Export thread

Give me something interesting to read! When you want all your problems to float away and kind of go on "autopilot" for a while, what do you do? How does that feel?

I started this thread because of a very nice moment I had last week. I had started making a really simple, quick dinner. Before I knew what was happening, I was pulling more ingredients out of the fridge and making something more complicated, but more fun. For one glorious hour, I had no problems. It happens almost every time I cook something.

What do you do to lose yourself for a while?

Cajungal said:

How do you lose yourself

Click to expand...

....
in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

Cooking is a good one for me too, especially if I'm baking bread. Driving is good, once I get out of the cities and either onto a two-lane blacktop in the middle of nowhere or a long, straight stretch of interstate (west-central Oregon is great for this). Siting around a campfire, whether I'm surrounded by friends telling stories or it's just my wife and I quietly contemplating pretty much nothing. Going to a non-crowded beach (something else Oregon is great for) and playing in the surf.

Music, depending on mood. I suppose if I danced, I could make it twice as effective.
Work. I can lose myself in work if it requires enough activity, both physical and mental.
I can lose myself in semi-isolation (camping, mostly) so long as I'm ok with spending the time with myself.

I suppose there are … other means of losing myself (alcohol or other drugs), but I've never been motivated enough to make the leap (due to the unpredictability).

--Patrick

Programming and bicycling can put me in the flow under the right circumstances.

Flying in the wind tunnel or skydiving. It forces me to live in the moment instead of focusing on all the small things that may bother me about the past or how unsure the future can be. It is freeing to be able to let everything go and to be hyper aware of the present for 60 seconds.

Cooking a meal usually helps. Writing almost always, unless it's a personal journal, which for obvious reasons doesn't quite let me 'lose myself.'

Good books, usually really heady stuff: philosophy, theology, giant tomes written in the 18th and 19th centuries by crazy French and Russian authors. Dostoevsky forever, man.

And then there's the drearier moments where I can't seem to lose myself and I drink 'til I'm talking to myself like I'm not there.

Walking can help, but since I usually use walks to clear my head, I'm not sure how much this counts. I am reflecting on things until I can figure out what to do with them. But sometimes, just by accident, my head will stop doing that and I'll be walking along in the present, without anything to weigh on me.

My anti-drug is computer games.

Ravenpoe said:

....
in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

Click to expand...

Came here to do this.

Being in front of an audience, usually singing. Being the center of attention pushes away all those "you suck at everything" demons that seem to haunt most of my waking moments.

Also, video games.

Walking is good, too. In fact, it's so nice out, I think I might go now.

Depends on the mood really. Sometimes it's in a book, a really good book can be almost as good as sleep at times. Different mood/situation, physical activity, splitting wood logs by hand (sledge and wedge), working on a difficult circuiting for a water project, or getting out with the ipod and the bicycle and just riding.

My wife can do the cooking thing, but I'm too aware of everything going on around me for that. I have the internal clocks going for everything and never got to zone out.

Playing certain video games. Not all video games are like this, just the ones that somehow manage to suck time away without you realizing.

"Ok I've managed to set up the cistern and well, so we'll have clean water from now on, and the miners have just hit flux, so now we can produce steel, at least when I manage to hit the magma layer so the smelters can be powered. The outer wall is going well too, though I could probably train up another mason or two, to speed up progress. I probably don't need a soapmaker yet, so I'm going to tell Urist McSoapmaker to start helping with the wall. Oh, and Urist McStonecrafter's really starting to churn out some high quality trinkets, which is good, because the region is running out of wood so we're going to have to trade for all the wood we can in the next few caravans... oh look the sun's coming up."

Whiskey.

Also hiking.

Play guitar. Ride my motorbike. Run. All work beautifully.

Sad to say, lately...eerrrr, spending pretty much every night curled up in the sofa with a joint and a bottle of wine. I may not be the best example to take atm.

Playing video games.
Playing board games with friends.
Listening to music.
Listening to ASMR sensation audios.
Listening to the rain.

Work.

Then I come home and lose that part of me in non-fiction and video games mostly.

Motocross... though my chances to do it are few and far between.

Playing the piano is pretty good too.

Shawnacy said:

Listening to ASMR sensation audios.
Listening to the rain.

Click to expand...

Aren't these the same thing?

--Patrick

In no particular order...

Taking a nap.

Watching a movie.

Playing play-by-post Pathfinder in the Order of the Stick forums. Just started running a Reign of Winter campaign for a bunch of especially awesome players.

Cooking used to be a relaxing activity in the past, but now... well, two years of cancer have left my physique lacking, and I usually get winded and sweaty quite quickly.

I used to lose myself in RPGs (particularly the Ultima series), then later MMOs when they became a thing. But I think I got burned out on MMOs and in the interim something broke inside me where I just couldn't get into RPGs any more. I mean, 15-years-ago-me would have though games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect were absolute crack and you'd never see me again... but these days... meh. It's not the same.

So the last few years, the most immersed I've gotten were in multiplayer games played with the little woman, like the Borderlands series, or Minecraft or SOSE or Orcs Must Die 2, things of that nature. But now events transpire that are putting a stop to that, hopefully temporarily, and more and more I can't find something to take my mind off things, even as I need it worse and worse. That's a downside to shared interests I never thought I'd have to face - that the sort of thing one might think they'd use to fill an increasing void in their life just call more attention to the absence, because they were the things you used to do together.

Painting, especially if it's something intricate that require concetration. I can do a quick wash in like 4 minutes and then have to wait an hour or more for it to dry, but if I'm working on the foreground or something that requires more detail, I can sit and paint for 5-6 hours without stopping to look at a clock or anything.

PatrThom said:

Aren't these the same thing?

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Different feelings all together for me.

I play with my son. Lego, video games, soccer, swimming, whatever. Gives me time to stop worrying about all the stressful and ultimately meaningless shit in life and focus on him during a time where he grows and develops so fast, if I don't take the time to enjoy with him, I miss something I'll never be able to get back.

A decent movie (which is a rare thing nowadays).
Videogames (when I get a chance).
Woodworking - I love it. I love reading about it. I love watching videos about. I should be doing it for a living, but I need to increase my skill level.

I haven't had a book engage me in a long time, sadly. I used to get lost reading or stay up late to finish "one more chapter". Can't seem to find a good quality book. It's like all the good stories have been written.

Getting up in the mountains (especially Colorado) just makes me happy. No place on Earth instantly de-stresses me and wipes away all my worries. I wonder if the magic would last if I lived in a cabin up there.

When I was in junior high and high school, I would draw comic-book characters for hours and hours. I haven't drawn in years though.

Running used to be a good escape, but it's so crowded where I live now that I can't run w/o having people getting in the way. I need to get up earlier or run at night.

I used to play the guitar all the time and loved just making up little melodies or simple songs. I don't make time for it anymore.

drawn_inward said:

I haven't had a book engage me in a long time, sadly. I used to get lost reading or stay up late to finish "one more chapter". Can't seem to find a good quality book. It's like all the good stories have been written.

Click to expand...

It honestly feels like this sometimes, it's why I've been drawn so much to non-fiction lately.

Frank said:

It honestly feels like this sometimes, it's why I've been drawn so much to non-fiction lately.

Click to expand...

For sure. Maybe we're just getting older? The last two decent reads were by David McCullough (1776 and Mornings on Horseback).

90% of the fiction I enjoy is the classics. I don't know when the last time I read a fictional book written after 1880 was.

Chad Sexington said:

90% of the fiction I enjoy is the classics. I don't know when the last time I read a fictional book written after 1880 was.

Click to expand...

Ye Olde Hitchhiker's Manual to the Heavens and Ye Spheres?

drawn_inward said:

Getting up in the mountains (especially Colorado) just makes me happy. No place on Earth instantly de-stresses me and wipes away all my worries. I wonder if the magic would last if I lived in a cabin up there.

Click to expand...

Your woodworking skills would certainly improve.

--Patrick

drawn_inward said:

Woodworking - I love it. I love reading about it. I love watching videos about. I should be doing it for a living, but I need to increase my skill level.

Click to expand...

That's another thing I love that I can really lose myself in. I wonder if there are other woodworking halforumites on here...

stienman said:

That's another thing I love that I can really lose myself in. I wonder if there are other woodworking halforumites on here...

Click to expand...

I enjoy woodworking as well even though I'm terrible at at.

Driving. I love road-tripping, especially on routes that I've travelled before and know all the ins and outs of. I can lose myself on the road, paying attention to the drivers around me, but letting my mind wander.

I MUCH prefer driving at night.

I used to be able to lose myself in gaming and writing, but not so much any more.

Yardwork is another one that I lose myself in, or when I was working in the warehouse, the simple act of keeping up with storage and counts helps focus me greatly, for some reason.

@stienman @Azurephoenix

Either playing video games, an insanely good book, or eating something REEAAAAAAAAAAAALLY delicious. The kind of delicious where you ration your bites to make the meal last longer, THAT kind of delicious.