1. Siddhartha–Be prepared to discuss the weekend’s reading!
2. E-Media Fast… : Hello all! In the spirit of Siddhartha (and being even more present in our lives and abstaining from elements of the physical world) we begin our e-media fast Thursday at 5pm. Don’t fret though as in a couple of days you can return to our e-world. The fast will be lifted at 7am Monday morning.
Here are the official ground rules for the thirteenth annual E-Media Fast. Starting Thursday at 5:00 PM the challenge begins. The fast will end Monday morning at 7am. You will try to avoid the “benefits” of the following:
• Television (Oh yeah, no movie theaters…)
• Radio
• Computer
• Internet
• Ipod (or any music player)
• Any handheld computer
• Game consoles (xbox, xbox360, Atari 2600, Pong, PS2, Intellivision, ColecoVision, etc.)
• Portable game players
• Cell phones (You may only use your cell phone to talk to your parents—anyone else and you have failed the challenge.)
Notes:
You may access the computer to take care of all school-related responsibilities.
We are playing by the HONOR CODE. I am operating under the assumption that all of you will be truthful throughout this experience.
I want you to document the entire experience in Sunday in your binder (or you can take a diary-like approach and document the experience in bits and pieces over the weekend). I want to know the details of the journey, including the moment(s) when you fail:). If you do fail, do not abandon the challenge. Document the failure and continue on till Monday. Of course, if you cannot bear the “pain”, then GIVE UP…document that too. I look forward to hearing your tales. I am very interested to hear about how you have chosen to spend your time over the extended weekend. By taking on this challenge you have freed up a chunk of time. How will you spend your jellybeans?
I expect everyone to give this challenge a shot. No opting out…
Let me remind you, this is not an exercise in the demonizing of technology. This is an effort to rethink how we spend our time, to become “hyper-aware” of the content of our lives.
