Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

[Perversion]

Due to this (58K warning) and this (58K warning)...

I decided yesterday to make it a goal for the rest of the year to actually try to enjoy all the entertainment I'm surrounded by, instead of spending all my time on the internet. What's the use of having all those games and movies if I'm not going to watch or play them? Therefore, I'm going to lay out a format below as a goal for myself to do a certain number of things every week, and goals for the end of the year. As it doesn't matter about double posting in my own forum, I'll post every week as a status report. Once it's out in the open, I'm more accountable, so I'm making a thread here in order to attempt to follow through on my plans. I'll post first the goals for the end of the year, and will just update the list each week if I follow through on any given week. Weekly, though, I will make a new post, and will indicate if this first post has been updated. Also, I reserve the right to substitute two 1 hour TV shows or 4 half hour TV shows (or anime), or any combination thereof, for one movie. However, it'll still be a weekly goal to watch AT LEAST 1 full-length film a week.


Yearly

Play 50 different games for at least an hour each (listed below)
1)Rock Band (360)
2)Space Giraffe (XBLA)
3)Patapon (PSP)
4)Rez (XBLA)
5)Guitar Hero II (360)
6)Sudoku Mania (DS)
7)GHIII (360)
8)Ikaruga (XBLA)
9)Pain (PSN)
10)Stranglehold (360)
11)Mass Effect (360)
12)Condemned 2: Bloodshot (PS3)
13)GTAIV (360)
14)Soul Calibur III (PS2)

Play at least 3 games for an hour each for each platform I own software for
-Xbox 360
1)Rock Band
2)Space Giraffe
3)Rez
4)GHIII
5)Ikaruga
6)Stranglehold
7)Mass Effect
8)GTAIV
9)GHII

-PS3
1)Condemned 2: Bloodshot
2)Pain

-DS
1)Sudoku Mania

-PSP
1)Patapon

-PS2
1)Soul Calibur III

-Xbox
1)

-Gamecube
1)

-Dreamcast
1)

-GBA
1)

-PSX
1)


Solve 3 games (includes skill levels for Rock Band, etc)
1)Beat medium difficulty on Rock Band

Read two complete books
1)

Watch 3 entire DVD box sets that I own (includes anime and TV shows)
1)

Turn in 3 reviews/articles/etc as a Mag correspondent
1)Edited a review for the midyear issue

Submit 2 RPGM projects to the community
1)

Play at least 2 hours of 3 different RPGM games submitted to the community by others
1)



Weekly

Watch 2 movies (including any Netflix DVDs I currently have)
-

Read a book for at least 1 chapter (or 1 short story)
-

Play at least 4 hours of video games (not including RPGM)
-

Work on RPG Maker in some way, shape, or form (includes brainstorming) for 3 hours
-

Listen to 2 entire albums
-






Any comments will be welcome.

[Sivart the Sloth Trencher]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Quite a lengthy set of goals there, Perversion. I do like the idea, though. I may try a similar set of goals.

[Wavelength]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

I definitely know how easy it can be to kind of get "stuck" to the internet for half an hour... then an hour... then three hours... and it takes a certain mindset to commit immediately to the three hours beforehand and do something that makes you happy rather than just content.

For me, this would never be the way to do it--I'd just make a vow to do whatever I think would bring the biggest smile to my face that day, and not "waste" time without really enjoying it. The checklist would take a little of the fun out of it. Feeling like I had to complete ("solve") a game would make it a LOT less fun for me. But if you think you need the list to motivate you to do stuff, more power to you, because there's definitely some good stuff on there.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

I know what you mean about feeling I "need" to complete a list instead of enjoying it, but at the same time, I didn't set my goals to be THAT outrageous. I know one Pavvie (I forget who) set a goal to solve like 8 games or something during winter break or something, and to me, that's an unrealistic goal. I don't know HOW long it's been since I've actually solved a video game, so I set my goal low. I know I can solve the Lost game in about 6-7 hours total, so that shouldn't be a problem. Solving medium skill on Rock Band/Guitar Hero will be a bit harder, but I play it frequently enough where it will motivate me to get my lazy ass off of constantly playing on easy. So that's two right there. I do not see it being THAT hard to complete that goal.

As for the rest of them, if you consider the average movie to be two hours, and a chapter of a book to take an hour to read (give or take...even though I can probably blow through one in less time than that), and an album to be an average of an hour long, and then add 4 hours of video games and three hours of RPGM, that's only a total of 14 hours. If, on a given week, I work for 40 hours, and include 2 hours for transportation each work day (10 hours total....I take the bus), that's only 64 hours a week that I need to account for.

A week is 168 hours long. If you subtract the 64 hours already accounted for, you are left with 108 hours. Even assuming I sleep for 6 hours a day (which I never do during the week....it's more like 3-4 hours a night), that's 42 hours. Which leaves me with a grand total of 66 hours for anything else I need to get done (eating, B.S.ing around, whatever). Which is the equivalent of more than two and a half days. Sorry....I never went through the numbers in my head until just now, so I wanted to figure out exactly how realistic this was.


Oh, and I think I'll add one more yearly goal...to play at least 2 hours of 3 different RPGM games submitted by other people to the site.

As I said, I wanted to make these goals realistic, and in this framework, I think I've done so.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Okay. Here's the first weekly update. As I began the thread in the middle of the week, I did not succeed on a few of these....


Weekly

Watch 2 movies (including any Netflix DVDs I currently have)
-Watched the pilot episode of Six Feet Under.

Read a book for at least 1 chapter (or 1 short story)
-Nyet.

Play at least 4 hours of video games (not including RPGM)
-Everyday Shooter (PSN)
-Rock Band (360)
-Space Giraffe (XBLA)

This amounted to a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Work on RPG Maker in some way, shape, or form (includes brainstorming) for 3 hours
-5 hours and 15 minutes (mostly brainstorming, but some creation time as well)

Listen to 2 entire albums
-Sigur Ros-Ágætis Byrjun
-Tortoise-Tortoise
-Labradford-A Stable Reference
-Godspeed You! Black Emperor-f#a# (infinity symbol)


So the most important thing, working on RPGM, I accomplished with flying colors. I'm waiting for next week (well, technically, this week now) so I have an entire week to get my weekly goals accomplished.

Also, updated the first post with a disclaimer about TV shows vs movies and my 1st of 50 games.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Midweek update:

I decided to update the first post in order to spread the love around.

[Dusk Raven]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

That's an interesting method. I just tried during the summer to make a schedule. Good news is now I can use the laptop while watching TV or using RPG Maker.

But I suffer from the same problem. Also, my brother wants me to watch TV. Constantly. And I don't like using RPG Maker while he's down here using the computer.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Okay, I'm a few days late in posting this, but I had a busy week/weekend (I was hoping to accomplish some of the unfinished goals on Saturday night, but I went to my buddy's house instead, and hung out until 5 in the morning, and then went home and pretty much got ready and went straight to work. So, yeah...week two, the first full week, I was not able to accomplish my goals.

Weekly

Watch 2 movies (including any Netflix DVDs I currently have)
-I'm pretty sure I watched nothing.

Read a book for at least 1 chapter (or 1 short story)
-I'm pretty sure I read nothng.

Play at least 4 hours of video games (not including RPGM)
-7 hours, baby!

Space Giraffe (XBLA)
Practical Intelligence Quotient (PSP)
Echochrome demo (PSP)
Patapon (PSP)
flOw (PS3)
Rez (XBLA)
Rock Band (Xbox 360)
Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360)
Sudoku Mania (DS)

Work on RPG Maker in some way, shape, or form (includes brainstorming) for 3 hours
-Hmmm....nope. Probably thinking about it for a while as I'm gong to sleep, but no conscious effort devoted to it.

Listen to 2 entire albums
-I lived a music-less week tis past week.

All in all, a major failure, after doing so well in my first week. I'm thinking I'm going to spend a good deal of time on RPGM3 this week, as the contest has now been announced.

I hope to get off the internet in a bit here, and spend some time accomplishing some of my entertainment goals (I had the day off from work, after all).

EDIT: Also updated the first "yearly goals" post.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Week Three: A Whole Lot of Fail


I'm on my PS3, so I cannot cut and paste the weekly checklist. So I'll just say that all I did this past week (yeah, yeah....I know that THIS week is almost half over already) was work on RPGM3. As it was my contest project, and I worked on it for about 11-12 hours last week, I'm excusing myself for not having accomplished any of my other goals.

These weekly ones are mostly a framework, anyway...I'm more concerned about the year-end ones.

As for a midweek update for this week, I just watched my first Blu-Ray movie last night. More on Sat/Sun....or maybe later, depending on how lazy (errrr....busy) I am.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Last week was a bit weird for me. This is called "making an excuse"....I went to my buddy's house Wednesday after work at about 4 in the afternoon, and did not get home until Thursday at about 1 in the afternoon. I had the day off on Thursday, but I pretty much slept it away. I was supposed to have Friday off as well, but as I was at my buddy's house, work called, and they wanted to know if I could work on my day off. I told them I would. Therefore, I did not get a lot of my goals accomplished for the week, as I usually try to reserve my 2 days off for a portion of my game playing/game making. Anyway, here's what I accomplished:

Weekly

Watch 2 movies (including any Netflix DVDs I currently have)
-Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run) on Blu-Ray
-The Road Warrior (I asked my buddy to download it while I was at his house so we could watch it).

Read a book for at least 1 chapter (or 1 short story)
-Well, I read some magazines, but that does not count.

Play at least 4 hours of video games (not including RPGM)
-I seem to remember not really playing too much of anything...

Work on RPG Maker in some way, shape, or form (includes brainstorming) for 3 hours
-After my inspiration the week before, I kinda put off working on anything this past week.

Listen to 2 entire albums
-Portishead's new album (I forget the name of it).


So, yeah. I FAIL.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

An entire month went by without updates. I didn't have internet for a bit, and then my entire living area was dismantled and re-put together, resulting in no game-playing for a week and a half. So I'm gonna try to get this started again. I DID update the first post, as I finally beat the damn STP song and then breezed through the rest of the songs on the medium tier of Rock Band.

Expect another post in a week.

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Weekly

Watch 2 movies (including any Netflix DVDs I currently have)
-The only film I've watched all the way through in the past month or so is the first LOTR movie, with full 7.1 Dolby Digital (well, really 5.1 plus the sixth and seventh speaker being stereo channels, not discrete). I watched the 3 and a half hour extended version.

Read a book for at least 1 chapter (or 1 short story)
-I read a chapter in the Lost book I have.

Play at least 4 hours of video games (not including RPGM)
-Last week, I played GHIII by itself for over 4 hours, and another 2-3 on Rock Band with my buddy. Also, Condemned 2 for the PS3 for about an hour, and Soul Calibur III for about 2 hours.

Work on RPG Maker in some way, shape, or form (includes brainstorming) for 3 hours
-I thought about RPGM-related stuff for about 15 minutes.

Listen to 2 entire albums
-Labradford-A Stable Reference
-Mojave 3-Ask Me Tomorrow



So, yeah. The weekly update. I just realized...the year is half over already. *sigh*

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

Read two complete books

Two? In a year? I read that many in a week. o_0

[Perversion]

Re: Motivational thread for myself (I need to enjoy my entertainment)

One does need to start somewhere, does one not?


Yeah...I used to read a lot more than I do now, but it's been over a decade since I've read regularly. Depending on circumstances, I've read 2-3 books within a week or so a few times in that decade. But to read on a regular basis....probably not since '94-'96.

As sad as it is, it's hard for me to make time anymore. Hell, it's hard for me to make time for anything besides browsing the Pav in my free time. Except for Rock Band. I can usually find the time for that. :3