Help, I'm checking my e-mail and I can't stop!

[chaoticidealism]

So this morning I went to a career fair... first time in my life... I've been trying to find an internship for the summer.

Doesn't help that finals start tomorrow, and I've been trying all week to force myself to study. Mixed success.

Doesn't help that I couldn't find my shirt, my new dress shoes made my feet hurt, and I couldn't figure out how to

Comments

[ext_174713]

It sounds like you're having a really bad time.

I wish I had a more helpful thing to tell you but at least I thought of a way maybe, if this works for you, you never get stuck on computer again.

http://www.winxptutor.com/schsd.htm

How to SCHEDULE YOUR COMPUTER to shut down automatically at a predetermined (by you) time.

I hope this helps. If I think of anything else I'll post that too.

I have posted comments on this blog before, am starting to very not want the anonymous-no-name... I try OpenID. I don't know if I'm doing this right.

Hang in there

[ext_103710]

It's not surprising that you feel overwhelmed -- you really HAVE been doing a lot more than you're used to. Starting college, learning how to drive, looking for work: that would be a lot for anybody to juggle. And the autism advocacy work too; your last post on the cure issue was excellent.

I'd guess that you are doing mindless stuff on the computer as a way to de-stress yourself. Maybe it would help to get into a routine of meditating for a half-hour immediately after you get home each day. Or going for a walk, if the weather is halfway decent. Then you won't feel so stressed when you first sit down at the computer, and it might not be so hard to break away.

Re: Hang in there

[ext_174713]

I think that's a really good point, that I totally missed, if you're extremely stressed out it can get to a point where a nice diversion like the computer can get to be like a reflex. Kinda compulsive. For a good reason, 'cause people need to un-stress. So scheduling the computer to shut off would only be a temporary, and very incomplete solution since it doesn't do anything to address the actual problem: tons of stress. Shutting off computer might just mean getting stuck on something else instead, anyway.

I'm glad somebody else had some solid general advice on this.

[codeman38]

First time I even tried going to a career fair, the place was so noisy that I couldn't even process conversation with my auditory processing quirks. Not exactly a good way to start. -_-

[codeman38]

And you're driving now? How do you manage to process all that? I'm still struggling with it; my visual processing is screwed up enough that I have trouble even dealing with two lanes of traffic because I can't tell which cars are in which lanes. Yeaahh.

Sorry, I'm venting, but honestly, you're doing better than I am...

[chaoticidealism]

Thankfully visual is OK--I get dazzled by bright lights and mesmerized by flashing ones, if I don't watch out; but I am generally able to manage the flood of detail OK.

I think the important thing is to control your method of transportation. If you can do that it's not so bad not to be driving. I was a lot better off than most non-drivers, before I learned, because I would walk and bike a lot of places. It was only the times when I needed to go more than five miles that it became a problem. If I'd had enough money to take cabs all the time it wouldn't have been much of one, but of course I didn't, so it was. (Anyway, cabs smell like cigarette smoke. Yuk.) It's really a stupid world where you have to drive everywhere because everything is so far apart. Living in the city with a good bus system could be a solution, if you can learn to use it (a bus confuses me horribly but might be a natural talent for some).

[codeman38]

Yeah, that's precisely the problem... I'm not exactly living in a place where I have a good bus system, or even such things as groceries in decent walking distance. And had I known this, I may have even gone to college somewhere else.

I guess I probably should've talked to non-drivers at UGA when getting people's ideas about how walkable the surrounding city was... of course, it doesn't help that I couldn't have predicted that they'd close the one grocery store that was in walking distance. >_<;;

[chaoticidealism]

Update--yeah, I had a minor freakout at school when I lost my flash drive with my schoolwork on it. Funny, though, expecting it to happen made it not so bad at all. I don't think it was even perceptible to an observer. I haven't lost anything I have to turn in, just the notes I meant to study. That means I have to study from the text, which isn't the end of the world but will take longer

[ext_122965]

No advice. Just a quick note to let you know I'm rooting for you.