer & host a party- see what happens/who comes over

39.   Fast Eddie’s

40.   Read a book in one day

41.   Smoke Pipe Tobacco

42.   Grow a plant

43.   Be 100% opinionated on everything for 1 day

44.   Shave my head

45.   Offer to do a favor for someone I really don’t want to do

46.   Make a decision based on Paper,Rock,Scizzors

47.   Run a 5K

48.   Theology at the bottleworks

49.   Cannot spend money for an entire week

50.   Meet Matt Holiday

51.   Friends choice

52.   52 Tattoo if list is completed