Irredeemable Wastes of Time

26 August 2009 // Filed under Leaving Los Internets + Recipes

So the way I spend time online falls into one of two broad categories.  First is the class of activities that are just irredeemable wastes of time.  But I also do some things online that are ostensibly productive.

Without a doubt, most of my online time is spent in the first category.  This is easy stuff to deal with, at least theoretically.  This is stuff that I need to just stop doing.  Example waste-of-time activities include:

1. Reading social news and social bookmarking sites such as Slashdot, Reddit, Digg and StumbledUpon.  These site are at best amusing and more often annoying or downright frustrating.
2. Reading slightly more serious news amalgamation sites like Google News.  Do I really need that much information in my life?  I already listen to NPR every morning for national news and ready the Anchorage Daily News and Anchorage Press for local stuff.  That’s enough, really.
3. Watching trailers.   I’m a sucker for trailers and I don’t know why — with my schedule I almost never have time to see a movie in the theatre.
4. Looking up some stupid random fact just because I’m momentarily curious.

Of course quitting this is harder (for me) than it seems like it should be.  I’m a dataholic.  I always have been.  Before the Internet I spent countless hours glued to Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, and I lusted after a real Encyclopedia Britannica for my entire childhood.  I loved books of facts and any collections of data.  I’m fatally attracted to “wide and shallow” knowledge.  And the Internet lets me take wide and shallow understanding to heights I never could have imagined as a kid.

I know this is just a form of procrastination and an ADD outlet.  And as of three days ago I’ve stopped using the Internet as that kind of outlet.  I have to admit that it’s been surprisingly difficult — I need some way to fidget.  I’ve started taking walks when it gets bad, and that seems to help.  I’ve also picked up and old habit again and started carrying a paperback with me so I can stop and read when I need a bit of fidget time.  I’ve read 215 pages in the past two days and that’s been kind of satisfying.

The ostensibly productive activities are a bit more challenging.  Corresponding with friends via email can’t be bad, can it?  Is there a problem with communicating with clients, shopping, social networking, researching recipes, or using “Doctor Internet” to answer an important question?  I think these are all potentially reasonable things to do.  But I know I use them as a form of fidgeting as well, and I know that they take time away from more deeply satisfying activities in life.

So for the time being I’ve invented a rule to constrain time spent on these “legitimate” pursuits.  I am giving myself only one single online session a day.  There’s not time limit, and the only rule is the stuff I’m doing should seem meaningful.  I know I need to apply more thought and system to this issue, but I figure that this makes a reasonable start.  Over time I’ll work out some strategies for maximizing meaningful return on time invested online.

Oh, and speaking of return on time invested, the kids and I made homemade blueberry ice cream tonight using the blueberries we picked on the Winter Creek Trail.  (It was Girl’s Night and Cathy was out eating Thai with friends.)  I actually made the ice cream from a custard base this time.  It was a pain in the ass and I had to make the custard twice to get it right.  But dear lord it was good ice cream. The final product was so purple that Addy remarked that it looked like it was made out of beets.

It probably took us an hour an a half to make the ice cream, eat it and then clean up after ourselves.  But it was definitely worth the effort!  In case you want to try, here’s the recipe I used:

Ingredients

• 2 cups of fresh-picked blueberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 3/4 cups half and half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Process

1. Put the blueberries into a saucepan with half the sugar, over a medium heat for about 15 minutes and stir often so the berries don’t burn.
2. But the berry goo into a blender and blend until smooth.
3. Put aside in a bowl and let it chill for a little bit
4. Put an egg into a small saucepan and add 1 cup of the half and half.
5. Place the pan over a medium heat and whisk continuously as the custard cooks.  This is the hard part — you need to pull the custard off just before it starts to boil.  If you let it get to a boil (even a very mild one) the custard will curdle.  Also, even you remove the pan from the heat you need to keep stirring for a bit otherwise the custard will harden on the bottom of the pan.
6. Test the custard frequently after about four minutes; if it coats the spoon then the custard is ready.
7. Transfer the custard to a bowl and stir in the vanilla, the remaining half and half and the remaining sugar.  Chill the resulting mixture for a little while.
8. Pour the custard mixture and berry goo into the ice cream maker’s freezer canister.
9. Freeze according the ice cream maker’s directions.

That’s it.  Oh — and you probably don’t need to use as many berries as I did.  That just happens to be what I had left after we made crisp the night before.

2009-08-26  ::  Geoffrey Wright