Fighting the addiction: two months without TV

I’m giving up TV, social media, and cell phone games for two months.

Why do this?

I work 6-7 days a week, 50-60 hours a week. I come home exhausted, and my first inclination is to lie down and watch TV. I get comfortable, pull out my phone, and play a cell phone game while the comforting computer screen flashes with images of TV shows or movies or Youtube videos.

An hour goes by. Then another. I force myself to get up to eat dinner, and then watch more TV. I look at the clock and see it’s 10:30 pm. I have some time before bed, I tell myself; I can use this time to work on the novel, or study Chinese, or paint, or clean my room, or do anything productive.

But I don’t. Despite the hours I have spent ‘relaxing,’ I don’t feel any more energized than when I first came home. If anything, I feel MORE drained than before. So I just keep watching TV until it’s bed time. Another evening wasted. I tell myself that I’ll be more productive tomorrow, basking in the comfort of my obvious lie.

So I decided to make a change.

The rules

This challenge is in effect from October 28^th - January 1^st.

1. I cannot watch any movie or TV show.

2. I cannot play any cell phone game, EXCEPT for chess. (I love chess.)

3. I cannot watch Youtube.

4. I cannot go on Facebook. (I do allow myself to post important things to Facebook, but I cannot scroll through the feed and look at everyone else’s posts.)

Do you consider yourself an addict of electronic stimulation?

I spoke with a family member about this, who used to have a problem with drugs. And it made me realize that yes, I am an addict, and I need to start viewing my behavior as that of an addict. It’s not harmless fun to come home and watch TV every day, especially when this is behavior that I want to change, but struggle with. This routine sucks time and energy out of my life, and it may not seem harmful in the day to day minutia of life, but to step back and look at the time lost over years- decades… this behavior has dramatic, real world consequences, and it has cost me a lot.

In the ONE month that I have given up TV/social media/video games, I’ve written a 50,000 word novel, started taking boxing classes, and committed to exercising twice a day- WHILE working an extremely demanding job.

What have I failed to accomplish over the last decade because I was devoting my life to TV? What novels did I not write? What classes did I not take? What languages did I not learn? What friends did I not make? What books did I not read? What life-changing experiences did I miss out on because I was watching TV?

What sacrifices has my little addiction cost me?

Is this life style sustainable?

I don’t know if I can keep this up. I miss Youtube. I miss TED talks, and videos that discuss writing, and comic books, and science. I want to go on Youtube and learn more about boxing form and technique.

I also miss my favorite TV shows. Game of thrones. Vikings. Handmaid’s Tale. Atlanta. Cosmos.

So will I continue my old life style in January? I don’t know. The idea of wasting all my free time over TV and cell phone games scares me.

So I plan to use this time of asceticism to figure who I want to be when the challenge is over.

Final thoughts?

I’ve tried several times to limit my time with TV, cell phone games, and social media, but I always fail. I’ve tried no TV in the A.M., only from 12 P.M. to 11:59 P.M., but I couldn’t commit. I tried no TV on Saturday and Sunday, but I couldn’t commit. I tried giving myself a schedule- one hour of TV per day; I couldn’t commit. This has been the LONGEST I've ever gone without TV, video games, and social media.

It’s an amazing, horrifying feeling to know that you control the ship that is your life. Every time you get an urge to feed your addiction, whether it’s television, or over-eating, or online shopping, you are holding the self-destruct button that is your future. You are making the decision not to push it.

Note of common sense: By calling myself an addict for watching too much television, I don’t mean to equate my plight with those who suffer crippling chemical dependencies like heroin or alcohol. I honestly struggle with my challenge, so I cannot even imagine what it’s like to go through a REAL addiction like meth or gambling.

My first safari!

Hippos are terrifying.

I went on a safari in Tanzania with my girlfriend. It was probably the coolest trip we’ve ever taken. 

Day 1. Arrival.

We arrived in Arusha, Tanzania.

Wen (girlfriend) booked the safari before arriving, and these guys were great- they took care of airport pickup, hotel, safari meals, EVERYTHING. I really can’t recommend them enough. World Tours Safaris.

The hotel lodging was simple, but clean, and convenient. The power went out a few times, but that’s kind of what we expected in Tanzania.

When we arrived, there was a rambunctious church congregation meeting in the dirt-parking lot of the hotel. The preacher wailed and yelled and his congregation just went nuts. There was no physical church- their church was the parking lot. Mainland Tanzania is largely Christian, whereas Zanzibar- a large island, is mostly Muslim.

A wooden statue outside the
cultural heritage museum

 Day 2. Rest day.

Our second day was spent relaxing. We walked to a craft market and bought some cool paintings. We bought a sim card (highly recommended). We also went to the cultural heritage museum. It's free, and there are a lot of beautiful paintings. There's an overpriced gift shop, but the trinkets there are of higher quality than the other shops in the area.

Inside the cultural heritage museum

Day 3. Serengeti.

Our first Safari day!

The first time I saw a zebra running I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Nothing like in a zoo. To see this incredible animal, healthy and in its natural habitat, running to catch up with its herd… it really blew my mind.

And this was true for all the animals. “They’re just so healthy looking!” My girlfriend exclaimed. The animals had rich, shiny coats of fur, with muscles that flexed and moved. And their eyes were alive.

Zebras came into our campsite. And some buffalo
came into the campsite at night.

Here are some of the animals we saw in the Serengeti.

A female lion. Notice the blood on her leg.
She had been eating a few minutes earlier.

Zebra with some antelope.

A thomson gazelle. The gazelle are smaller than the antelope- 

easy way to distinguish them.

A giraffe.

Moonrise over the Serengeti. The view from my tent.

The first night, we slept in tents. Normally, I'm fine with camping, but we saw lions about a mile outside our campsite. We could hear the lions and hyenas throughout the night. The hyenas made this very unsettling 'yooo... yooo' sound. The lions made several low rumbles and grunts. The bathroom was about 50 meters from our tent, and our driver warned us not to leave the campsite, because, you know, lions. So even though I had to pee, I just kinda dealt with it all night. Didn't sleep much that first night.

Inside the crater.

Day 4. Ngorogoro Crater.

Ngorogoro crater is an ENORMOUS volcanic crater, technically a caldera. In the Serengeti, the space is massive, and so you may drive for an hour without seeing an animal. But Ngorogoro keeps the animals clustered a little closer together, so you’ll see something worthwhile every 10-15 minutes.

Here are some of the animals we saw in Ngorogoro crater.

A buffalo. Notice the mangled testicle? It had been attacked,
and our driver told us it may have been a honey badger.

More lions.

An elephant. Notice the "fifth leg?"

Giraffes and vultures. And a baby giraffe.

Day 5. Tarangire National Park.

Tarangire National park was my least favorite place on the safari. There were a lot of trees, so the number of animals we could see was limited. Tarangire also didn’t show us any new animals, except for some vultures. We were also just so tired from the two previous days- most of us actually took naps on this day.

Baby monkeys grooming their monkey.

Tarangire is nice- it has herds of elephants, and there are monkeys, and some nice views. But it just can’t compare to Ngorogoro crater.

Our driver posing with our truck.

Go intimate We saw a wide variety of safari vehicles. My girlfriend and I were in a very sturdy jeep, which had 6 seats. The cook and the driver sat up front. Wen and I sat in back, along with two lovely visitors from Hong Kong. We saw other vehicles that held 8, 10, even 25 people. Don’t go for these big vehicles. Go with as small a group as possible- it’s worth it. A bus with 25 people isn't going to stop whenever you want to take a picture. 

Day 6.

We spent this day relaxing. Not much to report.

Zanzibar

Day 7. Stone town.

We took a quick flight from Arusha to Zanzibar- highly recommended, instead of the bus / ferry option.

Stone Town was really cool, and completely different from Mainland Tanzania. For a long time these were two different countries, and only recently became one.

Stone Town is this very old town, and one of the most famous stops on the African slave trade. Not exactly something to be proud of.

Most people are Muslim, and the food is very good.

Forodhani gardens. This is a large, outdoor street-food market. Vendors come here and set up stalls and cook. The food is good BUT BE WARNED! You need to ask the prices of the food before ordering. You need to compare stall prices, and maybe even haggle a little. Once these people smell money on you, they will jack up the prices and rip you off like you wouldn’t believe.

Wen and I ate here, and ordered a bunch of tasty food. The guy charged us 60,000 Tanzania shekels. The following night we went to a very fancy Indian restaurant. The fancy restaurant charged us 45,000 shekels. You would expect the street food to be a lot cheaper than the fancy restaurant- it probably would have been if we’d been smart and haggled a bit.

Day 6. Bwejuu

We took a taxi to Bwejuu, a small town on the east coast of the island. It was a 60-90 minute ride, with a driver that drove way too fast on a road with way too many potholes. 

It rained a lot when we were here, which was fine- we mostly used this as a time to rest and recoup before going back to the real world. 

Bwejuu has a very large tide, so at low tide, the water goes way out. You can see the locals wandering the recently exposed sand looking for crabs and other sea food.

We went snorkling in Bwejuu and we're so glad we did! Bwejuu is near a large cove, which keeps out larger sea creatures (sharks), and keeps the water very calm and stable.

I've snorkled in Thailand and Cambodia, and this was so much better! The water was clear, and the fish were so colorful.

Things to take away from this experience.

Vaccinations
Make sure you get your vaccinations a month before arriving. I got vaccinations for cholera and yellow fever, as well as malaria tablets. When getting off the plane, security checked everyone for proof of yellow fever vaccinations before allowing us into immigration.

Plan ahead.
Book a safari before you arrive. It makes it all SO MUCH easier. 

$$$
Bring American dollars with you. You will need to pay for your visa on arrival, which cost me $100. Hotels will accept both US dollars, and Tanzanian shekels. Also, we paid for our safari tour with US dollars.

Bring extra camera batteries!

Wen with her Pentax.

Our first night was spent in a tent, and there was no way to charge our batteries. The jeep did have an unreliable and SLOW generator that we used to charge our batteries- but it was such a pain in the ass. And there was no guarantee that your jeep will have this. Bring an extra camera battery or even two. And bring a power bank if you feel you'll be using your phone a lot.

Dress for a safari

Things to bring: hat, sunglasses, sun block, bandana (it gets dusty and you'll want something to cover your mouth and nose) long sleeve shirts (the temperature went from cold to hot throughout the day- you'll want to wear layers that you can add or remove. You'll also want to keep your skin covered to protect against the sun.)

Camera

This is why you bring the good camera.

Bring a good camera. Preferably with a zoom lens. I brought my Nikon D7100 with a zoom lens of 70-300. It was a really good lens. Not too heavy, and sharp quality. Also, the Serengeti is SUPER dusty. Bring a dust blower. You're going to get specks of dust on your sensor, and you'll be miserable if all your pictures have little black spots all over the photos.

Enjoy yourself.

Safaris can be tough. And stressful. And exhausting. Don't let it get you down. It's a wonderful experience, and years later you won't even remember how bumpy the truck ride was, or how little you slept, or how many pictures you missed because the animal turned its head at the wrong second. Put your camera away for a few minutes, look at the majesty of it with your own eyes, and enjoy it.

Going without plastic for 7 days - what I learned

A roadside in southern China. 

How the challenge started…

I realized that every single piece of plastic I have ever touched, since the day I was born, still exists on this planet. It has either been recycled and turned into something else. Or it has been dumped into the ocean. Or it is somewhere else that it shouldn’t be. That’s my legacy. That’s what will be on my tombstone. Here lies Julian- he used a bunch of plastic, and then he died. Nothing else worth mentioning.

And I thought, hmmm, there must be something I can do to help with this problem. I wonder if I can give up plastic. Can I last a week?

So in typical Julian fashion, I jumped into the challenge without any thought or preparation.

The challenge was hard.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to give up plastic. It required a complete change of my habits and lifestyle. I had to change my diet. I had to plan my meals in advance, because it wasn’t like I could just go to the 711 and buy food from there (99% of the things in 711 are wrapped in plastic). I had to actually go to restaurants, instead of ordering out. I had to bring plastic bags with me to the supermarket. I had to actually wash my silverware, instead of getting plastic forks from the restaurants when I got take out. And I had to go without things like yogurt, kimchi, peanuts, and so much more.

A field in Calcutta.

Going without plastic is healthy.

What I didn’t realize is just how healthy giving up plastic is. Instead of snacking on chips, and chocolate, and other junk food- all of which are wrapped in plastic- I ended up snacking on apples, bananas, and oranges. Instead of getting sugary drinks, I ended up drinking water. I used a glass bottle, and refilled it from the water-jug at work.

You need preparation to go without plastic.

To go without plastic for any duration of time, you need some preparation. You need to have bags with you, so that when you buy things from the supermarket, you don’t need to use their bags. You need a reusable bottle so you’re not always buying plastic water bottles. You need a glass Tupperware container if you’re going to get food to go from a restaurant.

A train in India.
People throw trash out the windows

So where do I go from here?

I’m not ready to give up plastic entirely. I still want to have my junk food occasionally. I still need to buy toiletries. I still need to buy yogurt, and rice, and cooking oil from the supermarket. So I’ve decided that I’m going to allot myself ONE plastic purchase per day. One bag of chips, or one bottle of toothpaste, or one cup of tea from the café. If I need to go shopping for a bunch of things that involve plastic, then I’ll make a plastic budget and go without plastic for however many days I need to, to keep my one plastic item per day ratio.

Tips for lessening the plastic in your life

If you have to buy toiletries, buy in bulk. Rather than buying a small container of mouth wash every month, buy a massive one three times a year.

Get a glass bottle, and a glass container to get take out.

Stock up on a few plastic bags, and keep them in your backpack / work bag / suitcase. So whenever you’re out and about, you can stop by the supermarket and have bags ready to go. I was so frustrated to be on my way home, walking past the supermarket, when I realized I had no bags- I had to walk all the way home, then head back to the market.

Change your state of mind. Recycling is not the answer to the plastic problem. I will recycle a bottle after I use it, but when that plastic is recycled and turned into another bottle, the next person may not decide to recycle it. On a long enough timeline, all plastic will eventually end up somewhere it doesn’t belong- either the ocean, or a landfill, or on the side of the road. The answer is just to not use so much plastic.

Put out the modicum of effort to make our world better. It’s worth it. Reliance on plastic makes us lazy, and gets us too comfortable with eating shit food. It’s worth it to put in a little bit of energy to use less plastic.

Do you have any ideas about how to use less plastic in your daily life?