Habits That Interfere
- Thu Aug 30, 2007
- By Susan
- Filed under: Blogging, The Net
- 16 Comments
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We all have some type of addiction, big or small, but in some way they interfere or take away from what we should be doing or maybe it’s rather an addiction to procrastination. Rather lately, I’ve been experiencing a difficult time focusing on the things I SHOULD be doing…mostly because of other distractions. Reviewing what gets me distracted, I thought it would be fun to compile a short list of “addictions”, whether or not they actually interfere with anything but rather are just plan ‘addicting/distracting’.
- Netflix - I can’t seem to get enough of updating my queue, checking out new releases, and even watching free videos online (Law & Order is a winner). Recently Netflix has even won me over by reducing my monthly subscription cost by $2.00 and giving me a bonus movie. I’m guessing this all because of their competition with Blockbuster, which is starting to sound even more appealing versus Netflix.
- City of Heroes - I just renewed my account, since taking a break for 4-6 months. I’ve been playing for quite a while (I think I’m going on 4 years…) and haven’t gotten tired of the MMORPG. I’ve even tried playing World of Warcraft, but can’t seem to get into, while my husband has been addicted to it (he’s recently been able to pull away from it). Not too long ago I found a way to combine my blogging with the video game world by naming a character after one of my websites. It also sounds like Shaun Low was thinking along the same ideas, which he explained in one of his recent posts. My recommendation in doing this, is if a character is named after a site be careful to not make it appear too promotional or you’ll lose out from being involved in the ‘gaming community’ and the experience. A lot of gamers are keen to being marketed to and want to reserve game playing for what it is…fun game play online, disconnected from RL (real-life).
- Watching the Real Estate Market Pop - My husband and I quickly bought and sold few homes during the past 4 years and recently got out to watch the housing market fiasco. It looks like we played our cards right because the market is slipping and subprime market is experiencing doomsday. I can’t help but frequently check out Ziprealty which allows you to look up homes and see price declines for each home and how long they have been on the market. I also can’t get enough of Zillow, although my feeling is that most of the estimated values are inflated. There are a couple excellent sites that are tracking the real estate market, Housing Panic and ML-Implode, if any are interested.
- Tivo - All I gotta say is that Tivo is a GREAT. I don’t always get the chance to watch tv or catch the shows when they air, and Tivo saves the day with a quick click. Much easier than VCR programming back in the old days. Recently I’ve been hooked on recording all episodes of Law & Order.
- One True Media - I just found One True Media a week ago and just in time too. I’ve been using the video making site to create a video montage of pictures for my daughter’s first birthday in September. I was amazed as to how easy it was to use and how many pictures I had. Total movie time…10 minutes which took 8 hours for me to make perfect with music. I’ll probably be making more videos in the future…
- Internet - I think many of us can raise our hands up on this one. I read my news, work, talk to friends, watch tv shows, surf and much more online. If I have no access to the internet, I would feel strongly disconnected from the world. A life without internet, I think not? I need to check it daily!
- Web Stats - This is at least blogging related. I’m a known offender. I check stats regularly and I’m guessing a lot of you do too.
My husband could probably list a bunch of annoying things I do that may not be classified as addictions, but repeated behavior (like re-arrange furniture).
This is only a short list that interferes with time spent away from doing work on my sites. Do you have things that pull you away from your blogging?
6:55 am on August 30th, 2007
For me lately it has been Halo 2. I never used to care for the game, but I have a cousin that stops by often and he’s gotten me into playing it online on the XBOX 360.
I never knew it could be so addicting. It’s turning into a huge stress reliever. Looking through a long range scope, picking off anonymous people from all the over world is really quite a rush :D Getting trash talked by little kids kind of sucks though.
Without a doubt it’s definitely been the major addiction which has led to my decrease in productivity lately. At least it’s fun though :)
8:16 am on August 30th, 2007
I was addicted to WOW during my college years it was painful to stop.
8:27 am on August 30th, 2007
Mike - ooo…Halo 2. I haven’t gotten around to playing it. I’m a bit afraid to add another addicting game to the table. Haha - yes, it’s pretty funny about the younger kids. With COH, I like to listen in with Ventrilo, I’m not too much of a participant in the trash talking. PvP can be fun though. :)
David - I bet it was hard to stop :) I have many friends that have been playing since the release and are still playing. I guess getting the better equipment/costume parts is addicting, huh?
9:48 am on August 30th, 2007
I played EverQuest for a really long time but refuse to play that game again in fear of total addiction. Instead I’ve just adopted the name GnomeyNewt and it is close enough connection for me.
I love Netflix. I just started to watch their free online videos and I’m loving it. So quick and easy. Can One True Media be used on our blogs? It seems like a neat idea.
I think doing other things besides working is perfectly fine and infact needed. All work and no play would make me a very sad gnome.
1:19 pm on August 30th, 2007
For a while I lost track of things because I played Maple Story a lot.
A distant relation to the time consumed by Maple Story is blogging. Hah. At least this one makes me a bit of money.
1:54 pm on August 30th, 2007
yay.. i’m glad the jet train is on its way. It’s a great read. And I know that once you read it you’ll start to think BIG! enjoy. are you going to the blow world expo in vegas???
5:30 pm on August 30th, 2007
good post susan! thanks for the mention ;)
5:50 pm on August 30th, 2007
!!! My mom started gaming about 3 years ago. She started out with Gunbound and reached the highest level, she played Final Fantasy (version?) and reached the highest level, and now she’s playing WoW. She’s almost succeeded in getting her 2nd level 70 character…She’s addicted!
It’s funny how you mentioned Netflix and Blockbuster’s service more appealing. Lately, my brother, father, and I have been watching a few DVDs from Netflix and we’ve been experiencing many problems. The DVDs will freeze in the middle of the movie because they’re so scratched up and sometimes we can’t even get the DVD to play again because a specific spot will always freeze up.
Great List :D I might have to make one in the future!
-Gregg
8:34 am on August 31st, 2007
Shaun - No problem. :)
Cash - Hrmm…I haven’t decided just yet. Are you?
Gregg - Really??? How old is your mom? My mother knows enough to check her email and that’s about it. That’s really impressive!
You know, I’ve noticed that too with Netflix’s movies. I’m having to report scratched DVDs much more often now. It sucks when you are at an anticipating moment and the DVD freezes.
10:10 pm on August 31st, 2007
My mom is uh… I think 52 :D I’m not good with ages… ha! But yeah, she didn’t really know much about computers or how to use them until she started gaming.
Netflix DVDs ALWAYS seem to freeze at the climax of the movie!!! It’s annoying!
7:02 pm on September 1st, 2007
52 :O !!!
Right now I’ve been playing sa-mp and run a clan on there called The Mob http://www.themobclan.org It’s a great game and I have been playing from since it was created about 1 1/2 year ago. The clan keeps me on there but without that clan I wouldn’t have known the amount I do now, I wouldn’t even have websites lol
I get away from it by going out, because a life online is way different from real life :P Women also is a great distraction :D
Love the blog lol Nice post!
7:56 am on September 2nd, 2007
Actually world pvp was the addictive part but I’m glad battlegrounds came out so I got bored easily and eventually quit.
2:45 pm on September 2nd, 2007
Stumble Upon! I start out with good intentions of looking for interesting blog topics, but more often than not I end up spending hours stumbling! Good things do come of it though…that’s how I wound up here!
8:09 pm on September 4th, 2007
We share some of the same addictions. I love netflix but think I will be converting to blockbuster. Also watching the housing fiasco unfold and my stats of course too. How do you get people to stumble on your site. I signed up but don’t really understand the best way to utilize this? ;)
9:05 pm on September 4th, 2007
Chessnoid - I’m determined to get through the rest of my movies on my Netflix Queue and then I plan to switch to Blockbuster. I’ve got 20 movies to go…woohoo…movie marathon! Hopefully none of them freeze up, but the chances are that some will…ugh.
As far as Stumble. You could stumble other people’s sites and leave a comment saying that you loved their content so much that you stumbled it. I wouldn’t go around stumbling everything, but concentrate on great pages/sites. Usually, an active site owner/blogger will return the favor with an article they especially like on your site. You could also add people to your friends circle on Stumble…send them messages once and awhile with websites you like without spamming them…and even send them a page you like that happens to be yours that could be favorable for them…because they use stumble, they will be an active/seasoned stumbler who may submit the site. You could even go to a friends house and stumble your own site…even though it’s not exactly up to par with Stumble’s rules, but you could essentially do that w/o getting caught. The only way you’ll get lots of traffic, is if you continue to get thumbs up for the content. So, submitted sites should be ‘good’… :)
3:51 pm on September 6th, 2007
Thanks for the reply. I just cancelled my netflix and switched over to blockbuster.
As far at the stumble, I now have a better understanding of it. I appreciate it.
;)