Confession of an Addict

I guess I won't get a lot of objections if I casually mention that I'm a person with strong mind. I am determined. I believe that real freedom lies in discipline. If I promise myself to wake up at 5am for exercise, I'll do it everyday, without miss (that's why I do not simply make promises, especially to myself :p )

Unfortunately, there are moments when I'm weak, and when I'm weak, I am the type of person that easily get addicted. If I'm the scientific observation subject of an extra-terrestrial, they will notice this strange behaviour: their subject have a routine, but sometimes, out of sudden, the repetitive pattern is interrupted by some strange boring activities where their subject will spend hoursssssssssssss on.

I have a permanent addiction to books. I have to read at least a few pages of anything before I go to sleep. It started all the way back to age around 4 or 5, at my mum's cousin's house. After getting tired playing outside, I started to explore the interior. I found a huge cupboard with various types of books and I'm attracted to the mysterious colourful mess. Ah Nee Jie Jie gave me a《儿童乐园》, and I'm hooked on books ever since. I will not pick up a fiction if I knew I got no time for it. However, sometimes I'm easily seduced and usually it means I'll stay up until 2am or 3am, until my body functions totally give up. I hate the fact that I'll get super tired the next day but I just can't help myself. And what I hated most if the sense of "emptiness" after I finished a great novel. I guess that is what drug addicts feel after they come back to consciousness.

I'm easily addicted to games. From Game & Watch, to Atari, to those 8 bits computer games, to PS to online games. I remember how I spent my school holiday destroying enemy's fighter jets and helicopters to protect a convoy of tractor trailers, or shooting peppers and walk around the maze to make hamburger, or forcing En En to play bubble bobble with me when he actually wished to polish up his driving skill in Crash Bandicoot. As exchange, I also spent equally long hours on Crash Bandicoot too. During my days in campus, sometimes I spent hours on a same boring game (like Solitaire or Hearts), trying to beat my own high score. Ever since I graduated from university, I have vowed not to play computer games anymore. So i always try very hard to keep myself away from the evil virtual universe. When someone that know me extremely well (like En En) tell me how great a game is, i know that is the game that i have to avoid forever. However, unfortunately, sometimes accidents do happen. I remember how I accidentally sit in front of En En's PC and played Sim City. I was so amazed by the cities I built, I spent a few months, utilizing hours after work to develop them and it was so tiring yet satisfying. I said no to game after that, but still accidentally started to play Bejewled Blitz. "It's only 1 minute per game, how harmful can it be?" That's my excuse for trying that game. Before I noticed, I start to play hours after hours. Now even I have stopped this bad habit, I still play it daily, as if something missing in my life if I don't touch it for once. So, for friends that trying to introduce new games to me through Facebook, sorry that I have to reject you. Having addicted on one at this moment is bad enough for me now.

I am a sitcom addict too. During the pre-Astro era and pre-internet download era, though i love tons of sitcoms but i never aware that I'm actually an addict. (To spend only less than 1.5 hours per day really cannot consider as an addict isn't it?) Decades ago, we have only TV1 and TV2. The sitcoms that I like only on air for 30 minutes per week (but I spent 7:30~8pm in front the TV set, in between 7pm Mandarin news and 8pm prime time news, every weekdays without miss). I love "I Love Lucy"(yes, I'm that old, thanks to TV2), "Family Ties", "Small Wonder", "Growing Pain", "Full House", "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air", "Boy Meets World", "Malcolm in the Middle" etc. this seem like normal, healthy, brainless yet harmless entertainment to me, until I noticed that I can be a couch potato for eternal when Astro air the Friends marathon. When all my siblings (including my cousins) telling me how good "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" are, I knew it too well that I have to stay as far away as possible from theses shows. I was quite successful until an unfortunate event happened during my flight back from US. I slept so well that when I woke up we were less than 3 hours away from Hong Kong. Too short for me to watch the movies so I told myself "What harm can it makes if I watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory?". Sigh..... It was so hilarious that I can't help myself from falling in love with it. I couldn't resist to finished En's downloaded 5 seasons of TBBT in less than one month. And now I'm in the dilemma of whether to start downloading Season 6 or to wait for En. For the record, I am so not going to start watching any episode of How I Met Your Mother! Please don't even try to persuade me!

I really want to spend my valuable time to learn new things, to grow, to be, to live a balance life......So,dear friends, please help me to keep me away from all these addiction :)