thilly thenny

Yes, I said it.  I cheated.

And I didn’t even know I was doing it until after the fact.  Per my post on being technology dependent, I decided to do a little experiment and see if I can’t stay offline and start enjoying the real life more.  The rules are in the post linked above.

Friday went by without a hitch, mostly because I went out to celebrate Wawi’s last day at SHIFT and didn’t get home until late. 

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[Side track]

We went to Chevy’s for $3 margaritas that were too weak, so we all ordered extra shots to go with our drinks.  Then, on to Taylors for hamburgers, wine and beer.  I think we closed the place down by 11pm.  Most of the coworkers that stayed were pretty toasted, and we just bantered about work and randomness.

Note to self: do not chug a glass of wine before heading to the THIRD place to drink.

Wawi and I met up with Alfonso at Metropolis, where we continued to drink… I have no idea what I was putting in my mouth, except that Wawi bought it for me and it was good.

Caption: I wasn’t actually drunk in the picture.  I just like how you can see me but you can see motion as well.  Really, it was a fluke, but the iPhone processes pictures in a really weird way, and sometimes those “flukes” turn out really nice.  I don’t think I know how to “accidentally” do this on my real camera.

[End side track]

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So Friday wasn’t hard at all.  Saturday for the most part was fine.  I underestimated how many times I text and call people to coordinate events.  But because that isn’t frivolous chatting, and it’s about meeting people at the San Jose State University PRSSA recruiting event, I don’t consider this cheating per se.

The hard part was getting home after the movies and sitting down for a meal (my first meal of the day at 11pm).  Taco Bell and crappy TV go really well together, except that I think I watched more than the 2 hours of allotted TV.  I totally lost track of time.  AND I got Taco Bell.  I forgot I wasn’t supposed to have any take out/eat out until I was at my door step jingling my keys.

Then on Sunday, I ended up having brunch with Laura.  It would have been weird bringing lunch to a cafe and eating with her, so I decided to consciously break the rules.  Then, I talked to Chris for over 3 hours Sunday night, completely losing track of time.  I hadn’t really used the phone that day- maybe 30 minutes max, so I thought I had time.  Well by the time we hung up, I saw that we’d talked for 2.5 hours and that was not include the 45 minute call we had, while I was at the grocery store.

I also took pictures of cute rabbits with my iPhone and emailed it to my Tumblr, checked map directions on my phone, listened to music while walking to work today and probably half a dozen other things I forgot about.

All in all, most of my “cheats” were completely subconscious.  I don’t realize that I’m using the phone or checking email (my phone beeps when there’s incoming email and I never realize that I’m checking it until I’ve read through already) or watching too much TV or ordering out.  And I think that’s the problem.

We can save so much more money, time and the environment if we were only conscious about our decisions.  I’ve drank at least 100 bottles of water in the last two or three months, so I forced myself yesterday to buy a Brita water filter ($25 for the pitcher and $25 for 3 refills) that will last me 8 months.  That’s 200 water bottles and I’m only one person!!

I’ll stop with the public service announcement, but I think you get my point.  So I’m trying harder this week.  The goal is to tone down my wasteful life after this 1 week experiment.  Maybe in a year, I actually will have money to go to Europe.

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FYI… this is just tooo cute: