steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

...oder so sieht's aus :) I guess only most Germans or those with a good understanding of German will understand that one (on top of it being difficult to understand, I don't even know if I spelled things correctly)!
Well, it has been quite some time since I last wrote. That is primarily due to the fact that I am not currently on the North American continent. I am in Germany with Steffi, visiting friends and family. It has been a fantastic trip thus far, but... anstrengend (tiring). I absolutely love being here - the food, the culture, oh ho! On the other hand, it has been a long time since I have taken this much time off from work - 1 1/2 years to be exact - and it is very different. By this Tuesday, I was almost ready to go home. It wasn't that I actually wanted to go home, but there are certain things that one becomes accustomed to that tend to make traveling difficult - like our home office that we are not far from completing. I am finding that I spend definitively too much time in front of the computer or the television, when we are home in the States. Not that it really would be less here! No, probably just as much or more. I mean though, me, Steve Fettig, spends too much time in front of electronic devices. (As I write, I'm laughing, because I'm even reading books on my Palm or Pocket PC device - and prefer now to do so over paper - mainly because of the portability and I tend to read 3-5 books at one time.) I am amazed because within a week's period of time, I have already finished 3 books. (Books that I will comment on as I have more time to write and finally get back to normal life when we get home.) I don't think I have read 3 books in the last year! What I am leading to is this. We, in the western world, spend way too much time putzing with electronic crap - whether repairing, playing or simply vegetating - and probably are going to pay for it later. I am really relating to my generation (generation X, Y and Z). Case in point - I used to read obsessively. Okay, that wasn't always good, but now I have gone to the other extreme and find myself completely drained from the vegetation cycle I get myself into - whether sitting in front of all of my computers or the television - it has the same effect, I'm drained and not revitalized. Other than when I am writing or reading on my computer (I guess I can add writing emails to the mix), I tend to spend way to much time on "fixing" or "trying" new things. What a waste.

    I'm going to make a conscious effort to change that a bit. I really do want to get on with my education (3 years in the running to finish 12 credits from Hillsdale College to finally get my BA) and learn some more. While being here, I get this sickening feeling that I have been spending so much time concerned with immaterial ventures (ventures that have often brought me no further into the future than before I started them), that I have forgotten to look at written text, work on writing some of my own, look at a painting, doodle myself, converse with my wife, or simply listen... and the list goes on. Thank goodness I haven't had my head in the sand for too long.

    In the end, anstrengend is exactly what I needed. Whip me out of the daily grind and see something different. Now hopefully, I can follow through with stopping at least some of what I mentioned before!