SIMplicity / heybudbot
It’s been quiet this week.
I’m back at home in California. Mom and Dad both work and take the cars with them so I’ve been working (stranded!) inside the house for the last few days.
It always takes some time readjusting to the suburbs but this time around I feel good. The past few months have been a non-stop torrent of activity/stimuli/traveling so the downtime is appreciated.
So far I’ve spent my time
producing music
practicing for my vocal lessons
currently working on Cry Me a River by Michael Buble
eating home cooked meals
spending way too much time on instagram
jury’s still out on whether going back on IG was a good idea. On one hand I’ve kept in better touch with new/old friends. On the other I spent TWO HOURS ON REELS YESTERDAY!!!!
like all human inventions IG must be treated with cautious optimism. After yesterday’s binge I’ve put in parental controls to limit me to one hour
I’ve also moved all my distracting/unwanted apps onto my work phone so I’m less likely to reach for them on my main phone
revamping wydbot into heybudbot (see below)
SIMplicity
You know what life kinda feels like these days? The Sims.
Last time I played the Sims I there were two modes to play on.
On one mode you directly controlled each Sim’s behavior planning out their strategy/daily actions (e.g. swim in the pool, learn how to cook, etc.).
On the second mode you could let the Sims go on autopilot/speed up the clock so they’d end up doing whatever they wanted. After a few hours in sped up time you’d slow down and see the aftermath of whatever your Sim had chosen to do.
I am both Sim and player. I go off and live my life mindlessly. Time seems to speed up during this period. And only every now and then (usually in the dead of night when I can’t sleep or when I’m forcing myself to write down my thoughts in quiet and solitude) do I have clarity/lucidity about what I’m doing.
It’s trippy how those moments of lucidity slam into me. The other day on my bed after having dicked around on IG for a few hours I was struck by the sudden thought that I hadn’t had any real thoughts in a while.
I have a friend (shoutout Justin) who might say I’m blowing this out of proportion. “That’s called being present. Just be more present” he might say.
Yeah that’s true. But that’s both easier and harder said than done.
Easier in the sense that I have a pretty good idea of how to do this
cut out tv
cut out IG
cut out porn
cut out carby/processed foods that lead me to indulge in all of the above
cut out weed
Harder in the sense of
how to balance it all/stay consistent.
all of those things I mentioned above are so accepted. They’re almost the norm.
these things are not “evil”—there’s good tv and bad tv
Based on personal history I think it’s easier to displace than remove. It’s harder to sustain the absence of something. Easier to replace that thing with something better.
That’s probably why during my acting days when I spent the majority of my time reading scripts, practicing, performing, hanging out with friends in person (all mostly “present” activities) I had no real issue cutting out most of those things.
…
As more of the world goes online how do you maintain that sense of presence? Maybe the only solution is to purposely limit the access you have and try to filter for only the “good” parts of the internet. The main issue there is figuring out what’s good/what’s bad. There’s just too many shiny/loud things out there. And we don’t really know the real effects of every little thing on the internet.
We’re in that transitory place where most of life is not yet on the internet. The average person will probably be more successful (and happy?) if they spend more time off the internet than on (focusing on their goals, etc.). But how long will that last? Sometimes you just gotta play the game even if the game plays you…………….
…
To be fair this issue isn’t isolated to just the Internet. I’m sure people in the past had issues staying present too.
Anyways for now maybe I just gotta aim for more SIMplicity in my life :3
heybudbot
Longtime readers will remember I set up a chat bot (wydbot) to help me track how I spent my time on an daily basis.
After a while wydbot fell to the wayside and our relationship became an unrequited friendship.
reminds me of the convos I have with the girls i like :’)
I’ve recently revamped wydbot into heybudbot. A daily message to start my day with three components
Pretty simple so far but we’ll see where it goes from here. I wanted to integrate with OpenAI to get some of that next gen chat capabilities but my credits expired >:(
In other news
Forgot to mention we did Thanksgiving in New Jersey with our Aunt’s family this year.
Also went to DC with the fam
Saw some monuments. Mom and Dad loved riding around the city on Limes.
Went to the Smithsonian and saw my new favorite photo
which one are you at this point in your life? I’m slightly more the guy on the right
Hung out with Yang. Got Hawaiian food. Listened to music in his backyard. Watched some of David Chang’s new docuseries (The Next Thing You Eat)
Music Update
I don’t know how useful these music updates are but I’m writing them for consistency. Currently working on a song called Ennui. Old song that I’m getting around to finishing. Have the pre-mix almost ready and will send off to mixer soon.