Taking a look around

I think I've asked these questions before, but finding the answer has greater importance now that I'm on the road to mental emancipation: what does everyone my age do on a Friday night, and why doesn't any of that interest me? More to the point, what can I be doing with my free time that's recreational but not just a way of killing time? I've decided video games are not the way to go, and looking back I probably could have done a million better things with my time. That being said, the importance of time spent having fun with friends can't be understated, and I can't have expected my former self to be looking for anything more. In a way it's kind of unfortunate, but I'm no longer satisfied with simply killing the free time between assignments and responsibilities, so now I have to look outward.

Back to my first questions.

Did some work yesterday, went to the Frick Collection to begin my formal analysis of one of their portraits for Art Humanities. Even did a sketch of the portrait, and despite the condition of the gentleman's face, I think I portrayed the drapery quite well. Anyways long story short, I came back, made dinner, and was ready to spend the rest of the night NOT working. So I fired up Counter-Strike Source, and played for a couple hours. Outside our door to the hall, quite a large party could be heard (and smelled) across the hall, but I had no desire to join at all. Recently it seems, parties, or at least the parties we tend to have here, have lost their appeal. For one, they mostly consist of people standing around drinking (unlike us enlightened West coasters who prefer drinking games. Seriously...no one plays them here), but more importantly they're on campus, in dorms. So in protest to staying on campus drinking, I decided to stay in my room and play a video game. I admit that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it was actually the more challenging and interesting of the two options. It was about then that I tried to make a list of things people my age do on Friday nights. I came up with the following:

20-somethings do this on Friday nights:
1. Go to campus parties, drink
2. Go to bars and restaurants downtown, maybe shoot pool, drink
3. Go clubbing, drop E, drink
4. Play video games, drink (maybe)
5. Watch TV/movies (with or without friends), drink (probably)

And then probably the most noble in my view...
6. Go to jazz clubs, listen to awesome music, drink

Looking at this list now, I think I understand a little better why I went for number 4, and why after I week I'll probably go for number 2. The reason is, I think, that those are the only two that aren't completely passive...that don't simply involve you going somewhere and then taking in the scene. But the problem with all of them, and the reason I need a new hobby, is that none of them produce or teach anything. After talking with Kenny about this for a while we came to the conclusion that what both he and I want is a project, or maybe even more than that - a MISSION.

It was then that we started talking about the (totally epic) movie we made for Japanese, and the programs we used to write for computer science, and the thing they all had in common was that after toiling away for what seemed like forever (all told the movie took about a month...), overcoming obstacles and achieving small triumphs, we were left with a finished product we had created from scratch. We had made something with our time. And realizing the possibility of deciding for ourselves what we could do with our time and effort was invigorating, despite the vague nature of that possibility. What does someone do when they can do anything?

I think I'm going to make some small changes first:
1. Work permitting, this blog is going to go daily again
2. I'm going to get a bonsai because I want to take care of something and watch it grow

Bigger things that are probably on the horizon:
1. More movies
2. More programming (in my spare time), maybe play with Flash, maybe some web design
3. More photography (going to invest in a new camera, probably after new headphones)

And maybe once some vagueries are sorted out, formats decided on, objectives set, and scopes established, maybe...just maybe...we will produce something very new and exciting.

Whatever happens, and whatever I end up doing, I think I need to get out of the box and off the list of Friday night time-wasters. While school work will continue to take priority, I think I waste enough time every week and weekend to be able to do something interesting and constructive instead of simply trying to entertain myself.