Like I said earlier today, I’m feeling pretty sludgy and sluggish since coming back from the retreat. But today I looked our my 24 pages of notes, wrote a summary of what I discovered and still need to think about, and started putting together a plan for the next 5 months. A mini-plan. A couple of steps. Not much but enough to keep my mind and body occupied. Will it help? Time will tell. But I think my retreat helped me reorganize some of my thoughts and I had fun. So that’s good enough for this year. 9 months ago

I arrived at my hotel room a little while ago and after gathering my things, stretching, and going for a walk, I’m feeling a little more like checking in here. I’ll debrief on the whole retreat process, but I thought I’d inform those that care that I survived. 10 months ago

So the end of today marks me shutting the internet off (99% of the time, except for a little GPS-ing and emergencies) until Tuesday. So talk to you all later. Don’t cheer me until I get back, it’ll just be a waste as I won’t be able to return them!

now where’s that whisky10 months ago

I said earlier that I was going to have a pop culture glut. Here are all the books, comic and non, that I took with me on my retreat. I half-heartedly believe I will get through 50% of this mass of paper by Thursday. Because I am easily duped, even by myself. (Especially by myself!) 10 months ago

Today, I packed up everything I needed for the week, got out of my apartment, and am now at my parents’ place. They’re not here. I have around 36 hours to binge out on pop culture before it all goes away. I may take a photo of the mass of mass media. But for now, in the words of Blur: give me coffee and tv! 10 months ago

I got my camping stuff from my Nana yesterday, and then today I sat down to figure out all the stuff I have to do before I leave tomorrow. It is…a LOT of stuff. I have a lot to get organized for and only about 12 hours to do it in. So I guess I had better organize, prioritize, and execute. Yipes! 10 months ago

Today I booked the places I’m staying for my retreat. Two days staying at my parent’s place (for the pop culture glut, as long as it’s not MY place it’s okay). Four days camping. Two days in a very nice hotel, a place that I used to stay in with my wife a few times, so it’ll be a place that I can do some thinking in (and it’s got a BIG tub so that makes me happy). Then back home. I still have some planning to do in terms of what to do, but at least I’ve paid for and planned out the days. 10 months ago

I have thought about booking a retreat this summer to get away from my city, my apartment, and my life, to re-examine things. I’ve decided it’s going to be my kind of retreat: kind of a mental binge and purge. But you know, healthy.

Basically the plan is this:
1. Take 2 days to gorge out on as much pop culture as I want.
2. Every day, go “back in time” and get rid of one type of media, in the order of their creation: tv, comics, movies, books, music
3. Spend at least one day without ANY of those things, camping in the woods, hiking, swimming, canoeing, etc.
4. Gradually add those things back and see what it’s like.

I think it’s going to take at least nine or ten days to get this done right, and I know I need to get out of town, so…some motels, campgrounds, a nice cabin maybe. It’s all up in the air but I think I can put a plan together fairly well. Anyone have any suggestions for me? 12 months ago