going dark

Let's get straight to the rat-killer: I have deactivated my Facebook account.

I did this for several reasons. First of all, National Novel Writing Month is coming up again, and though I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again this year, it'd be nice to have Facebook out of the picture for the duration.

Second, I must detoxify. Facebook is by no means the only way I get my kicks out online—there's TV Tropes, YouTube, Wikipedia, IMDB, and a half-dozen other sites I visit regularly (perhaps too regularly). Shutting off Facebook for a spell will, however, reduce the amount of time I spend staring at screens every day. Seriously, I've got a disease. My right hand automatically clicks on Facebook even when I've just closed that window out a few seconds earlier. If Facebook is part of my muscle memory, then I need to take a step back and reevaluate my life. And that creates a nice segue into Reason No. 3.

Third, and most important, there's better stuff I could be doing. I've resolved not to venture back onto Facebook until I've made some serious lifestyle changes, and taken concrete steps toward advancing my life goals. Exercise, fresh air, literature (I'm way behind on those 30 books I need to read this year), writing, home improvement projects, beer-brewing (I haven't told you about that yet, have I?), and taking better advantage of my weekends. By "take better advantage of my weekends" I mean "take advantage of the fact that I live in freakin' South Korea and I need to get out and see some stuff during my last 18 months here." I still haven't seen Hwaseong Fortress, down in Suwon; I haven't set foot in Gangwon Province, nor sunbathed on Sokcho Beach on the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as the Koreans insist it be called); I still haven't visited Seoraksan National Park or explored Ganghwa Island or spent a day on the Incheon seafront. Oh, and Korail has a new sightseeing line up and running now, too: the V-Train. Now that I have a kick-ass camera (that Canon EOS Rebel T3i I keep going on about), I really have no excuse not to see any of this stuff, especially as it's all draped in autumn colors.

So that's it! I'm off Facebook. I'll still blog, of course (lots to blog about!) but I shan't show my face around the rest of the Internet until I get some stuff done. Not sure when I'll be back. Hold my calls.