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thanks for the ping! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's giving up FR. It will be very tough, but with God's grace, I'm hoping I can do it. I've realized lately that I spend way too much time on the internet, often on sites that are stupid and frivolous (not FR!). I'm in grad school so my schedule is very open and flexible. The downside of this is that it is very easy to procrastinate. Many of my classmates (and even some professors) also have trouble with procrastination. It just comes with the territory of academia. Some folks procrastinate with sports, music, movies, various hobbies. I happen to have found the internet to be a very easy and fun way to procrastinate.

Unfortunately I still need the internet for email, weather, and especially news since we don't have cable, just a TV and DVD player. Missing so much news will be the toughest part, I think, of giving up FR. This is the most informative website I have ever seen. But that's just something that will have to be sacrificed. In some ways it will do me good. I go on FR, and hear about all the things that are going on in the world. Some things make me very upset, frustrated, or angry such as the situation in Iran, the fact that no one wants to secure our border, Europe's self-destructive behavior, etc. The thing is, I've realized, there is very little I can do about any of these things. Next to nothing really. I live in central NJ - any vote I cast will be worthless. So at a certain point, I say to myself - why worry about this? It's out of my hands. Perhaps taking a break from the news will be good for me - might make me happier or at least I'll spend more time thinking about the stuff I can control, like my schoolwork.

I'm not giving up news entirely BTW. Just limiting it to the headlines I get on yahoo when I check my email and fox.com and cnn.com. EWTN occasionally for Catholic news. But no FReeping til Easter! I have made one exception. If, heaven forbid, there is a terrorist attack on the US, I will check in here since it will the closest thing to a live news site that I have access to, due to having no TV.