Really nothing much to say about the fifth and sixth days. I read some more; I got to page 221 in The Hunt for Red October. I went outside to take some photos, really nothing special today: the weather was just… miserable, for lack of a better term.
That’s all I have to say really. It’s a simpler life without a smartphone, or really any phone as a matter of fact.
Today was probably the opposite of yesterday; as of writing this post, I have gotten to page 111 of The Hunt for Red October. Definitely an improvement from yesterday and all previous days as a matter of fact.
Still tried searching for my phone for a split second today. Even though living without a smartphone is more interesting than with. It forces you do something interesting, like read a book or write a blog post, instead of stare into a glowing rectangle for 3 hours straight.
Oh, and I also bought and listened to a new album, Pasadena Garden by Kenny Ueda. Great album, you should listen to it.
I think that there is one quote that really summarizes the solution to phone addiction, albeit its simple nature.
It turns out the only way to stop using your phone too much… is to just stop using it too much.
Edward “Eddy” Burback
And I think this applies to basically everything else. Whatever you want to do, just go do it.
The third day of this challenge has went pretty well, the only sad thing is that I didn’t get to read The Hunt for Red October.
Now, I wasn’t just doing nothing all day, I was working on integrating this stupid “Ultimate Member” plugin. This plugin took forever to set up and get working correctly. Most of the issues stemmed from me relying on ChatGPT to create the custom CSS for the pages the plugin made. User profiles exist now, and anyone can make an account for this blog, so it seems it was worth the effort.
Another productive thing I did today was hang up my curtains. See, my mom took them down to clean them and never gave them back. And we kind of forgot about it… for six years. So today we went and found it, and I hung it up in my room.
There was one time today where I tried to get my phone; it was when I had brought my food into my room and I searched for my phone for a second to put on my table, before I realized I can’t use it. So that’s the only “weird” thing in my life without a smartphone.
The second day of this challenge has passed and it’s going pretty good. Didn’t get a good night’s sleep, even without my phone; I was just laying in bed for what felt like hours before I actually went to sleep.
I managed to get to page 40 of The Hunt for Red October, and its definitely starting to get interesting. So far, the Captain of the October has killed someone and is planning to do something drastic with the submarine.
I also wrote and sent my first letter today (the ones to Santa Claus don’t count). When I dropped my letter in the blue mailbox, I heard a couple of thuds against the metal bottom. Doesn’t appear that anyone is sending any letters in 2026.
Going about my life has been fairly normal, and perhaps more enjoyable without my phone.
It’s mid-winter break, so I have a little over a week off of school and I have decided to try a challenge. I will go this entire break without using my smartphone. I hope to stop wasting time on my phone, end the hours of mindless consumption on YouTube laying in my bed, and read some books.
As I’m writing this, it is nearing the end of Day One. My experience today was a little weird at times and definitely a little boring also. But, I have stopped procrastinating on making this blog, so that’s a plus. I made my first blog post with some of my photos, my about me page, and I will have made this, my second blog post. I also read 28 pages of The Hunt for Red October today, which is also my independent reading book for AP Lang. And the book is 641 pages long, so I definitely have a lot of reading ahead of me.
Well, I just hope that I will come out of this week with better habits and as a better person.