The Ultimate Not-Video-Game Challenge

[Pip Boy]

The reason this thread is not in Playing Games is because the challenge is to not play any. I need to go a full week without playing video games, and even non-video-game computer time like forums and the youtubes will be limited.*

Which raises the question, what the hell else am I going to do? I live in a tiny little apartment and it will most likely be raining for the next week, so anything that takes a great deal of space or going outside is out of the question. Worse, my girlfriend is out of town so I can't just go hang out with her all week. What do you guys do when you're not playing video games or here? Any good books I should look at? Should I just rob a clinic and sedate myself so I sleep the whole week? I'm going to be extremely bored, so I'm willing to do anything that's not really crazy. Or would require me to not be lazy.

Exceptions to this are anything that could be seen as "productive"

THE RULES:
1. No time on any video game. This includes computer games, console games, Handheld video games, and most iPhone apps.
2. No more than 1 hour every day posting and browsing on internet forums (this means I'll just be checking in real quick multiple times through the day to spread that out more)
3. Must be engaged in some activity as often as possible. Sleeping the whole week counts as a loss.

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BEAT THE ULTIMATE NOT-VIDEO-GAME CHALLENGE?

[Magic_Marker]

I've been doing this for like...the past 3 weeks.

What do I win?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

DVDs, books.

I have no idea of your own personal tastes in either so... yeah, go with whatever interests you. It's not hard.

[Bells]

this is about the best time ever for you to take on a Hobby... like Painting or Walking or Writing or Reading books

Learn the Flute!

[Donomni]

You have Netflix? That should help a little bit, but only if you get DVDs sent in.

You could also tune up your computer with some programs, or just run virus scans, too.

[Azisien]

I would maybe exercise. Go for walks. Better with dog. Awesome with cat!

Read books.

[ChaoticBrain]

I went to this thread and immediately gave up.

[Funka Genocide]

Get a job.

[krogothwolf]

This is a challenge?

[Mr.Bookworm]

Read a few good books. Do some yardwork. Take a walk. Make a campfire and regale your neighbors with ballads of yore.

If you have to think about this for more then two seconds, you have a problem and should probably seek help.

[akaSM]

I went to this thread and immediately gave up.

^^this

I don't get enough time to play games unless I'm not at college, so yeah. I could totally take this challenge when I'm back to college, heck, I don't even watch TV usually :rolleyes:

[Terisse]

This is basically what I've been doing for the past nine ten months, only I don't have the luxury of spreading my internet time out over multiple sessions. I only get one consecutive hour a day.

Mind you, I read way too much and tend to work on D&D most of the time (It counts since it's not a video game) And about 2 hours of my day is spent in bike travel to and from the library. Occasionally watching a movie or two.

Hope you can pull off a week, this is pretty much killing me.

[Magus]

Yeah I've done this challenge before, pretty recently. Although I usually do get on the internet on the weekend for at least an hour or two.

You could just read a book or two, that'd take up most of your free time.

[Aldurin]

So I will inflict some level of difficulty on my life just because somebody challenged me to?

Nope, I'll pass.

[Krylo]

Get a job.

This.

Also: Make it full time.

When I had a full time job there were months I went without playing a video game, or even really thinking about it, just because I was busy all day at work, then I'd come home, talk to some people on the phone/on the computer, and sometimes I'd just be too tired to think straight enough to play and video games I really wanted to play... and on days off I'd be either unconscious or out doing something.

Speaking of which: Developing a social life might also help, if you don't already have one.

Edit: Also, it's kind of a shitty sort of irony that you need a decent full time job to afford video games/whatever other hobby/leisure activity, but when you actually have one doing any of that shit after work just feels like too much effort half the time.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Have sex.

Barring that, masturbate. A lot.

[Specterbane]

Read The Count of Monte Cristo. Finished?
Read the entire Three Musketeers series. Bored reading?
Learn to play guitar as a surprise for you girl friend when she gets back. You just need to know someone you can borrow one from.

Finally if all else fails buy whatever puzzles you like. Books of Sudoku, crosswords, word searches, or tavern puzzles. Those are where I'd start if I were you.

[Krylo]

I'd also suggest that suggestions to read a bunch, do puzzle games, etc. kind of defeat the point.

You're just substituting one sedentary anti-social purely/mostly intellectual pass time that has little to no productive effects with another.

[bluestarultor]

Do art. Sketches, pixel art, Photoshop, whatever. Cook. There's nothing like real food to make everything better and it's not hard so much as a pain to clean up after. Take a walk in the rain. Just because you need an umbrella doesn't mean it can't be a great experience. I personally love walking in the rain. Join a wiki that interests you and just start out correcting spelling and grammar. I never thought I'd do much at FF Wiki, but they have a great community there who can provide you a network of people in the same field you went to school for if you stick around long enough. Also, I consider helping run an encyclopedia to be quite productive. You're not doing it just for you; your help affects potentially the whole world, or at least several whole countries.

[Aldurin]

Have sex.

But it's already in the schedule as one of the necessary actions (eat, sleep, video games, sex)

[Hanuman]

Can't, we've got scheduled PvP tomorrow and on the 26th.

[Bobbey]

I've probably been able to ''not'' play videogames for a span of about 8-9 months in some point in my life. College and studies, as well as music, tends to do these kind of things. It's for that same reason that I also sometimes completely dissapear from online forums for months at a time, only coming back when I actually have time to read and write in threads.

Also, It's been almost 6 years since I've actually watched any television. Everytime I try to watch it again I feel so out-of-the-loop that I figure that I just don't have time for this anymore and go do something else instead, like go for a walk, do some beadsprites, practice some music, read a book or even paint a little.