I sit in front of a computer a lot. And it really isn’t because I love computers all that much — I do not. But I do love to search out information, create, and think. And I can do all three of those at the same time on a computer.

And the tough thing is that, as far as I can tell, the majority of the non-directed time I spend not working on a video (Sony Vegas MS) or a web site (MT or Photoshop) or programming (PHP, learning a new language) is spent on useful things, not time-wasters like the Flash game sites or PC games or YouTube. At least 95% of my non-directed computer time is devoted to blog/RSS-reading, Amazon (reviews), and Wikipedia (Michael from The Office states convincingly: “Wikipedia… is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.”). I read this week about solar cooking and paper construction (Timothy has been fervently cutting and folding paper toys).

Last Wednesday night, when I should have been in bed reading, I was reading through a comment thread I found linked from TeamPyro. I was standing, with one knee in my chair, and I did not move for almost an hour while I read. And I even skipped a lot of the comments.

I can seldom read Tim Challies, Albert Mohler, TeamPyro, Theologica, or Tribalogue for fewer than 10 minutes each. I get behind on their RSS feeds and always find myself having to catch up. And these are good blogs. They make me think deeper about doctrine, faith, evangelism, and so many other topics, and result in an emphasis in my understanding of the importance of reading my Bible.

So the cramps are both physical and mental. But they are quite real, and often painful. And I have little desire to “correct” these habits.

And this is why I so much enjoy grabbing a book and sitting on the couch next to Tami, with a cup of hot coffee and no noise. But that leads to the fully related but separate topic of “life simplification,” and that deserves another post at another time.