We're here and now, but will we ever be again?
-Fuel
So I started this blog to talk mainly about WoW. Unfortunately, lately, I haven’t been playing it a lot. This got me to thinking though – maybe it would be useful to explain how I manage the game along with the rest of my life as I know some people get so sucked in, they don’t do anything else.
For me, as I mentioned in my first post, I was worried about picking up another MMORPG because I know how addicted I got to Meridian59. I played that game for several hours every night, and then pretty much non-stop on the weekends.
This time around, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t get sucked in to the point of not living my “real life”. So this is the deal I made with myself – if something else comes up that I could do, I ask myself this: before WoW, would I have said yes to this? If the answer is yes, then I go do whatever it is, instead of playing WoW. In the beginning, it was hard to do that at times, as I really wanted to play. Now that I have trained myself though, it is pretty manageable. I quickly found that even if I was reluctant at first, I did always end up having fun once I actually dragged myself away from the computer.
Basically, that is why I am not playing much right now. Anyone that is familiar with Seattle knows that we have crappy, rainy, dark winters that pretty much go on forever. Even last week, it got overcast and chilly again and we were all walking around in jackets. (Jackets!??! It is freaking July!)
Nevertheless, in the summer months, when it is a bit warmer and sunnier, all of Seattle has to pack in as much fun and socializing as we can before we go back to hibernation mode. We have to maximize those daylight hours, as soon it will be getting dark again by 4:30pm (and when I say dark, I mean full dark). Soon, all of the restaurants and cafes will bring back in their sidewalk and patio tables and chairs. Soon everyone will be walking around in bulky ugly ass clothes again.
So for right now, this is what I am doing instead of WoW – On Monday and Tuesday nights I have salsa class. Thursday night I usually go out dancing, on Friday or Saturday there is usually at least one party or good show going on. Sunday morning, I have a group of friends I meet up with for brunch. Mixed in there is also random happy hours, going out to dinner with friends, power walking with my friend Sarah, and in general just spending as much time outside as I can. I live near downtown, so I pretty much walk or bike everywhere I go. I also try to do at least two or three volunteering activities each month. On top of all that, I also have to manage the boring real life stuff like laundry, housecleaning, lawn mowing, grocery shopping, etc. I am also pretty hard core about making sure I have a certain amount of time to just do nothing at least once a week. It is my recharge time and I don’t want to spend it sitting in front of a computer as I am lucky enough to get to do that all week.
For me, I think it is almost more important to spend this time out doing stuff than it is for a lot of other people. I came from Georgia, and I am used to long hot summers, and honestly I really miss that hot weather. I miss looking forward to Fall. So, I really do have to get the most out of the brief summer here that I can as it has to last me the rest of the year.
On that note, I will try to keep up with my blog at least once a week, but for the summer it is probably going to be more random and less geeky. I will try to always throw in one or two geeky things though, just to keep it real. Like for example, today I am using Remote Desktop to connect to a SQL Server, where I will pull data from the backend of WWE and then run some SQL queries on it to generate some reports I need. I know this isn't overly exciting to most of you, but come on; I am in marketing. Hopefully that will be enough to keep my geek credibility at a reasonable level. :)